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Sunday, August 01, 2004

Mujhse Shaadi Karogi 

Fortunately for our filmmakers, our audiences are so undemanding, that they would happily watch the same film over and over again, with just a little variation—provided it didn’t bore them to death.

David Dhawan and his favourite writers (Anees Bazmee and Rumi Jaffrey) deliver a typical Dhawan comedy in Mujhse Shaadi Karogi. Those who didn’t care for that brand of comedy to begin with, will find this one repetitive and most unfunny. But for Dhawan loyalists, it delivers what it promises—though getting the laughs takes much more effort now, and the plot is totally ‘thakela’ – to use a local colloquialism. The best scenes come from Hollywood hit Meet the Parents, which was hilarious-- the problem with our films being that they can’t use brevity in their wit—so every gag is stretched till it palls.

Samir (Salman Khan) is supposed to be a hot tempered guy – to establish this, you have to start with him as an infant—and to get over a broken heart he goes to Goa (where women in bikinis dance on the beach all the time). He falls in love with Rani (Priyanka Chopra), the girl in the house across the street, who changes clothes with the windows open, and does cabaret like workouts on her terrace for all to ogle at.

Unfortunately for Samir, every time he wants to befriend Rani, he ends up injuring her father (Amrish Puri). To add to his woes, the smooth-talking Sunny (Akshay Kumar) comes in as his roommate and also starts chasing Rani.

Samir promises his grandmother that he will keep his temper in check, and that comes in the way of beating up Sunny, who lies, cheats and impersonates his way into Rani’s affections and also impresses her father. In the process he manages to make Rani believe Samir is a total heel.

Amazing that Salman Khan agreed to play a loser, who can only splutter with frustration as the other guy takes credit for all his good deeds.

This Tom ‘n’ Jerry game (like Dhawan’s own Deewana Mastana) goes on forever—with regular song breaks-- leading to a ‘cute’ climax in a stadium, with cricketers making guest appearances.

Dhawan regular Kader Khan adds his bit—he plays a corny character whose has a clot in his brain, so goes alternately blind, deaf, mute, dim-witted. Rajpal Yadav as an inept astrologer is a new entrant into this stable.

Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar bring a sense of the zany into their performances and make the film bearable. Priyanka Chopra adds the glamour quotient. Minus too much vulgarity, the film could be called a ‘clean’ entertainer. And if the audience goes for it, well then, good for Dhawan. He can make some more films like this till he tires of them himself.












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