Quando torna l'amore

"I think so (sic) it's destiny," groans our hero caught in a love jam that throttles him from both ends. Indeed, we think so too.

Akshay Kumar's films are becoming classier by the month. There's a certain restrain in his presence here. The way he conveys the pain and hurt of an impossible love, is quite surprising for an actor who until recently was counted among the wooden.

Director Raj Kanwar's recent efforts to polish up his act have yielded tepid results. Dhai Akshar Prem Ke and the box office hit Andaz were louder than the lyrical aspirations of their creator.

Kanwar gets it more right this time. The theme of 'love versus obligation' is nothing new to our cinema. Then redemptive hope lies in the treatment. And we aren't let down completely in the way the jukebox- symphony moves forward.

There's a certain elegance in the movement of the mix 'n' match love story. Aditya (Akshay) and Jiya (Katrina) engaged to marry the wrong life partners must move towards that inevitable mutual embrace at the end when the scrambled game of musical chairs finally ends.

In between there are several musical pieces choreographed with an eye-catching élan. One of them filmed in a commodious banquet even has yesteryears' cabaret queen Helen breaking into a sassy jig.

Such moments are well-knitted into the tale of star-crossed love.

Though the film suffers for Raj Kanwar's trademark humbug (superfluous loud Punjabi characters grooving garishly to Bhangra-pop beats, crude gay jokes between Akshay and Mohan Joshi, co-incidences peeking out of an otherwise-smooth narrative ) there's a touch of self-conscious suaveness in the storytelling that goes a long way in keeping the central romance from collapsing under the weight of self-importance.

The initial encounters between Aditya and Jia are deftly visualized. Vikas Shivraman's camera frames the good-looking pair with arresting valentinian vibrancy.

The dialogues, you feel, could've gone easy on the rhetorics. Often-times you feel the lovers, fighting off their respective engagements to court true love, are reading their lines out of an invisible prompter.

But Akshay Kumar-Katrina look terrific together. Akshay's controlled performance spotlights the character's virtuosity in the midst of luscious temptation.

Watch him in that almost wordless moment when his screen-friend Vivek Shouq (in a hideous blow-dyed hairstyle) confesses he was behind the lovers' break-up…Akshay gives a clenched interpretation to a role that doesn't allow him to 'do' much on screen.

Katrina is passably competent in a tailor-made role, giving a mild emotional spin to a couple of scenes. But her inadequacies surface when pitched against Shernaz Patel (in a deplorably minuscule part) or even against Bipasha Basu who, in the brief role of Akshay's ambitious fiancée, brings a fleeting finesse to her under-written part.

But pray, what's Anil Kapoor doing playing Katrina's arrogant self-important fiancé? From the start you know this couple is doomed.

Don't look for surprises in this smooth-and-shiny romance. …Or originality. Bits and pieces from various Hindi and Hollywood creations surface intermittently.

But the queasy limit is the climax where Katrina is stuck upside down in a hit-and-run car. The whole sequence is lifted from this year's Oscar winner Crash..

That's some quick thinking.

this film is bollywood's classic love melodrama. in terms of plot it offers nothing new or interesting.

but what is does offer is the fresh pairing of akshay & katrina, one of the positives of the film. director raj kanwar is famous for such melodramatic films and HDKG is no exception. there are many songs in the movie, and they keep irritating. the dialogues are okay, the technical features such as editing and cinematography are okay too, nothing brilliant. this is the type of film females will enjoy more as opposed to males.family audiences will be more suited to this film than others. the music is allover average, Fanaa is a great track and the title song is passable

hdkg gets a mediocre rating more because of the fact that it offers nothing new, rather than the film being bad. i suppose, when you see too much of something, you start looking at it in a bad light??

now to the performances. i have always maintained that akshay has the potential to be the amongst the top. he tries hard in hdkg, and succeeds. it is a restrained performance, another feather in his cap and makes the fact more prominent that hes amongst the best superstars today. katrina is a revelation. she looks great and acts well. a pity that her dialogues are still being dubbed! the rest of the cast are OK.

in the end, the film is bad but isn't good either. watch it if you're an akshay/katrina fans or if love dramas is your cup of tea!

I am a bit surprised that I didn't come across any reviews mentioning how similar this movie is to "Notting Hill" from Hollywood. Honestly, it feels like they've taken the script and scenes from the movie without much thought. On a brighter note, Akshay's acting was on point, and Katrina looked stunning as always. All things considered, I'd give it a 6.

"Humko Deewana Kar Gaye" is a quintessential romance movie directed by Raj Kanwar which showcases the ever evolving Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar. Fans as well as those who have never seen his films before will doubtless enjoy his charismatic performance. He shows sensitivity and strength in his portrayal of Aditya, a man who finds himself more and more captivated by the fragile and determined Jia portrayed by the beautiful Katrina Kaif. The problem is that both of them are engaged to be married to someone else.

