Unlike the twisted spelling of the main title, this latest Bollywood romantic flick is pretty straight forward. A guy and a girl, with completely different belief systems fall in love and everything is funny and happy. Popcorn?
Dharma Productions aka KJo pulls off a valiant effort in making a mockery of his own films in this film, the interesting part being that it doesn't bore you too much. The film is the story of Jay (pronounced as J)Dhingra played by Imran Khan, a reckless, charming young man trying to make his name in the film industry under the most popular romance films' director of his age, Veer Kapoor. He is flirty, funny, carefree guy who can't accept the fact that something like love exists. Dil Chahta Hai? Anyone?
On the other hand is Simran (oh get over that name!), played by Sonam Kapoor who is a total girly girly girl, who loves fairy tale romance, the colour pink, red roses and soft toys, not to mention the movies people like Veer Kapoor make. To add to her romantic repertoire is her unfailingly faithful boyfriend Raj (oh yes you guessed it right!) who makes her life nearly perfect.
These two total opposites meet through their shared interests in film making. At first, Simran is annoyed and repulsed by Jay's reckless attitude and his denial that love exists, but then small, funny but interesting things happen between them that makes her fall for him.
But then as predictable Bollywood is, Jay refuses her proposal only to realise later that he too actually harbored love for her. And so we have a candyfloss romance on our hands punctuated by occasional sentimental dialogues, lots of humor and a happy ending.
Frankly speaking, IHLS has nothing great to offer, but I found the chemistry and the freshness of Sonam and Imran heartwarming. The story is very predictable but it has its funny moments and high points. The music is catchy and I couldn't help tapping my feet to the title song. I think New Zealand should have been left in peace, after LOTR nothing seems better.
I would say that this is a perfect popcorn flick, no brains to be taken along to the theater if I may advise. Just sit back and enjoy. For KJo's fresh effort I'd say a 6 on 10? Purely for its time pass!Like Jay says, it ain't so Fugly!
This is why I'm not fond of 'star ratings':
ReplyDeleteYou give:
3.5 to Kites.
3 to Raavan.
3 to I Hate Love Storys (deriving from your 6/10)
2.5 to Rajneeti
Such an objective score is so easy to misinterpret. A few years from now, you might find it ridiculous. Your ratings make Rajneeti the worst of the four, although the biggest factor influencing you seems to be your expectations. You advise to leave our brains home for 'IHLS' and on the other hand, you are not willing to ignore the flaws of Rajneeti. Face value should be the criteria to judge a film. But then, there are no absolutes in cinema.
No offense meant. It is just that I find myself disagreeing with all, and literally 'all', your star ratings. The body of your reviews still does stimulate something. I myself stopped giving stars when I watched 'Waking Life' and 'Persona'. How can you rate these films? I wonder what Taran Adarsh will have to say when I ask the reason behind his 4stars to Kurbaan and 2stars to Swades.
hahaha..actually even i find star ratings cliched..i guess just the reviews matter..but yes Raajneeti is one movie which I did not like at all..And I think Taran Adarsh is the worst film critic around! he gave 2.5 stars to Avatar!!!! madness it really is!
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