Aa Ab Laut Chalen

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.

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'.

After reading some reviews, I decided to give this one a shot. Complete waste of time and some of the scenes were typical bollywood crap. Akshaye Khanna and Aishwarya are great actors. I've seen them in Taal, and they were so great. But this movie just had no story built in. Only thing watchable was Jaspal Bhatti and Kader Khan. Aishwarya did her part well and so did Akshaye Khanna. But there was no story. Too many stereotypes. Travelling for 18 hours in a suit and tie?? Give me a break. Some things were really immature. Please don't even bother with this movie. I don't always trust IMDb ratings, and some of the movies that have had low ratings here did turn out to be good. But this one was an utter drag. See beautiful movies like Yahaan, Taal, Raincoat. Sorry, Rishi - other than the Raj Kapoor's old music from SANGAM, there was nothing memorable in this. 5/10

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..

The movie as a whole was the standard fare with the story-line being as predictable as most India movies. I feel Akshaye Khanna's talent is being wasted by doing these kind of movies. He needs more intense role to prove to the audience that he can act and he not just there for his looks. Take for example the role in BORDER. That really was a demanding role as compared to the other run-of the-mill movies he is doing presently. I wish him all the best for the future.