Indian wedding

Orion Pictures Pvt. Ltd.
Salaam-e-ishq

Produced by: Mukesh Talreja, Sunil Manchanda
Directed by: Nikhil Advani
Music by: Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy
Featuring: Salman Khan - Priyanka Chopra; John Abraham - Vidya Balan; Govinda - Shannon Esra; Anil Kapoor - Juhi Chawla, Akshaye Khanna - Ayesha Takia, Sohail Khan - Isha Koppikar

Mixed but not matched
Six love stories exploring different facets of love, awesome music, and a huge star cast, but alas...these too fail to create a well-made film. Salaam-e-Ishq shines but in parts. Nikhil Advani tries to weave six perfect love stories, each of which has its own ups and downs. But he is not a master juggler. Without Karan Johar by his side he seems to be a bit lost and keeps on referring to him throughout the movie.

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The movie opens with the poignant love story of Tehzeeb (Vidya Balan) and Ashutosh (John Abraham). Both of them are working in the same news channel and are madly in love. They have faced all the adverse circumstances of an inter-religious marriage but there is a tragedy waiting to unfold which would shatter their love nest. This is undoubtedly the best couple and both John and Vidya do justice to their characters and bowl us over with their striking chemistry of passion and romance.

Then there is the quintessential Bollywood cabbie Raju (Govinda) who always waits outside the international airport dreaming of marrying a gori madam. The gori (Shannon Esra as Stephanie) finally arrives but she is here to search for her lover. After a long time Govinda gives his best but there are a bit of overdoses towards the end.

A strange mystery is woven around Kamini (Priyanka Chopra) and Rahul (Salman Khan). Kamini is an aspiring tragedy queen in a Karan Johar movie but she makes the news for all the wrong reasons. This time she has a master plan for success but here again there is a mysterious lover in the form of Rahul who pronounces his name with a funny twang as Raoul! Priyanka looks a million bucks and essays comic avataar with ease but Salman is strangely underused as the mystery created around him is a dampener.

Shift to London and there is Vijay Malhotra (Anil Kapoor) who is bored at 40 with wife Seema (Juhi Chawla) and two kids. All is fine except that Vijay becomes naughty at 40 when he falls for a sexy lass in her twenties (Anjana Sukhani). Seema is a dutiful wife who lets her husband fulfill all his wishes and walks out of her dream home. Anil Kapoor puts up a good show but his clean shaven look with rugged jeans and jacket doing a break dance in a London pub is disastrous.

But then Seema's sister Gia (Ayesha Takia) is also in trouble as her fiancé Shiven (Akshaye Khanna) suffers from commitment phobia and breaks off the marriage after the engagement! Akshaye's tremendous potential as a poised actor remains to be explored and but he puts in his best and wins hearts with his boyish demeanor of running away from a marriage. Ayesha is just ‘okay’ with her pretty smiles.

And finally there is this newly wed couple from Haryana, Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar who are always in their 'mood' and look out for opportunities to be together which are always foiled by some humourous intervention. But if this is what humour stands for then God help us!

Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy again prove to be a terrific trio with their trade mark good music. Technically, this movie boasts of good camera work, exotic locales and brilliant multi-screen effect. But after three and a half hours (hey this definitely needs some expert editing!) as you walk out of the theatre you do not feel involved with the characters. And that's sad.

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