Producer: N.N. Sippy
Director :Shraboni Deodhar
*ing: Karisma Kapoor, Chandrachur Singh, Danny
Music: Jatin Lalit

Released on : April 16, 1999

Reviewed by: Sunder
sunder@indolink.com

out of 
Despite the presence of Karisma, this movie totally lacks charisma. Silsila Hai Pyar Ka brings Karisma back to screen, a year and half after Dil To Pagal Hai, in a welcome return where she continues to display the same charisma. Its a pity though, that it also brings back a story and cliched situations, that seem not a year and half, but a decade and half old.

The decade and half old story itself is something that can be told in a page and half, or even less. The movie opens with a diffident Karisma looking for a job and she is shown the door everywhere she goes. Maybe I should have got the clue, and found for myself the "Exit" door. Though, if only she knew enough about sexual harassment and professional etiquette, she could have made millions suing all those interviewers making unwelcome remarks (they only told her she was not welcome to work, but in unwelcome ways).

Anyway, cutting the tale short (wish the editor knew how to do that), she lands a plum secretarial job. The bespectacled Karisma (screen name Vanshika) is given the task of bringing hero Chandrachur (Abhay) - to be more productive at work. Nothing wrong with that, secretaries are supposed to help their managers be more productive (though some go beyond productive to reproductive, but not quite this movie). A sub-plot and reason for a few songs, hero Abhay was the object of Vanshika's affection in college. He was the flamboyant rich-boy surrounded by girls, and she was the silent "middle-class" girl (the movie reminds you about her class at every possible opportunity). The office itself is a motley of characters, wonder how it remains profitable to pay their salaries. Cliched situations follow - dream-song sequences, rebukes by the playboy hero, and soon enough you are fortunate to break for interval.

The secretary accompanies the hero to somewhere outside India. Somewhere, because some writings on the wall are in French or German, and some in English and even Hindi though it is said to be outside India. Maybe the writing on the wall for the movie is clear from this. The movie continues to be cruel, on the characters in it, as it is on the viewers. And then the cruelest thing in the movie happens, obviously the villian - Danny (playing a character called Khargoshi). Nothing rabbit-like about this, least being the pace of his role nor of the movie.

After this, the movie goes haywire. Danny invites the lead pair to visit his island for a hotel-building contract. He does say "this island" pointing to a map which has no water around. Not surprising, the chopper lands in the midst of Swiss Alps. Maybe he read "this is land" as "this island" in his quest for relation-building with Vanshika. Just the situation needed for the hero to show some heroics, save our heroine, and then have her for life after all his many insults to her. How much more chauvinistic can movies get, and that too a movie made by a woman director. If the story narrated in the review is getting distraught, thats how it is in the movie. Thrown into all this mish-mash are numerous monologues of the Indian value system, the ethics of an Indian girl, speeches for and against chauvinism, and a plethora of characters.

And with the movie and the lead pair in trouble, Johny Lever lands up in a cameo to rescue them out of the island that now looks, not in the Alps but in the hillocks and jungles off Andheri. Thankfully, nothing concrete about these hills and jungles. Johny Lever tries his best, but in vain. The lead pair and the viewers are left to endure one last face-off with Danny and then the return of familydom and India where the hero and heroine find each other made of one another.

On the positive side, you have an enthusiastic performance by Karisma, despite a most amateur script. Chandrachur doesn't quite stand out, though one can't blame him for that. Danny, no fault of his, makes his presence felt, especially in taking the movie downhill .. in its slide to the end. The cinematic qualities vary from scene to scene. A couple of songs are well-picturized and choreographed, while the rest languish. Just about everything else about the movie is choppy, and maybe thats why they decided to blow up a chopper for the finale.