Salaam Namaste

Director: Siddharth Raj Anand

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Arshad Warsi,Jugal Hansraj, Tania Zaetta, Jaaved Jaferi, Kunal Vijaykar

5.5/10

You have probably seen enough celluloid romance to know how the formula works ? boy sees girl, boy gets girl, boy turns selfish and loses girl, boy reforms and gets girl back.

Being so very predictable, such a film would be expected to cloak its obvious intentions in a story that leads us to the obligatory climax in as interesting a manner as possible.

Debutant director Siddharth Raj Anand just about manages to keep the viewer interested while taking a jocoserious look at an Indian live-in relationship in Melbourne, far away from prying parents and rumour-mongering relatives.

Alternating between sometimes prurient humour and sweet sentimentality, Salaam Namaste tells the story of the relationship between Saif, an architect by accident and a chef by choice, and Preity, an independent medical student who earns enough for her education by working as a radio jockey. Theirs is a romance that blooms only after the two start living together in a beautiful rented seaside home. The chemistry between the duo creates a bond that is enjoyable to watch, but that’s just about it.

Forget the pre-release buzz about Salaam Namaste being a “breakthrough” film on the intricacies of an “Indian live-in relationship”, Anand does not even scratch the surface of this serious topic, except as a comic device. Salaam Namaste is too fluffy a romantic comedy to succeed at being even remotely emblematic. Otherwise, David Dhawan could be said to be making pathbreaking movies like Biwi No. 1.

Most of the second half, including the finale, is a rip-off from the Hugh Grant-Juliane Moore film, Nine Months. Salaam Namaste, too, never misses the chance to tell us just how great the childbirth experience is. And like Hugh’s character, Saif is constantly rebuked for believing that marriage and fatherhood are unnecessary burdens on a freedom-loving man’s life. His change of heart is an easier process than one expects it to be, inexplicably turning him from a die-hard bachelor into a man ready for the pressures of marriage and the responsibilities of fatherhood in a matter of a few scenes. The vacuously slapstick end also has a surprise guest appearance thrown in. Now all that doesn’t deserve a Salaam Namaste, does it?

Ritu Parna Dutta