Welcome to the first article in the Movie Roundup series. I would like to begin with an almost forgotten release of the past year, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead!
Two strangers await their loved ones at the Waterloo train station in England. Rikki Thukral (Abhishek Bachchan) and Alvira Khan (Preity Zinta) share their anticipation and stories, and it soon becomes apparent that these are two characters as unlike one another as can be possible.
But egos are not all that clash in this colorful tapestry of love, revelry and romance. The truth is soon let out, and it is completely the opposite of the perceived: neither Steve nor Anaida arrive at Waterloo station. Rikki and Alvira have been indulging in a subtle play of deceit and lies in order to get to know one another, to the extent of truth-or-daring and exchanging phone numbers. When each attempts to meet the other's faux-lovers, the web of fibs weaves deeper. Alvira's "Steve" (Bobby Deol) is actually Satvinder Singh of the local optician store; a mamma-loving-lady killer sanitization of the superhero Steve. And Rikki's "Anaida" (Lara Dutta) is Laila, a call-girl with a tongue to match her earthy profession.
As Alvira and Rikki both cling to their agony uncles to help animate their crafted mates, events conspire to present the pairs with a dance competition at the local Indo-lounge club. Rikki and Alvira fire up their partners and wage a choreographic jugalbandi that concludes with Rikki and "Anaida" as winners. But all the while, it almost seems as if the true battle is between Alvira and Rikki, attacking each other for not saying the truth that neither knows of. Both go their separate ways, heartbroken.
But fate, it seems, has a way of its own. "Steve" falls for "Anaida", and after a sequence of confusions and confessions, Rikki realizes that Alvira loves him. A frantic search later, Alvira and Rikki are in each other's arms, and the camera leaves us at Waterloo station, where the gypsy (Amitabh Bachchan) who has seen these events pass, recreates the beginnings of the lies that prefix this one of many such love stories he has seen.
The movie's story is told from various perspectives, but it is this last that feels inspired and spunky in an otherwise laboriously-paced tale. The length really begins to tell on you in the post-interval sequences, when the director begins to indulge himself with the kind of darbari settings and Urdu dialogs that we so enjoyed in his last; but here they seem more contrived than anything else, in the midst of locations that span from suburban London to cosmopolitan Paris. Even the lively performances from Bachchan and Deol fail to hold up the audience's interest for long, as do the slick cinematography and . Nor does a historic moment in Hindi cinema - the scene with Bachchan and Deol in the motorcycle with the sidecar, same as their respective fathers a quarter of a decade ago - rekindle an excitement deadened by the cloying opulence of the proceedings.
The three people you end up feeling most sorry for, however, are Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa, the music direction team, because this is easily the most variegated, hummable, and soulful music you will find in the year gone by. The title track and Bol Na Halke Halke deserve special mention as two of the trio's very best compositions. The brilliance of the tracks has inspired some very special music videos; the latter song's picturization even touches subtly upon the oneness of Alvira's and Rikki's countries of origin by illustrating the similarity of their respective religions. It is a shame that when the soundtrack ups the ante and expectation, the movie can't even hold that level. Just another example that goes to show you that mediocre storytelling isn't covered for by brilliant packaging. All that glitters ain't gold. But when you hear the sound of the sparkle, you almost wish it were so.
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