Gypsi Bates
Sameer (Salman Khan) moves to Goa and falls in love with Rani (Priyanka Chopra). Unfortunately, he keeps unintentionally injuring her father (Amrish Puri), thus ruining his chances of a romance with her. Then, Sunny (Akshay Kumar) moves to the same house as Sameer, and also falls in love with Rani. Sunny finds way after way of discrediting Sameer with Rani, and seems to be succeeding in making her fall for him. This is a cute romantic comedy, with such bright colors throughout the entire movie, in both costumes and setting. The music is okay, and some of the dance numbers are lovely. The plot seems predictable, but has a unexpected ending. Kumar plays his role so well that I genuinely disliked him. Khan is charming and innocent as Sameer, but Chopra's acting seems stilted. Overall, though, it's a fun movie to watch, just not exceptional.
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As long as you're in the mood for a lighthearted, somewhat goofy and self-consciously modern Bollywood romantic comedy, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi can fit the bill. It's often funny, and in many ways it is technically impressive. However, partially due to the necessity of stretching out the film's running time to standard Bollywood length, it becomes quite taxing during the second half. Most viewers' ratings are likely to go down during this period, but director David Dhawan redeems his film in the climax. My final verdict was a 7 out of 10, or a "C".Mujhse Shaadi Karogi is the story of Sameer (Salman Khan). It was clear since Sameer was a baby that he was headed for trouble. The priest who named him suggested "Sameer" because it means something like "calm breeze"--he predicted that Sameer would frequently have problems with his temper, and in a very funny opening sequence, we see the truth of this as we quickly follow Sameer as he grows up. At one point, he even smacks his high school principle. Of course, Sameer always thinks his actions are justified, that he's just sticking up for people who have been wronged. Unfortunately, people in power, such as judges, tend to disagree with him. And even the woman he loves says she's afraid of him. She marries someone else instead. Sameer decides that it's best for him to leave town and try to start afresh. He acquires a job as a lifeguard in Goa. Once there, he sees and falls in love with Rani Singh (Priyanka Chopra), his neighbor. Unfortunately, as soon as he meets her, he unwittingly assaults her father for a minor transgression. To make things worse, Sameer ends up with an obnoxious, competitive roommate, Sunny Khurana (Akshay Kumar). Sunny is a womanizer who falls for Rani, too, and he continually turns the tables on Sameer to ruin his chances with Rani.The majority of supporting characters are very funny. Once in Goa, Sameer hooks up with a younger astrologer named Raj Purohit (Rajpal Yadav). I've seen Yadav in a few films now, including Dil Bechara Pyaar Ka Maara (2004) and the excellent Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon (2003). He's had a comic edge in all of them and he's impressed me with his range. Sameer's landlord in Goa, Mr. Duggal (Kader Khan), suffered a head injury that results in him alternately being blind, deaf and dumb on different days. A sign outside of his office lets people know which problem he has at the moment.Of course, some of this is a bit ridiculous. Ridiculousness is a big theme, actually, and imbues everything from characterization to the music. There is a lot of almost corny hip-hop music and attitude in the film, including a recurring low soul-brother voice that keeps telling us how "wicked" Sunny is in a sing-songy fashion. Such touches are prominent in a lot of modern Indian films. The aim is to draw in a youth crowd. In many cases, such as Lakeer – Forbidden Lines (2004), there isn't a firm enough commitment to this MTV-ish positioning to make it work for the film overall. Here, director David Dhawan keeps up the ridiculous material more consistently, and as this remains a comedy for most of its length, the corny/campy stuff often works. It may be a bit "stupid funny", like a Bollywood hip-hop "Green Acres" (1965), but that's still funny.Part of the ridiculousness is realized through references (or less charitably derivativeness) to other films. In the opening sequence, Sameer is fighting with a couple basketball players via Matrix (1999)-like wire stunts, and there's even a bit of "bullet-time" camera-work. Later, there is another Matrix reference, this time to The Matrix Reloaded (2003), as a drunken Sameer fights multiple Mr. Smith-like copies of Sunny in the street. There are also hints of, and even an entire lifted scene from, Meet the Parents (2000). At one point it seems like the plot is going to turn into an uncredited remake of that film, as Rani's father has military background and a Robert De Niro as Jack Byrnes-ish disposition. He even has a less than attractive dog that he's obsessed with, but who doesn't like Sameer very much. However, the Meet the Parents material turns out to not be so important, and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi has a more standard Bollywood love triangle/confused identity plot.The main problem I had with the film, which brought my score down a couple points, was that it's difficult to not become aggravated with Sameer in the later stages of the film. Actually, it's more of an aggravation with the scriptwriting, because the scenarios, and Sameer's odd muteness while he's in the midst of situations that are constantly recontextualized so that they're not in his favor, become overly contrived. At the same time, the character of Sunny becomes annoyingly obnoxious, and the "twist" between the two characters isn't exactly believable.Part of this is due to the attempt to stretch out the running time to a typical length for a Bollywood film--it clocks in at 2 hours and 40-something minutes. It should have been cut down by an hour. We get a deus ex machina plot device to solve the dilemma in the middle of the film, but it is all for naught, and even given the film's running time, the resolution of the dilemma ends up seeming rushed at the end. The attempt to stretch out the tension was just a bit too over-ambitious.On the technical side, there is some very nice cinematography, set designs, locations, costumes and such. The film won the Screen Weekly Award for Art Direction, and was nominated for many more.You shouldn't bother with Mujhse Shaadi Karogi unless you've a strong taste for silliness/corniness/campiness, but if you do, you'll find enough to keep you entertained if you can make it through the frustrating section before the climax.
