Yaadein...

The thing about 'Yaadein' that people don't seem to like is that it clearly does NOT relate to them. Hindi movie-goers want a sheer love story that is mysterious, and only breathes within your head, and your heart.

'Yaadein' tells you that love can be extreme fickle. Because of this, it probably disappointed many people who expected Hrithik Roshan to TOTALLY score with Kareena Kapoor. It took a lot of doing and understanding, especially from the parents' side.

This film gives the movie-goer a good message: That abandoning family for business changes you, and it weakens your heritage and tradition. Even if it keeps the tradition in the family, some things still wont end up all perfect and wonderful. Money, business, and wealth kill tradition.

One further point of concern: Most Hindi film titles contain the world "Dil," "Prem" (sometimes), "Ishq," "Hai," or even the infamous "Mohabbatein." This is 'Yaadein.' MEMORIES. Try to cherish them, because love is not exploited in this film, like they are in others.

Rating (out of 10): 8.5

Yaadien was one of the most anticipated films of 2001 in India, because not only was it a big film, but it was a film directed by showman Subhash Ghai, at the time considered the finest filmmaker in Hindi Cinema, it was also a film with chartbuster music, it was also a movie featuring two talented promising young actors/actresses Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor, and it was a movie also starring veteran actor Jackie Shroff. But this movie bombed critically and commercially BIG TIME, I tell you why.......

This movie. I have to say from the film cover, looked pretty promising. I felt this movie will be golden, and it starred Hrithik Roshan, one of the best actors of Hindi Cinema, and my favorite actor, so I watched this movie, and man was I disappointed. Fifteen minutes into this movie, I felt forwarding it, because it was such a slow movie. It was very boring and dull until the song title song Yaadien, but pretty much after that it was downhill.

I have to say this is one terrible written movie, its stereotypical, clichéd.......you get the picture, very typical. The direction was LAME, i mean come on, a man who directed Pardes and Taal, directs this bore crap. This film's biggest flaw was its direction. Second acting, unlike the screenplay and direction, acting was better. Hrithik is a talented performer, thats why he was a able to pull of this undeveloped character, but he was unconsistent and offbeat, because of the bland and lame screenplay and direction. Kareena Kapoor, who back then was known to be a very over expressive actress, did a wonderful job, in this movie. Hrithik and Kareena's chemistry set the screen on fire. Jackie did an alright job. And as far of the rest of the cast, they acted well according to their characters.

I have to say, the actors tried really hard and it shows, What saves the movie from becoming a total disaster, are the musical numbers. Watch it only if you are a Kareena or Hrithik fan, DO NOT WATCH IT, THINKING ITS A SUBASH GHAI MOVIE, by the way, after this movie, Mr. Subash Ghai entered a career slump, and pretty much his career was over. Thankyou!

At the outset, I must warn you that I am biased. About two months ago, I bought a large number of Mukta Arts shares assuming that if Yaadein became a hit, market sentiment would drive up the price and get me decent returns. As a result, I was desperate to see the film on the first day of its release - but try as I may I could not get tickets; not even scalper's tickets (or black tickets as we call them).

I finally managed to see the film the week after, two days ago; again I could not get tickets the regular way, but eventually managed to get extras at Cine Planet, the new swanky theatre complex at Sion. Despite the film having received bad reviews, people are still queueing up to see the film, possibly I suspect, to see how bad the film really is.

What was Subhash Ghai even thinking of! Pardes and Taal were tolerable, the former because of Shahrukh and the latter because of the music and Anil Kapoor. Both also had crisp editing and lush looks. But Hrithik is no Shahrukh; at least currently, he does not have the ability to rise above the role. Kareena is still very raw. Jackie Shroff, who surprisingly is the pivot around which the movie revolves, just can't act. The editing is clumsy, the rest of the supporting acts are average to worse, the cinematography is at places terrible, the dialogues make no sense, the story is patchy, the music is no great shakes...I could just go on.

And what is the story? Jackie Shroff is a middle-class restauranteur (with a swimming pool) living in England, a father of three daughters, who loses his wife (Rati Agnihotri, probably the only saving grace of the movie) in a shoot-out. They then move to India, because the only thing he wants to do, is to get his daughters married, which he does pretty fast, especially as far as his first two daughters (forgettable faces) are concerned. Hrithik is a foster son of his, who eventually falls in love with Kareena. Due to a crazy set of circumstances, they can't actually get together, but eventually in a silly, contrived ending, they do.

The audience reaction at Cine Planet was interesting. Everyone was just waiting for the next embarrassing moment, wondering how much worse the film would actually get. The cringing feeling was similar to the one I had while watching Toofan and Jadugar wondering whether Amitabh had lost his brains. And the use of brand placement for advertising is a joke. Coke as cokemohabbat.com and Pass-Pass (a mouth-freshener) are blatantly thrust upon the audience. I don't think I'll be having Pass-Pass for some time to come, considering that it will immediately remind me of Yaadein.

Subhash Ghai has gone or record saying that his target market is the foreign market where people pay 7-10$ for a ticket and he does not really care for the guy paying 10 rupees in a small town in Bihar. Which may make economic sense (though I doubt it)...but doesn't the movie still have to be good? Or is it that the desi crowd abroad is so film-starved that it will lap up anything thrust upon it? I wonder...on Friday, the Mukta Arts stock actually went up by 10%, because of market news that the film is a hit abroad, in the UK and US. If the desis abroad think this film is worth seeing, they are welcome to it; and if that helps me make up my current 30% loss in the stock, all the better!

Let's look at why I feel that "Yaadein" is a nice, entertaining movie (and justifies a score much higher than the 4.5/10 awarded to it:

1. The songs are really terrific.

2. Everyone has acted quite well when compared to the acting levels that one generally sees in Hindi cinema.

3. The story is credible.

4. The director is very well known.

So why has this movie got such a low score?

My personal belief is that Hindi movies get wild, inconsistent ratings from fans who have not thought the matter sufficiently through. How else can one justify a rating of 9.2/10 for "Dil Chahta Hai" and just 6.0/10 for "Asoka"? Is "Dil Chahta Hai" a better movie than, say, "Shawshank Redemption" which was rated 9.0/10?

"Dil Chata Hai" is good. But 9.2/10? I don't think so. And does "Asoka" deserve the low rating of 6.0/10? I don't think so.

It appears that very few people rate Hindi movies compared to the numbers of reviews that English movies get (45 people rated "Yaadein"; 75,837 people rates "Shawshank Redemption"). This causes distortion in the average especially when the "swing" (as seen in the case of "Yaddein") is so large.

I belive that "Yaadein" should be rated 6.0/10. It's a nice entertaining movie and not the sinking ship that it has been likened to.

See it and decide for yourself.

Yaadein - Something you would remember for all the wrong reasons. The actors behave like mannequins than people with flesh and blood, the delivery is staccato, and the plot is stilted. Of course H. Roshan's acting and dancing is good as always, but unfortunately it is not enough of a saving grace to sit down and be tortured for 3+ hours.

The movie can be described as one big advertising arena - for products ranging from Coke to Hero bicycles. If you are part of the unlucky lot that have bought a ticket to be entertained, make a game of counting the number of products that are being plugged in the various scenes. You are likely to derive more satisfaction than from the storyline.