Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic

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

Kohli makes sure that 'Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic' appeals to children. It's got all the required elements: fantasy, fairy, fairy-tale story, kids etc. Adults may enjoy it with their kids but otherwise there's a lot about this film that needed improvement. Yet, it remains a tad better flick when compared to other Hindi films of this genre, such as 'Koi Mil Gaya' (ugh!).

At this point, I can't say that the story is a start-to-finish ripoff (even though it feels very familiar) but it's not very original either. Kohli takes a lot of ideas from films like 'The Sound of Music', 'Nanny McPhee', 'Mary Poppins', 'Rent A Kid' and even the TV-series 'Heroes'. The movie is a little too sugar-coated for my liking but then again, kids like this kind of stuff. Some of the characters suffer from poor writing and what was the point of the butler (Razak Khan in a different avatar)? Since when did Indian business tycoon's even have butlers? Even the love story between Ranbir and Geeta is rushed. Actually, at many points the story is downright ridiculous. I mean, what was with the judge forcing the kids to be raised by their parents's murderer Ranbir?

On the technical front, it scores low and this is where 'Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic' suffers. A fantasy film needs to create that fantasy feel but due to the poor special effects (it looks almost amateurish), ancient animation, unimpressive songs and flat cinematography fails to involve the viewer in its world. I wonder why the animation looked so old fashioned in this film when Kohli did a good job with it in his second film 'Hum Tum'. Considering that Yashraj productions was behind funding this film, one would have expected it to look better. Even in a lesser budgeted movie like 'Bhoothnath' the technical side is well taken care of.

Saif Ali Khan does an okay job with what he's given but the transformation in his character seems rushed, choppy and of course, very hard to believe. The director fails to show why he suddenly transforms from this cold unfriendly man to a caring guardian. Not only that, but he also teaches the children life lessons that he never applied those to himself. Perhaps we are to assume that he was initially trying to be kind to the children out of guilt. Amisha Patel seems to get typecast as the annoying bimbo (she played a similar role in last years 'Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd'). She fits the caricature well. The annoying Rishi Kapoor acts drunk. The child actors are the 'usual cute kids' you see in Yashraj films but these ones actually do try to act instead of just being cute. Now the magic of this film is clearly Rani Mukherjee. She plays the part as if it was written for her (perhaps it was). She acts her part very naturally providing excellent comic relief from the sappy moments but at the same time, the character is unidimensional.

The sad thing is that 'Thoda Pyaar Rhoda Magic' could have easily been a better film technically, given the financial resources of Yashraj productions (or perhaps they suffered a little too much from their last couple of flops?) and content-wise, had the story itself been a little more real without the excessive sugar and ridicule. You can watch it with kids in the hope that they'd laugh or watch it with adults who'll laugh for the wrong reasons.

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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.

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.