Aa Ab Laut Chalen

Rishi Kapoor's directorial debut brings for the first time on RK films banner Super Star Rajesh Khanna. This movie was released after a five year exile by Rajesh Khanna. He appears in the movie as a character actor who shoulders the second half and climax of the movie. The movie has Vinod Khanna's son as the lead hero who is playing Rajesh Khanna's son who like his father Rajesh ( Balraj) runs away from his motherland to make money. He makes emotional blunders, cannot mix with the culture abroad, gets cultural shock and then mends his ways. He then meets his estranged father. The father and son then return to their home land. A good clean movie by Rishi Kapoor which should have done better if the editing could have been made crisp and some songs deleted to put in some action sequence which would have catered to the masses. Over all a good movie, good music, good location, good acting and over all a performance which cannot go unnoticed Rajesh Khanna, who plays his role as if he had never gone away. Let us hope we see him more often.

I watched this as an Aishwarya fan. I think it's her 4th movie, so it's interesting for me to see her when she was "younger"--although that's only a few years ago! She looked really skinny--too skinny! In a couple of the songs, she does not even dance--what was the director thinking? That we don't want to see Aishwarya?? This was probably the worst Indian film I have seen in terms of the subtitles. First, they were in white letters, so they were hard to read. Second, they were often very stilted English--quite often humorous without intending to be. Third, sometimes they repeated the subtitles, sometimes they put on a long subtitle for .1 of a second. Fourth, sometimes they were just nonsense--A great example is when they go to the "Grapp Family Lodge" towards the end of the movie. Of course it's really the "Trapp Family Lodge" in New Hampshire, and yes, it's the lodge owned by the Trapp Family who were the subject of "The Sound of Music." I have a feeling all that was lost on the director--it would have been a great opportunity to have a song set in the hills above Salzburg, where Julie Andrews sang. It would have added a nice touch of humor. But no. Oh well, a great opportunity lost. Why not get a native Engish speaker to proofread the subtitles? Leaving the stereotypes aside, which the other reviewers have mentioned, I was more upset at the heavy-handed "lessons" in the movie. Yes, I have seen this in other Indian movies too, but not as many and not as awkwardly done. There was the "Pakistanis are really good Indians too" lesson, the "family is more important than money" lesson, the "women are more than tokens in the marriage market" lesson, the "forgive those as you wish to be forgiven" lesson, etc. etc.--every five minutes, and no subtlety at all. A movie can have a message, but when you have 35 different messages...well, it doesn't work. By the way, how about a lesson on illegal immigrants working on a tourist visa? To Indians sitting in India thinking they can just get off the plane on a tourist visa and start driving a cab or work at Dunkin' Donuts, forget it. You can't.

Reality checks: New Jersey boardwalk as an exotic, fun location? Please. Are there no hotels/rooms in New York? --why did Akshay and Aishwarya have no choice but to move in with the taxi drivers? Is India that disorganized that a millionaire would find it impossible to find the wife he left behind? And of course all the coincidences would make Dickens blush.

So, as a movie, pretty bad. As a showcase for a young (26?) Aishwarya, OK.

Agreed this did not put up a very nice picture of indians.. but if closely observed through kader khan, jaspal bhatti and others the nicer side is also portrayed. I live in U.S. and have worked in an Indian colony just as shown and i can say that one can relate to the goings on immediately. Although the romantic track was underdeveloped. The emotional content as well as the comedy track was pretty good. Whenever i see this it leaves me with a lump in my throat and a feeling of going back to India immediately. Performances wise Rajesh Khanna is good.. Akshaye and Aish are okay... But the real fun is provided by Paresh Rawal, Kader Khan, Jaspal Bhatti and Satish Kaushik. Good Music with 4-5 tracks really good and a couple of passable ones with interesting undetectable choreography. And a must watch for Indians in U.S. working or closely connected with the Indian markets and streets there.. They will surely love it and once they see it they will know why.. On the whole wrongly received movie otherwise a very decent attempt by Rishi Kapoor..

a timepass movie.. sometimes can get pretty unbearable.. but one manages to get by the movie. the camaraderie aspect between Akshaye and Jaspal Bhatti and gang is real good... the movie tends to get unrealistic which is disappointing.

This was actually a suprisingly good film. Not astoundingly original, but compared to the usual formulaic trash that succeeds in north india this had a few new ideas. The main plus points are the visuals - aishwarya is stunning and the shooting localities are breathtaking. Songs aren't bad either - brilliantly picturized, especially 'Meri dil tera deewana'.