Pyaar Ke Side Effects

Imagine a love story with every cliché possible, every predictable twist and turn but it still manages to make you laugh…and in some parts makes you laugh very loudly. I went into this movie with very low expectations and came out with the movie having delivered a notch above.

Sid (Rahul Bose), is a DJ who meets Trisha (Mallika Sherawat) when he is playing songs at her wedding in Delhi and she is contemplating running away. Six months later they meet again, now in Mumbai. They meet some more… they fall in love ! When Trisha proposes marriage after three years, Sid is not quite ready – they then break up, patch up, break up again etc. On Trisha's side, we have the typical over-protective father, another typical over-protective best friend and as the side love interest, the guy who she was going to get married to but ran away (at least this was something different). Sid, on his corner, has a Rhys Ifans (Spike in Notting Hill) style best friend (Ranvir Sheorey) who never bathes / changes underwear, an understanding brother in law / sister and as his love interest, the wonderfully voluptuous star (Sophie Choudhary) of the album Baby Doll Volume 3 (doesn't leave much to the imagination, does it ?).

As you've guessed, the plot is not really the strong point of the movie. What is great is the style of the movie – its shot in a partly demo style, where Rahul frequently talks to the camera in the middle of scenes, kind of lecturing on what is happening. What is also very good is the honesty of the movie – no topic is taboo, they go and make fun of topics which previously were kind of off-limits (there is a full discussion around bra-straps and why they are so complicated to open for men, there is another conversation between Rahul and his Mr Big). And finally, the jokes are brilliant…I think some of them are lifted from English movies, but no worries because they have indianised them beautifully. We have Mallika's refreshing take on what makes Delhi women different from Mumbai ones (and around the whole Mumbai vs Delhi thing in general). We have this other discussion around why marriage is not good for men, proof being that no superhero is married (I swear I've heard this before, but can't remember where – in any case its so wonderfully indianised that you'll laugh out aloud anyways !) This is the first movie I saw of Mallika's and I was really pleasantly surprised. I think casting Rahul Bose opposite her was a mistake – he came across as quite wooden, his dialogue delivery is quite stiff, Hindi a bit accented, definitely not as spontaneous as Mallika. Ranvir Sheorey was brilliant again as the best friend as was Aamir Bashir as the brother in law.

So, put the kids to sleep and go enjoy…not one movie that you're going to see many times or buy the DVD but definitely worth a look-see… For more of my reviews check apurvbollywood at blogspot

Pyar Ke Side Effects – There is something about this movie which makes it click. Attempting to pinpoint a lone factor will be a futile. But yes one can safely give the credit to the efforts deployed in pre-production and its effective translation onto the silver screen (the latter of course being the most challenging part).

¤ Rahul Bose doesn't need any praise for his performance. Spot on!

¤ Mallika Sherawat: I had little respect for this "bimbo starlet" and categorised her meteoric rise to her manipulative publicity and manipulative features (he! he!). Watching Pyar Ke Side Effects threw that notion out of the window. She fits into the character like hand in glove. And yes, if its anyone who gets/ should get/ deserves maximum mileage and opportunity laid on a platter owing to the success of the movie then its got to be MS.

¤ Sophiya:: No wonder why she is still confined to item girl roles, very puppetry acting. Seriously needs some acting lessons to add to her balance sheet (he! he! again).

¤ Jeeju-Sister:: Good performance and well balanced character roles. And the father-faining act is copied from "Jhankaar Beats", BTW.

¤ Ranvir Shorey: As far as I remember it was from this movie I started paying attention to Ranvir. If there is any other actor who would come on Top-Of-Mind-Recall when PYAR KE SIDE EFFECTS is uttered, then its gotta be Naanu.

¤ Sharat Saxena:: As usual, dependable.

¤ Jas Arora & Suchitra Pillai: Fit the bill effectively. It couldn't have got any better.

The never-ending battle between Delhi and Bombay is well presented. And of course the coffee. And the protagonist being a DJ… all these adds to say that the director is in sync with the times. The innovative ideas such as the comic book type animation and the protagonist connecting with the audience deserves brownie points.

Even during channel surfing if one happens to stumble upon Pyar Ke Side Effects, its difficult to resist stopping by and catching up with a few moments of the movie….. and needless to say, one would end up watching the rest.

I had my reservations while going for movie as I thought it would be just another light romantic comedy. But came out of hall more than satisfied. Movie is about a typical relationship between a boyfriend and girlfriend where girl is looking for settling down when boy is not yet ready.

Story was OK but what I liked most was the treatment of the subject as well as the performances of Rahul Bose and Ranvir. It was full of witty humor and chemistry between three men (Bose, Ranvir and Bashir) was more interesting than the leading pair.

Must say what I remember most about the movie is Ranvir. He was just terrific.

I found it better than (much hyped)Munnabhai and funnier than "Golmaal". In fact I would like to put it into the category of Hera Pheri.

Good work done by Saket.

This is a very remarkable attempt at making a romantic comedy much in the spirit of Hollywood movies like "sleepless in Seattle" and "meet the parents".

It is about a DJ, Rahul Bose, who bumps into this Delhite girl, Malika Sherawat, and a relationship brews for 3 years and all helter skelter breaks when Malika sets forward the desire to get married, which of course like any typical guy Rahul Bose is not ready for.

The charm of this movie is in its comedy, good acting by Bose, some really good punch lines and the fact that being a Hindi movie it still stays close to reality. Of late I can hardly remember a Hindi movie comedy that had characters that were real. Some scenes really got my bones hurting with all the laughing I was doing .. which trust me I haven't done in a very long long long time. Definitely kudos to the script writer.

In a nutshell: Definitely a must watch comedy movie, but not for the kids.

Now this was a nice movie, which was certainly out of the standard run of mill bollywood movies. Best thing about this one was that no BIG star was in it, it was well-directed and contemporary. Rahul Bose acted like a man running for love,life,family and what not. Mallika (I don't know why people don't respect her in the way she deserves) was just too good (she was typical Delhi-Girl), Rest of the cast was up to the mark which makes it a worth watching film.

After all we, in India, have this notion of being from North or south, these are silly little things but we do have daily instances of these coming into our life and those silly little things are portrayed very beautifully in this movie. As for romance, both the actors have done a great job in depicting what actually happens in real life when one is caught between the set prejudices of family and the love of their life. Some parallels from "Meet the Parents" can be drawn but very very few indeed.

Its a refresher, go watch it today.