Pyaar Impossible!

First, this is a warm feel good movie much like pictures of kittens and puppies. If that is not your cup of tea, then skip it. The story of the geek winning over the girl has been done before, but the humor in this movie makes it a winner. Abhay's (Uday Chopra) social awkwardness is a winner here and Alisha's (Priyanka Chopra) roll as a sexy socialite oblivious to Abhay's geek world is perfect. The antics Uday goes through to win her and her monster daughter over is funny and the turn in the end is sweet and awesome. Some of the humor is dumb (including the bad wig on Anupam Kher's head), but fits right in. The music is catchy and keeps you taping your feet. There is a small underlying story of being able to see the world differently from another point of view and it is well done (Priyanka makes a hot geek!). Some of the dialog is a little boring and almost seems like the actors are ad-libbing some lines at times, but it is saved by the humor in the story. I will watch this again and again and is one of my favorites. A perfect family film for all ages.

I recently got into bollywood movies with my first helping 'Bodyguard' which I found to be a very sweet comedy and Salman Khan as definitely come of age. When I saw Priyanka Chopra in an interview I was particularly enamored by her presence and beauty. It's no wonder she was previously a coveted winner of Miss World back in 2000. However, acting is a whole different story and Mrs. Aishwarya Rai also a former 1994 Miss World winner has proved that beauty pageants can also make it into acting.

Having been in the movie industry for a number of years now, Priyanka Chopra has again proved to the critics that she is a very capable actress and shows her versatility in this movie. She plays a very motivated young woman who was always looking for thrills and spills and falls for the wrong person, the product of which is a single mum with a young daughter. Come on the heels of Priyanka is a an unassuming, mild mannered geek who has quietly been in love with her from college days. One day through fate they meet up again in life and the story uncoils around their unexpected relationship.

I am a bit puzzled by the low rating this movie has received since I thought it was very entertaining. One thing I need to add is that you cannot watch Bollywood movies with any 'seriousness'. The story is always usually fantastic and unbelievable but thats what gives it some magic as all the movie fans consisting of over half the world will testify. If you really want to judge movies on technical merit, film worthiness, realism etc. then we have many of the western movies for that, but for pure light-hearted entertainment, then you cannot go wrong with this one.

There are many reasons why I had opted to watch this film. First off, it's Uday Chopra, an actor whom I confess only having watch his comical sidekick roles in the Dhoom movies, so I was curious whether he can carry a film off on his own as a leading man. The answer is of course yes, as he plays the geek Abhay right down to the pat, a man who had been infatuated with the hottest girl in school for seven years, always afraid to open his mouth and talk to her, given an opportunity to do so when in pursuit of a software thief, he travels to Singapore and serendipity dictates he will bump into his infatuation, and even more incredibly get to work as her precocious, feisty daughter's nanny. Not to mention too that this story and dialogues are credited under Uday himself, so one wonders where he had drawn his inspiration from, whether he had actually pined for someone like his character did in the film.

Second, the other lead in actress Priyanka Chopra. There are plenty of naysayers to her credibility as an actress, but from what I watched last year from Fashion right down to Ashutosh Gowariker's What's Your Rashee (missed Kaminey!), she had shown her versatility and wide range, which the brickbrats would still like to point out in the latter film, was nothing more than a change of clothes and hairstyles, which I totally disagree. Her performance here as Alisha, the single, divorced mother and Abhay's girl of his dreams, would once again become a showcase of her ability, despite yet again looking great in the various outfits which would raise an eyebrow whether it's appropriate corporate office attire (and overheard from another audience member too that her outfits wouldn't pass). That aside, I would think that this "mum" role is probably her first (unless someone can point out to me that I'm wrong please?)

And one of the key reasons, is how Singapore gets portrayed in another Bollywood film, after the comedy De Dana Dan last year, which didn't really move around much other than for one of the song sequences and being stuck mostly within the confines of the Pan Pacific Hotel. Then there was Krrish which also starred Priyanka Chopra, making this at least her 2nd film foray to our sunny island. In this film, Singapore's good enough to become that substitute for California's beaches thanks to Sentosa, and I always get a good laugh out of how our cabbies get unwittingly portrayed as dishonest cheats who take tourists for a ride around expressways and the city area no thanks to the juxtaposition of scenes involving recognizable roads and landmarks. Or that this travel scene would become one of those sponsored tourism campaign videos.

While identification of landmarks use adds to the fun, such as the UOB skyscraper doubling up as the HQ of Pinnacle Software, and various shots in Challenger, Clarke and Robertson Quay areas, what I found more interesting is how, so far, there's rarely a depiction of HDB apartments in movies shot here by Bollywood. Everyone's pretty loaded in their ability to afford a swanky condo (at the Kallang Bay area, given the view out of their windows) in Krrish's case, or landed property in this one, that cost a few million dollars at the very least. So while local films tend to depict the accommodation here using what some 80% of the locals live in, films from abroad may, perhaps due to non-familiarity, opt to go by the more conventional (sometimes unrealistic) route of the "house" concept.

In any case, Pyaar Impossible is about the improbable love between a beauty and a geek, and Uday Chopra's story is rather straightforward, revenge of the nerd type, which somehow works fine as a magical fantasy romantic story that's kept simple and effective, without much fuss. There are essentially three story arcs, one which is the unattainable love that Abhay seeks, the second being Abhay as The Nanny / Butler / Confidant to Alisha's household, and the third giving cause for Abhay to visit Singapore, in search of the swindler Sidhu/Varun (Dino Morea).

With its catchy tunes and song and dance routine, it hit the nail on the head when the theme song succinctly dealt with the notion of how superficial it actually is when we talk about attraction, but always fail to admit so. In that respect, Pyaar Impossible laid its cards out on the table honestly even though it had to succumb to formula, and I'd pick this romantic comedy over any Hollywood one any day.

Story is quite a simple one and obvious. Time pass kind off.

This film is one of the few in recent years which is beginning to demonstrate Indian films are evolving beyond stereotype boy-girl romantic film.

I was totally amazed by the story-line, acting by Priyanka, Udhay and especially the little girl who was just mind-blowing in the film.

I was little puzzled by Priyanka's skimpy outfit in the movie, which I think considering how beautiful she looks didn't necessarily need to wear such short clothes :o) But this doesn't take away fact the film was awesomely executed and was so natural.

The unique idea Geeky Udhay had in his role of a multi-operating system was amazing. I have, in general, found Udhay Chopra a poor actor but this film changed my opinion about him by 360-degres. If I am correct he wrote this film then he did an amazing job as a writer.

A truly entertaining film.