Tum Mile

Cant understand.Film is really boring.Just felt like my house was getting flooded

I had thought I was consciously going from one disaster flick to another, from the latest that Hollywood has to offer, to what Bollywood has on its plate. The trailer would have suggested that it's in line with Hanuedae with copious amounts of flood waters wrecking havoc on the man on the street, but this was actually quite the disastrous picture in itself.

It's a romance story, with little time devoted to its gimmicky backdrop with the 2005 Mumbai flooding. Unlike similar plot devices in various disaster films, this one could have done away with its gimmick, but what would remain is an uninspired piece of romantic drama that neither sizzles nor touches, but contains every conceivable cliché offered by any mediocre television drama. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, they fight and we find out whether they reconcile under a heavy downpour. Making things worst is that the characters have absolutely no chemistry, and you'd be rooting for them to stay apart since staying together had proved to be difficult.

Emraan Hashmi continues to play the artist type as Akshay the painter (he was also a painter in Raaz: the Mystery Continues), who thinks the world of himself and refuses to compromise his art nor to eat the humble pie. He falls for rich girl Sanjana (Soha Ali Khan) and they decide to move in together in a swanky Cape Town apartment. Being without of a regular job, we know who will ultimately be forking out dough for bills, and this damages his big male ego. Multiple fights ensues, they split, and meet again some 6 years later, where the film began, aboard a business class section of the airline. Yep, ego boy finally made good, and is contemplating against his ego how to woo his lady love back, except that this time the heavens so wish to rain on his parade.

The narrative gets told in flashbacks, which I thought the backstory would be over and done with by the time the intermission rolls along. Unfortunately not, as it continued to plod on. The story by Ankur Tewari failed to realize how to cut its losses once the appeal of the lovebirds no longer hold, and the focus could have been on how damaging the disaster is, no thanks to inept, lazy and incompetent staff at a meteorological station who seemed more concerned with who's making money from the in-house gambling table. Then again, perhaps the lack of a fat budget had prevented that aspect from taking place,and what resulted in were a couple of CG wide shots of the city drenched, and a couple of archived newsreels to tell you just how bad the situation is.

For a set action sequence – check this – we have a bus turning slowly to its side in a manner which defies the laws of physics, just because a tree branch had punctured one of its windows, and it seemed like the end of the world for all on board, who had so far been mulling around just waiting for the rain, and the flood waters to stop and recede, which the latter did so under miraculous circumstances actually. And what about the inexplicable rush of a towering body of water into a building floor which is higher than what the level of water on the streets is currently, just to see capture sheer horror from the faces of our lead characters? And to top if off, some melodramatic moments you see coming from a mile with regards to water, and power cables.

For what it's worth, Tum Mile could have been a wonderful comedy, but it decided to focus on the insipid relationship between two uninteresting couples in their tiffs and attempts at reconciliation. The result? A total washout.

Trapped in the deluge of 26 July, 2005, carefully navigating around half-submerged vehicles and dodging death on the flooded streets of Mumbai, Emraan Hashmi tells Soha Ali Khan that the first thing he's going to do when he gets home is watch Sholay. It is my humble suggestion that the makers of this film, Tum Mile go straight home and watch Sholay themselves. Some lessons in screenplay writing and basic shot-taking wouldn't hurt. A story of former lovers who part acrimoniously, then suddenly come face-to-face one day when everything and everyone around them is falling apart in the torrential downpour, Tum Mile is intended as a poignant drama about how a life-changing event makes this couple realise that they've always loved each other. The problem is there's not enough drama in the screenplay to begin with. The first half of Tum Mile is spent setting up the relationship between Emraan and Soha, who play Akshay and Sanjana, a struggling artist and a successful journalist in Cape Town. Over the course of an hour we watch as they meet, fall in love, squabble, and ultimately part ways. The deluge, by the way, is yet to come. Post-intermission, the action shifts to Mumbai where the couple is reunited years after calling off their relationship. Wading through waist-deep waters, Akshay and Sanjana contemplate their failed romance. For the next hour or so they yak incessantly, boring you to death with their supposedly-profound realisations. Where's the action, you ask? Well, there's hardly any. You do get one good scene in which they're trapped in a dilapidated building whose wall crumbles against the force of water, compelling them to race in the opposite direction. Ripped straight out of James Cameron's Titanic, it's the only exciting scene in this tiresome film. Tum Mile suffers also on account of its uninspired leads, Emraan Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan who appear bored out of their wits going through their scenes. They fail to strike up any romantic chemistry whatsoever, and perform so monotonously, you can't be blamed for disconnecting from their supposed pain. The film's special effects are unimpressive, and the photography is uniformly flat. I also want to point out in particular how unflatteringly Soha Ali Khan has been photographed. The actress ought to sue the film's director and cinematographer for how carelessly they shoot her. Tum Mile has a hummable score, but it doesn't succeed on most other counts.You may survive the floods, but Emraan and Soha's irritating dialogues will most certainly kill you!

