Ishq

I guess that most Bollywood movies will strike western viewers as somewhat quirky in terms of storytelling structure and acting, but compared to other Bollywood movies I've seen so far, this one seems to be an exceptionally quirky one.

The story is fairly simple: rich boy (Ajay Devgan) and poor boy (Aamir Khan) are best friends, rich girl (Juhi Chawla) and poor girl (Kajol) are best friends. Rich boy falls in love with poor girl, poor boy falls in love with rich girl, and the two rich fathers will do anything to destroy the two budding relationships.

That's basically it. There is no real plot; instead there's a sequence of scenes where the two fathers devise a dirty scheme, which is promptly thwarted by the young lovers. On to another scheme, which again is not successful. The next dirty plan follows, which... you get the idea.

Still, the evil schemes become increasingly more devious, and their consequences more severe as the film progresses; along with this progression, the film makes its way through all genres that you can imagine: it starts out as a fairly silly slapstick comedy, turns into romantic comedy, then into romance, then into thriller and finally into a tragic melodrama. At one point, there's even a horror scene thrown in for good measure.

Plot holes and illogical character behaviour aplenty, but that's what you expect of any Bollywood movie, more or less.

As for the acting, well, don't expect stellar performances. Most of the supporting cast are somewhat annoying, especially in the slapstick scenes, although Johny Lever for once plays a fairly non-silly, likeable character.

The lead actors give solid performances, particularly Kajol and Aamir Khan, who manage to be funny (without overdoing it) in the comedy bits and believably serious/emotional (without overdoing it) in the tragic parts. Ajay Devgan has great onscreen chemistry with Kajol (they aren't married for no reason, it seems), but overall his character has a serious depth deficit and is just too gullible. Juhi Chawla is very pretty and good fun to watch, and it is her very energetic performance that drives the movie along much of the time. However, she is mostly really more of a pleasant diversion than a full-fledged character.

The music by Anu Malik has no real highlights and, like the film, probes its way around several genres. My personal favourite is 'Dekho Dekho Jaanam', a compellingly cute, slightly silly Kajol/Devgan love duet (sung by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik). 'Ishq Hua Kaise Hua', the corresponding Chawla/Khan duet (Udit Narayan/Vibha Sharma) is more romantic, much less successful, but comes at least complete with lots of Swiss Alps. The disco-inspired songs are, alas, not very inspired.

Overall, this is a 3-hour tour de force, an all-in-one package of all emotions and film genres that you can imagine; not really the best of Bollywood, but still fairly enjoyable. Not sure whether it's worth the trip to the cinema, but rent the DVD and watch this if you are in a quirky mood or if you have friends over for an Indian dinner.

Indra Kumar's films are never original, nor they have anything new DIL was okay though too OTT, while BETA was too melodramatic but good RAJA was crap, ISHQ is good too nothing great

The first half is spend with slapstick OTT scenes which are funny mostly like the pipe scene is too much though stupid,

The love angles too have their fun The Exorcist angle is unnecessary and too much

The second half gets too melodramatic and things get boring but they are some good scenes like Aamir- Ajay clash and some more

Indra Kumar handles comedy quite well and drama too Music is very good

Aamir Khan has done comedy in AAA earlier and here he is in comfort zone and makes you laugh the most in the first half stealing the show with his one-liners and expressions Even in serious scenes he does a great job Ajay looks too silly in some comic scenes and overacts in some and is decent in some but excels in dramatic scenes and his chemistry with AK is terrific, i wish they work again together

Juhi acts very well in the mischievous role though she overacts at places but it suits well Kajol is unnoticeable in first half but decent in second half

Dalip Tahil, Sadashiv Amrapurkar are too loud and play the clichéd villains

Johny Lever is loud too but makes you laugh at places

Deepak Shirke, Tiku Talsania have some funny scenes

Ranjit rai(sadashiv amarapulkar) and harbans lal(dalip tahil) are two rich friends who hate the sight of poor. Ranjit is worried that his son ajay(ajay devgan) roams around with his poor friend raja(aamir khan) and harbans is worried that his daughter madhu(juhi chawla) roams around with her poor friend kajal(kajol). Fearing that their children dont marry any poor person both of them decide to make ajay and madhu marry without their knowledge. Both trick their children to sign the marriage certificate. But ajay falls in love with kajal and after several fights and pranks, raja and madhu too fall in love. The fathers initially use muscle power to separate them but when that fails, they play a dirty game by framing raja and kajal of having an affair and cheating on ajay and madhu for their wealth. Ajay and madhu leave them and the rest of the film is how raja and kajal's innocence is proved and they get united.

First half of the film is full of fun with lots of slapstick comedy. Aamir and Ajay's chemistry was also good to watch. Aamir was as usual brilliant in his role. Ajay devgan too gives him good support. Juhi chawla also performed well in comedy scenes. Kajol played a subdued role in this film. Sadashiv amarapulkar and dalip tahil were great as the evil dad. Johnny lever didn't have much to do other than the last hour.

Film was very nice to watch until the last hour which ruined all the fun. The last hour is melodramatic, sappy and boring. The way raja tries to prove his innocence was unconvincing and weird. The whole tone of the movie was loud.

On the whole, better skip watching the film after mr lova lova song.

The main reason I watched this movie is because of the great cast. Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan, Kajol, and Juhi Chawla. That already gets you excited. The actors all did great, even Johnny Lever. This movie is a perfect one to watch with the whole family, because it has some great scenes and it's a totally clean movie. It has everything in it- action, drama, comedy, romance, and an overall good story that is told in true Bollywood style. I mean even though its a typical story filled with clichés and Bollywood masala, it entertains and is above average. And really, the movie has a great message, which is that all people are equal, rich or poor. Many people think that poor people are not equal to the rich people. The movie also says that there is nothing wrong in falling in love with a lower class person. The songs were also good as most of 1990s Hindi films had good music. This movie overall was pretty good.

This movie has comedy, romance, drama, action, etc. All in all a complete Masala movie. But that doesn't mean its a great movie.

Thesecond half is almost unbearable. A complete flashback to the early 90s movies. Opposing family, drama, violence etc.

The first half was funny and very good. The actors were close to perfect. Aamir and Juhi set the screen on fire with their chemistry. Kajol was her usual self.

Juhi has a flair for comedy as does Aamir. Ajay was good too.

Bottom line, regular Bollywood viewers will enjoy. May be a bit too much for others.