Since this is pretty late for a review and you would’ve read many by now, I’m gonna keep this brief.
This is one movie that had awesome potential with an exciting premise of live-in relationships. But it really doesn’t exploit it much.
Don’t get me wrong though. Salaam Namaste is entertaining, has pretty decent performances by Saif, a slimmer Preity, a loud cameo by Javed Jaffery and a very underplayed Arshad Warsi and rocking end-credits.
The pace is tight and the tone pretty light till the Nine Months-inspired climax. It just does not work! I just don’t understand how can you just take the supposedly mature tone of a movie and infuse it with loud slapstick humour for an end. It seemed so forced.
And oh yes! The second half does make for some excruciatingly painful viewing if you have bullshit-allergy. Preity’s pregnant pot-belly is the work of a highly untalented blind potter. And the way she dances to a song makes you wish someone got the director young Siddharth Anand pregnant just so that he would know what it really feels like.
There is a touch of smartness here and there: the breaking of stereotypes with role reversals for example. Saif cries at the movies, cooks, wears pink and all sort of effeminate clothes, likes to keep his place clean while Preity hates to clean up or cook. The ‘Mouna Raagam’ sort of setting where a couple has to share the roof for a year even after the break-up is again a very nice ploy in the script.
But here’s why I was let down:
The movie makes live-in relationships look like a stupid idea.
It makes it look like sex is the first thing they explore.
And worse, it makes it look like protection is of no use really cuz the girl ultimately gets pregnant.
So basically, the film tells you: Guy and a girl move in, they f*** like bunnies apparently … cuz the girl gets pregnant within two months in spite of them using protection. And then they have no choice but to get married. Whoa!
Salaam Namaste is likely to find appreciation in the 18-22 age group. The older adults would find it ridiculously simplistic and dumbed down for a country at the crossroads of social change. Hum Tum was a much better film in the same genre.
Apart from that, it is a good tour of Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. So now I don’t have to show you guys pics from my video grabs.
😀
Hi suderman
Nice to read ur blog.
Good to know that there are people who feel the same way about the film. After going to the theatre just because of the raving reviews, I seriously thought that I had come to a totally different movie.
now now…u shldnt dissapoint people like me who were waiting for those video grabs
yeah i felt the same after watching the movie…naanum oru review ezhuthinen.
Completely agree with THIS review.
good after some delibration i thought this movie wud be same like hum tum or worse and skipped watching it…yipee! good it sucks!
For me the highlight of the film was watching a pregnant Preity Zinta bouncing around Melbourne during a song sequence. Damn…Wasted a perfectly good drink over this movie 😦
hey sudhish,
unrelated comment:
there is an error in ur review of “chocolate” in hindu. kevin spacey won an oscr for “american beauty”. I think u were hinting all along the review that the kevin spacey movie was “usual suspects” without actually naming it. correct me if i am wrong. Spacey did not win an socar for usual suspects. he shot into fame because of that.
my 2 cents
-Blogger formerly known as Bharath
dreamweaver:
yes, i was taken into the hype too.
vk:
i will. not getting time.
vishnu prasad:
wil check it out.
pagala’k’:
thanks.
prasanna:
it IS worth checking out. not that bad as u think it is.
aditi:
ha ha!
hawkeye/bharath:
Kevin Spacey DID win an Oscar for the Usual Suspects. he won it for Best Supporting Role. So, there is no error, I just verified it with imdb.com.
Cheers!
hawkeye/bharath:
And yes, he won two Oscars. Supporting role for Usual Suspects in 1995 and for Lead Role in American Beauty in 1999.
heyloo Sudhish..sooooper review…
true..they make it seem like being pregnant is one of the easiest things to be..sometimes i feel that she purposely wore those clothes to show her awfuly done unsightly er ‘whatever’ ..and please oh please some on ask saif to reconsider his dress sense!!
-Ananya
hmm, even as a member of the 18-22 age group and never having been pregnant at any point during my life, it was still hard to digest preity’s sudden lack of contractions during the time saif proposed to her…but to be fair, it’s a laugh riot at times…
p.s – i don’t the trust the indians
thanks suderman. sorry my bad. i didnt know he bagged best supporting actor!
but kaizer soze.. et all. what a movie. I loved it. You mustve seen Seven too another of my all time favorite. I thought that 15 minutes as john doe shld have got him an oscar
pretty late for the comments.I live in melbourne,watched the movie first day first show.
1 good thing about the movie is how they have shown melbourne – it was beautiful. But as said the pot belly or the nine months climax or the whole idea of contraseptives was hmmmm not too good.
btw the chosen clothing of saif throughout movie was “politix” one of the expensive casuals here.pretty famous among the youth although it looks so-so
i just watched it last night with my family n it was pretty good! the songs were so good..i watched kyonki right after that..it was an ok movie!