Un pizzico d'amore e di magia

This should have been a pleasant family film. Unfortunately, some adult content including bikini clad babes preclude it from being suitable for young children, while adults will be bored by the tedious storytelling and listless acting. Both Amisha Patel and Saif Ali Khan phone in their performances. Rani makes a game effort and is indeed watchable. The kids are decent, but a tad too polished in their dialog delivery. Some of their emotions felt plastic. The film drags on and on including an unnecessary sojourn to the America. Watchable for kids and bored adults with nothing else to do.

Overall 4/10

The last film from Yashraj, "Tashan," had sent shivers down my spine and made me think that this company had finally run out of good ideas – result was that it was a massive flop. But with this one, I have managed to regain some faith in the films that Yashraj is now releasing.

The country's top industrialist and loner (not his will as he loses everyone he loves), causes a car accident in which parents of four children are killed. At the end of the hearing, the judge, instead of sentencing the industrialist, orders him to take care of the dead couple's children. However, the four children have other plans in mind.

Directed and written by the "Hum Tum" director, Kunal Kohli, the movie stars Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Amisha Patel and Rishi Kapoor and is produced by Aditya Chopra.

The story, though well written and directed, does have echoes of Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins," which starred Julie Andrews in a similar but not quite the same, role as the one portrayed by Rani Mukherjee. There are chances that she will probably receive an award for this role, if not then, she is in a very good position for a nominee. Saif, on the other hand, has also handled his role very well. But I must say that it was a change to see Rishi Kapoor in a complete different role.

Conclusion: A good family entertainer that can be watched with kids.

Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic is similar to films like Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke and Marry Poppins. The film basically offers nothing new unless you didn't watch these two films you could go ahead and give Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic a try.

After films like Hum Tum and Fanaa, it was quite disappointing from Kunal Kohli to come up with an ordinary product. Although he manages to extract good performances from the child artistes, he could've come up with a better storyline since its nothing new.

The songs are just about average; Lazy Lamhe stands out amongst the rest of the songs and the music video is well-shot, although too sensual for a kids film.

Saif Ali Khan is good and fits the part perfectly. Rani Mukerji is cute as the angel, but her role is not very demanding. Ameesha Patel is remarkable as the airhead bimbo. She looks sizzling in Lazy Lamhe. Rishi Kapoor is good, but his role is not very demanding, again, for an actor of his seniority. The child artistes are excellent, especially Rachit Sidana.

All in all, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic mainly belongs to the four kids. A decent entertainer! Kids will probably love it.

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When I happened upon "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic" at my local library, knowing nothing else about this film beforehand, the DVD presentation caught my eye as a good bet for an undemanding evening's entertainment: a simple light-hearted nanny story along lines of "Mary Poppins" or "The Sound of Music", presented by a solid star cast (Rani Mukherjee, Saif Ali Khan, Amisha Patel) whose work elsewhere I have much enjoyed.

How could such a project -- with so many good things going for it -- go so terribly wrong?

"Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic", however, disappoints in every way.

The script/dialogues were so stale and hackneyed the writer should be shot at dawn.

The director (Kunal Kohli) was asleep at the switch. Or so obsessed with packaging a 'commercial' project from tired formulae that he disregarded any concern with sense or quality.

['Commercialism' didn't work. The film lost money bigtime, anyway.]

Casting? The four children (who looked completely unalike) cast in the key roles as the four orphans at the heart of the story have to be THE least engaging, THE least talented, even THE least 'likeable' child actors I've seen in any movie for many years ... such completely unappealing, even outright repulsive children, that while watching this movie I found myself actually thinking the dead parents had had a lucky escape!

Rishi Kapoor's cameo appearance as God -- and a strangely ineffectual god at that, whether large or small "G" -- was a complete throwaway, underwritten and charmless.

What bothered me about this film most of all, I think, was the fundamental 'meanness of spirit' that pervaded the whole movie ... a meanness, even open maliciousness, that felt especially out of place given the genre and context.

Even music by the normally gifted Shankar Ehsaan Loy couldn't save this turkey.

"2" rather than "1" (IMDb's lowest possible rating) purely to credit actors Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Amisha Patel, and Sharat Saxena for their brave efforts, through individual performance, to try bringing anything useful whatsoever out of their poorly conceived and badly written characters in this hopelessly failed story.