Salaam Namaste

Saturday & it was time to check out Yash Raj Films' latest super hyped offering. Sid & me hopped it to Swagath where Sweta was waiting for us with the tickets, bought off the blackers of course, .... that girl is one smart cookie.

The crowd consisted almost entirely of college goers & young professionals like us. For once, it even seemed that the girls outnumbered the guys. I'll hand it to Yash Raj ... they know how to market & hype their releases.

The movie itself turned out to be pretty interesting. The first half moves super fast from one gag to the other & there are laughs aplenty. Also, it's entirely shot in Melbourne which comes across as one beautiful city.

It's remarkable how far Saif has come .... after his initial stop-start success with multi starrers like Yeh Dillagi & Main Khiladi Tu Anari, he seemed down & out. But he's risen, like the proverbial phoenix from the ruins of a listless career & a broken personal relationship ..... inspiring stuff! His comic timing is improving with each film & he's carrying off solo hero projects with ease now.

Preity is her usual bubbly, lively self. Not many actresses can light up the screen with their presence like she does.

The surprise packeages of the film, & welcome ones at that, are Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffery & Tania Zaetta. Arshad is at his usual hero's sidekick-slapstick best whereas Javed shows reason why he's one of Bollywood's most under-utilised talents. He's mimicked the pants off Feroz Khan (first time somebody's done that on the big screen) while speaking Bihari english & outfitted like a cowboy .... eg-jactly! Tania .... well, what do you say? It's probably the first time an aussie has a role like hers in a Hindi movie.

But, as always, there are a few shortcomings .... the script is wafer thin, the second half tends to drag & there is more than one situation when you feel you've seen this kind of a scene while watching 'Friends'. Also, age is showing up on both Preity & Saif even though Preity appears in some of the briefest outfits since Soldier.

My best scene in the movie ..... when just before the title song, the aussie bloke yells, "everybody, clothes off!", & those awesome aussie babes take off their formals to change into bikinis ......... yeah, man!