Shot on location in Calgary, Canada, the feel of the movie is very Western in many ways with a good amount of English dialogue sprinkled here and there. The music and dances perfectly compliment the budding love story and incorporate both Western and Indian dance. The colorful supporting cast starting with Aditya's fiancée, Sonia (the alluring Bipasha Basu) make the story more realistic by adding a familial dimension to it.

The movie asks an important question. Will family traditions be honored or will love prevail? The answer to that question is to be found in this gem of a Bollywood movie which will show us that love is what truly connects us all.

Love (that is, male-female love) is one of the most interesting topics of all the discussions especially when the discussing people are young. Love is also one of the most popular themes for works of fiction, may it be stories or novels or plays or movies. Indian society has seldom been liberal enough to accept love and choosing of own life partner on the part of the young generation. Still love stories have been the most popular ones in Indian movies. Perhaps half of the movies made in different languages of India are having male-female love only as the theme. Why when the Indian society has always considered love as something not desirable and the youths have always been expected to follow the dictates of their elders in matrimonial matters ? Because what's tabooed only attracts the most. It contains a fascination, the fascination of a forbidden fruit. And when adolescence dawns on human-beings, barring exceptions, who does not feel an attraction towards the opposite sex ? Social restrictions can check and affect concrete actions but not the feelings in hearts.

But then what's love ? Attraction motivated by (indirect and hidden) carnal needs ? Liking for someone ? Infatuation for someone ? Or something else ? How do we come to know that we are in love with someone special ? How does it dawn on a female that she is in love with a particular male or on a male that he is in love with a particular female ? Well, it dawns through a feeling. A feeling in one's heart which finally envelops his / her whole personality and pervades all his / her thoughts. Yes, love is a feeling and that's why it can't be described or elaborated, it can only be sensed.

Bollywood film director Raj Kanwar has directed some good movies. He has a mixed track record consisting of some hits and some flops. Humko Deewaana Kar Gaye (2006) is a flop movie directed by him. However when I saw this movie, I found it to be a fairly good movie - a love story which underscores a very significant fact that I have asserted supra - 'Love is a feeling'. You know it when you feel it. This feeling only is the biggest and in fact, the only evidence of existence of love for someone in your heart.

Humko Deewaana Kar Gaye (left me crazy) is the love story of Aaditya (Akshay Kumar) and Jia (Katrina Kaif) who run into each other in Canada. On one hand, Aaditya is already engaged to Sonia (Bipasha Basu), on the other, Jia is the betrothed of Karan (Anil Kapoor). Love blossoms in their hearts with a feeling that they are comfortable in each other's company, they love to be in each other's company and they want each other's company for their lifetime. Through his association with Jia, Aaditya comes to understand that he is not meant for Sonia and Jia only can fill the vacuum in his life. On the other side, Jia understands through Aaditya that love is nothing but a feeling and that feeling she has developed for Aaditya and not Karan.

The twist in the tale arrives through a mistake by Aaditya's drunkard friend Nawaab (Vivek Shauq) making some tragic facts of Jia's personal life public which, in turn, leaves her heartbroken and misunderstanding Aaditya for that. Jia gets married to Karan and then only she comes to know that Aaditya is innocent regarding this bad taste giving incident happened with her. But it's too late now. However the story gets a final twist in the climax to have a happy ending for the lovers (and the other ones associated with them too).

Except for the melodramatic and unimpressive climax of the story, Humko Deewaana Kar Gaye is overall a good movie which touches the audience, especially the romantic hearts, at many places. The romance of the lead pair in Canada is lovely with the beautiful surroundings adding immensely to it. The sequence of the lead pair moving together in a cold, snowy night is not only very romantic but also very emotional. Life, in the real sense, is only a collection of moments. And there are certain moments that we cherish forever. The romantic moments spent in the association of the sweetheart are such moments only. During them only the feeling of love is felt with utmost intensity.

The scene in which Aaditya refers to the wife (Upasana Singh) of his friend Gurpreet (Gurpreet Ghuggi) in a derogatory way and thus generating a wrong notion in his friend's heart for his wife's past leading to a rift between the husband and the wife plus the following scene in which Aaditya only takes corrective action for the unintentional wrong done by him and reunites the couple, are highly touching and underscore the significance of mutual trust in marital life.

The movie contains ample comic and relief moments too. The comedy done by Late Vivek Shauq, Gurpreet Ghuggi and child artist Master Abhay Kanwar alongwith Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif generates abundant laughs for the audience. There is a lot of fun and entertainment in the movie before the principal twist in the story thereafter it becomes heavy with sentiments.

Technically the movie is admirable. Canada appears to be very beautiful on the screen. There is only one action scene in the movie (in the climax) and that's been executed very well. Editing is good but should have been tighter to reduce the length of the movie. Background score is good. Dialogs contain the essence of the movie.

Humko Deewaana Kar Gaye is by no means any extra-ordinary movie. It's a routine love story whose direction is also more or less routine only. However, by default perhaps, it strikes the romantic hearts in a latent way and finds a quality within itself.