Vishesh Films, Kunal Deshmukh & Emraan Hashmi trio is back with another romantic movie written around a plot based on real life. After his successful directorial debut in "Jannat", this time Kunal tries his hands on a (so called) disaster movie depicting the unforgettable trauma faced by Mumbai on 26th July, 2005. The tough days which are still fresh in the mind of every Mumbaikar, saw Mumbai in a very unimaginable state with a flood like situation leading to huge physical and monetary losses everywhere in the city.

So obviously there were enormous expectations from the movie, coming from a director, who already had a well made realistic movie to his credit. Moreover, "Tum Mile" was also being projected as the first major attempt in the genre of "Disaster Movies" in Hindi Film Industry though its promotional campaign, TV Promos and Posters. But after watching it, you actually feel like cheated by its promoters because the film which was heavily advertised with the scenes depicting the Mumbai Floods, actually has only a few minutes talking about the disaster and too not in a very convincing way.

It starts nicely with a well written in-flight sequence, where both Emraan & Soha get to meet each other after many years and remember the good times spent together in flashbacks. The movie moves ahead following the same pattern of "Jannat" wherein first the romance is established between the lead couple and then the real plot is revealed after a few romantic numbers. But in "Tim Mile", Kunal stresses too much on the romance part and pays very less attention on the disaster element which actually should have been given the center stage. Till intermission the narration keeps moving into the past and present lives of the couple and along with that also tries to establish the base for the Flood sequences. But the excessive emphasis on the romance part fails to create the required curiosity level, which is a must for a disaster movie. The strong build-up leading towards the watery climax is simply missing.

Post interval, the viewer becomes desperate of watching the flood stuff and really wants to see how it is done in a Hindi movie, but he still has to wait till the end. The main over publicized rain scenes actually come only towards the climax and those too finish off too soon without making an impact with no worth seeing graphical creations as expected. In addition to this there is no account of any mass human suffering, pain or loss faced by the people due to that unexpected natural calamity. Though the flood sequences has been shot competitively in a street set which must have been a tough task for the whole team, but in the end it is too plain to make you feel for it.

Otherwise, the movie has a good romantic story going on with a few good scenes and dialogues coming at regular intervals. Both Emraan & Soha have given good performances as required by an intense love story. They emote and relate well on screen. But Emraan now has to move on to some completely different roles in his career. He looks like doing the different & improvised versions of his own lover boy characters from his previous movies. Soha on the other hand gives a mature performance as a true lover caught between the choice of her career and love. Mantra, as Emraan's friend makes a good impact throughout and Sachin Khedekar is hardly there for only one scene.

Hence, it all comes down to the wrong promotion of the movie, where it doesn't deliver what it promised. Also, the writing falters at many places which is clearly visible to the least interested viewer too. For instance, a person coming to check your Electronic Meter abroad in a pure Indian style, people moving out of a drowning bus leaving a small child alone, the child's mother is also shown out of the bus crying for help. The script also majorly fails to use the flood sequences resulting into the re-union of the lovers. After one hour, anyone can guess that the story will now end in the floods where Emraan would save Soha and they will both fall in love again. And that's where Kunal fails to make an impact this time. There is no surprise climax in "Tum Mile" which was incidentally one of the major attractions of his "Jannat".

Musically, the soundtrack again has some good songs from the ever consistent Pritam. Though not as compelling and rich in lyrics, as his other recent hits, but still they sound good while watching the movie. However as usual, not all songs were needed in the script, which also needed crispier editing. Cinematography, Graphics and Art direction is fine, but nothing path breaking. In fact it is nowhere close to the other epic disaster movie "2012" which also releases this Friday. So, if you want to see a real disaster movie with breathtaking sequences and magical graphics on the screen then the choice should be clear after reading this.

Rating : 2 / 5 (Blame it on the misguiding promotional campaign)

I am giving it 10 star just only because my favorite actor imraan hashmi and Song Dil ibaadat and God gifted voice KK🙂.