fantans

If the movie had finished 40 minutes earlier, I would give a rating of 9 for its stunning music & lyrics, original presentation and the brilliant performance of Anil Kapoor. Aishwarya also exhibited her decent (and evolving) acting talent as well as graceful dancing skills. Alas, all these attributes are ruthlessly ruined by the true-Indian-girl-goes-back-to-her-first-love stereotype. Should the storyline tilt audience's mood from one extreme of love to the other extreme of hate? What an arrogant, despicable cliche! The script writers are doomed for wasting great talents of veteran actors and the shinning beauty in the eyes of Aishwarya Rai.

Rating 2 of 10, 1 for the music and 1 for Anil Kapoor.

As most Bollywood movies, the plot in this one is not complicated and quite predictable. Nice & shy guy met pretty girl who fell in love with him, but he loved the other girl back home; after the 'girl friend' in his heart got married, guy went back to seek the love he missed... The problem is that hero changed his heart for another girl too 'naturally' after his unspoken love failed. True, someone's loss is someone's gain. Yet what a condescending "gain" for the poor girl who didn't get his love in the first place.

Most of the dancing scenes are imaginary and quite senseless.

Aishwarya Rai was good at playing such poignant role for sure, but she needs more colorful characters to enrich her performance experience.

Raja was the King of Kirana Bazar and the surrounding areas - His law was pay 'Hafta' and live peacefully. In case of defiance, Raja's muscled arms had enough strength to punish the culprit. On the other hand, there was Laxmi, a Tiffin Carrier girl, who not only defied Raja but condemned him publicly for squeezing the blood of poor and hard working people in the form of 'Hafta'. Raja couldn't do a bit against her - Because Raja was grateful to Laxmi's Dadu(grandpa), a cart-puller, who had sympathy for him before. It so happened - Dadu breathed his last while pulling the cart in scorching sun, and municipality squad demolished the 'Jhoopad Patti', where laxmi was living - making her homeless. In the night, when Laxmi was sleeping on Dadu's cart, Kallu, a local gunda, tried to molest her. Raja reached the spot in time, rescued Laxmi and forced her to live in his house.

Bastiwala branched Laxmi as Raja's keep. And Raja was ashamed of himself so much that he silently vowed to provide happiness to Laxmi by turning into a working man. The process of reciprocation of feeling started. Raja and Laxmi became the darlings of Bastiwalas. They proposed them to get married - And then came in Professor - for whom Laxmi was working as a maid servant once - with the proposal of marrying her. Raja faced the dilemma of giving Laxmi happiness...

Due to its age, the plot is simple, setting rather shoddy, and the makeup outdated, but both the leading actor and actress showed subtle depth with the development of characters. 3/10 for the script, 8/10 for the performance.