Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha

Pyaar to hona hi tha ("Love had to happen") is a well-done, very close remake of Lawrence Kasdan's French Kiss for an Indian audience. As such, it's an enjoyable, lightweight, fluffy, if inconsequential comedy which, despite its sometimes garish use of colours certainly has its moments and is at times even better than the original.

Ajay Devgan and Kajol share much better chemistry than Kevin Kline and Meg Ryan (they got married pretty soon afterwards). Devgan's thug is a lot slicker than Kline's, and his moustache is much superior. Meg Ryan played her character in a cute, whiny, bratty way, whereas Kajol is equally cute in a more wacky, goofy way. Jean Reno was pretty good as the police officer, but Om Puri is even better.

Whereas casting and character interplay are actually better in this remake, technically the American original is, of course, much superior. Some of the continuity problems and location inconsistencies are downright annoying. I also don't find the slapstick scenes (like the airplane scene) too funny, but thankfully there's only a few of them.

Overall a very enjoyable movie, especially if compared to the original.

I have been watching this movie continuously from the time it released, but never felt bored yet. So I will rate this movie as Perfect 10**********. Why so? Because personally I never found a single mistake in any part of the whole movie but only getting well entertained every time I watch it. We can consider this movie neither comedy, nor action, nor romantic; but ultimately a total combination of all these three ingredients. So far I found only two movies of Ajay favorite in romantic stories, first is this one and second Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Earlier Ajay was considered as an 'action star' but with this single movie he proved it wrong. Therefore surprisingly this movie made a good turning point in his career.

Right from the beginning to the end the story twists, scenes, camera angles, dialogues, facial expressions, body languages etc. were used perfectly under the direction of Anees Bazmee. I wonder for the work of Anees, how he made this superb movie after his previous big flop Hulchul of which also Ajay and Kajol were the main cast. I guess he improved better after realizing the weaknesses in Hulchul. In some parts I get deeply tired of laughing the hilarious scenes of Ajay, Kajol and Om Puri. Here Ajay did his best by trying to become a comedian rather than serious roles and he succeeded.

By now, this is up-to-date Ajay-Kajol's best paired movie. Though they acted together in several movies before and after this hit like Hulchul, Gundaraaj, Ishq, Dil Kya Kare and Raju Chacha those could not capture the heart of the audiences (except Ishq).

Unoriginal, unconvincing, messy, lacklustre - this film is all of these and more and watching it is really quite uninspiring. The film mostly rests on all the possible cliches of Hindi films and romantic films in general, and every coming move is easy to predict. Technically it is even worse, the subbing is very amateurish, with so many moments where the dialogue does not match the sound making viewers consistently conscious of this persistent flaw. The only saving grace in this film is Kajol - that too, in parts. She starts really well but grows on you as the story progresses. It is obviously not among her best anyway. The music is so-so, with only "Ajnabee" working for me. Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha doesn't work, it's copied, highly predictable, and just lacking in heart.

Kajol is the only face in this movie... Thought the movie is highly predictable and even contains some loose plots. But the charm of Kajol amused us. Yes there are some funny slap scenes in the starting where Kajol slaps Shekhar on the plane. Yet she entertains. Her comic appearance in most of the scenes is incredible. Though the original one differs, as in the original one Megh Ryan leaves her boy friend in a friendly manner. But in the Hindi version Kajol in great fury gives thunderous tight slaps to her ex when she gets him back from an another girl of his. Later on she unites with her real life lover. Great movie and Kajol rocks in everyone scene because it's the only movie where she dominates over the lovers.

Anees Bazmee is one of Bollywood's terrible directors. Unfortunately, his even remotely watchable movies are ripoffs. Such is the case with 'Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha' which pretty much replicates every single frame of the delightful romantic comedy 'French Kiss'. It's funny how Bazmee managed to make the Indian and Swiss landscape look like the ones in 'French Kiss's France. The Bollywoodish additions, such as the hostage sequence, the comedy and the dragged out ending are dreadfully cheesy and give the movie a B-grade quality.

Jatin Lalit's music is pleasant to the ears. Most of the songs are visualized well but some of the tunes are ripped off from American songs. The sad version of the title song is snooze inducing. The title song during the opening credits and the two Asha Bhosle-Udit Narayan tracks are the best of the lot.

Where performances are concerned, Ajay Devgan does a decent job. Kajol is superb in most of the movie. One particular scene that stood out to me was when, at Nisha's party, a tipsy Sanjana expresses her defeat to Shekhar with a sad smile and her eyes filling up with tears. She does tend to go a bit over the top with the quirkiness and comedy (unlike Meg Ryan who does it more naturally). Om Puri lacks the slickness that Jean Reno brought to the character. Kashmira Shah is wonderful.

The execution is quite amateurish as Bazmee merely copies Lawrence Kasdan's film. The editing is quite abysmal and what the hell was Bazmee thinking in including the atrocious action sequences? The cinematography in the song sequences is adequate.

That's about it. 'Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha' is just another lousy ripoff on a tall pile of Bollywood's unauthorized miserable remakes.