Akira-29
Being an Indian, I am always baffled by the ignorance of Bollywood film makers about the globalization of cinema. I really really want to like these films and have refrained from commenting negatively on ANY of them just out of respect... but this one was the the straw that broke the camel's back. I apologize in advance for the scathing and sarcastic nature of this commentary and the sure-to-follow tirade about Bollywood film makers.Re: The filmmakers. Do they really think Indians don't watch American films? (You reading this Mr. Mahesh Bhatt?) Do they really think that we can't tell when scenes are plain STOLEN from American films? There are at least three scenes in "Mujhse Shaadi Karogi" that borrow liberally from "Anger Management" starring Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler. The film also samples scenes from "Meet the Parents" starring Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro. Their two roles are portrayed in this film by Mr. Salman "Do I take my shirt off yet" Khan and Mr. Amrish "Yet another film where I play a retired Punjabi Army General/Colonel who disapproves of my daughter's choice of spouse" Puri. While the story is not an exact duplicate of either "Parents" or "Management", the characters in this film are so derivative, formulaic and clichéd that you could have thrown them in any Hindi romantic comedy. I wonder if the producers throw darts at a list of character attributes for "HERO ROLE" and "HEROINE ROLE" when coming up with plots. This film even has the overacting sidekick thrown in for comic relief... although I guess Johnny Lever had a scheduling conflict. Instead, they cast some other guy in a clever "double" role as twin brothers - An astrologer and his "twin"... uh... well... a thuggish motorcycle gang leader. (Yes, you read that correctly.)Nothing "new" in this film - the usual sacharine acting which keeps the glycerine stock high in Mumbai... Those pathetic song-dance numbers which make one thankful for the existence of the Fast Forward button... and your garden variety soulless love-triangle storyline. I think the script would have had better use if they printed it on toilet paper. I can't believe some of these lines were said with a straight face by the actors. Here's a question for you educated viewers: Is it any more irritating when a film soundtrack has to cue you how to feel? Every time Akshay Kumar does something slimy we are treated to the whispers of "Wicked Sunny!!" over and over (with another horrible attempt at "copying" 50-Cent's music from his hit "At the Club"). It made my teeth itch!!I wish more films like the novel "Dil Chahta Hai" were made. At least the predictability factor is a little subdued in that film! Bollywood is the most prolific film producing industry - but it is evident that quantity is DEFINITELY not indicative of quality. And please, my Bollywood friends... stop copying formulaic American films and scenes. I think M. Night Shyamalan and Gurinder Chadha have demonstrated that Indians can be creative without "borrowing". This applies to film plots as well as soundtracks! I wonder if Roy Orbison is getting royalties for "Pretty Woman" from the "Kal Ho Naa Ho" songwriters. To summarize, I would rather drink a quart of paint thinner than see this film again. It's disgusting, devoid of any true emotion and worst of all - it's "humor" is just artificial and derivative. I wanted to throw things at the screen and didn't laugh once. (I groaned plenty though).Yes, perhaps I take some if this too seriously... I know the movie is just supposed to be "fun". It tries hard to be that... I know it's just a romantic comedy but I am beginning to loathe the complacence and mediocrity turned out by the Bollywood film industry which consistently underestimates the intelligence of its audience. I just had to write this. I refuse to hold Indian films to a different standard simply because they are Indian. I'm really cheering for all of you in Bollywood to get it together and make something worthy of international notice. They should be making American versions of OUR films, not the other way around! Turn off MTV for new ideas and realize that the lead actress' navel is not a crucial plot device. Adapt some novels to the screen... scan our history and tell some of the truly endearing human stories.
Candice
Senseless, silly and juvenile is how I would describe Mujhse Shaadi Karogi. I don't understand how such films become hits. The first half was boring, the situations in this half are uninteresting and the songs act as a hindrance. The only good part about this half were the scenes involving Amrish Puri and Salman Khan, which were quite amusing. I expected the film to get better after Akshay came in, but unfortunately it got worse. The scenes in which Akshay is always putting down Salman seemed so childish. The second half is filled with such silly pranks and juvenile humor. And the climax sequence where Salman proposes to Priyanka on the cricket field bought the film to an all time low. All Priyanka Chopra does is look pretty, her performance is awful, lets just say, the mannequin acted better then Priyanka. I cannot believe an actor who delivered such good performances in films such as Hera Pheri, Ajnabee and Khakee gave a terrible performance in this film. Salman Khan was the only saving grace in this film. He was extremely likable as the goody-goody Samir and he looked great too. Of the support cast, Amrish Puri and Rajpal Yadav were the best. Other are not worth mentioning. I would give credit to David Dhavan who at least tried to do something different from his earlier films. The promos looked promising. But, at the end Mujhse Shaadi Karogi felt like any other clichéd David Dhavan film. The look of the film is great! The film maintains a stylish look throughout. Music wasn't appealing. For the exception of Lal Dupatta, all the other songs seemed out of place. Watch this film at your own risk. 5/10.
