Ishq

Ishq is an excellent film. No wonder why it was one of the biggest blockbusters of 1997 along with Dil To Pagal Hai.

This film has everything working in its favour. A superb cast, awesome music, good storyline and zany humour.

Ishq is the story of four lovers: Ajay (Ajay Devgan), Raja (Aamir Khan), Madhu (Juhi Chawla) and Kajal (Kajol). Ajay and Madhu are the offsprings of wealthy industrialists, Ranjit Rai (Sadashiv Amrapurkar) and Harbanslal (Dalip Tahil) while Raja and Kajal are poor. Ajay and Kajal fall for each other while Raja and Madhu take a rough route before giving their hearts to each other.

The twist in the story comes in the forms of the wealthy fathers who want their children married off to rich spouses. So together, they create a scheme to separate the love birds and then get their children (Ajay and Madhu) to marry each other.

But love always wins and that is the crux of the film.

I liked the casting in this movie. The four actors share a great chemistry with each other and not once do you feel that they are uncomfortable with each other.

Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla provide some light moments in the film and their antics are worth watching. Ajay Devgan and Kajol are likable as the brooding, intense lovers.

Anu Malik had an excellent timing with the music. 'Neend churayee meri' and 'Mr. lova lova' being my favorites in this film. The other songs are also good.

Overall, Ishq is a must watch! It made me miss me the golden era of the 1990s so badly.

This movie has comedy, romance, drama, action, etc. All in all a complete Masala movie. But that doesn't mean its a great movie.

Thesecond half is almost unbearable. A complete flashback to the early 90s movies. Opposing family, drama, violence etc.

The first half was funny and very good. The actors were close to perfect. Aamir and Juhi set the screen on fire with their chemistry. Kajol was her usual self.

Juhi has a flair for comedy as does Aamir. Ajay was good too.

Bottom line, regular Bollywood viewers will enjoy. May be a bit too much for others.

I guess that most Bollywood movies will strike western viewers as somewhat quirky in terms of storytelling structure and acting, but compared to other Bollywood movies I've seen so far, this one seems to be an exceptionally quirky one.

The story is fairly simple: rich boy (Ajay Devgan) and poor boy (Aamir Khan) are best friends, rich girl (Juhi Chawla) and poor girl (Kajol) are best friends. Rich boy falls in love with poor girl, poor boy falls in love with rich girl, and the two rich fathers will do anything to destroy the two budding relationships.

That's basically it. There is no real plot; instead there's a sequence of scenes where the two fathers devise a dirty scheme, which is promptly thwarted by the young lovers. On to another scheme, which again is not successful. The next dirty plan follows, which... you get the idea.

Still, the evil schemes become increasingly more devious, and their consequences more severe as the film progresses; along with this progression, the film makes its way through all genres that you can imagine: it starts out as a fairly silly slapstick comedy, turns into romantic comedy, then into romance, then into thriller and finally into a tragic melodrama. At one point, there's even a horror scene thrown in for good measure.

Plot holes and illogical character behaviour aplenty, but that's what you expect of any Bollywood movie, more or less.

As for the acting, well, don't expect stellar performances. Most of the supporting cast are somewhat annoying, especially in the slapstick scenes, although Johny Lever for once plays a fairly non-silly, likeable character.

The lead actors give solid performances, particularly Kajol and Aamir Khan, who manage to be funny (without overdoing it) in the comedy bits and believably serious/emotional (without overdoing it) in the tragic parts. Ajay Devgan has great onscreen chemistry with Kajol (they aren't married for no reason, it seems), but overall his character has a serious depth deficit and is just too gullible. Juhi Chawla is very pretty and good fun to watch, and it is her very energetic performance that drives the movie along much of the time. However, she is mostly really more of a pleasant diversion than a full-fledged character.

The music by Anu Malik has no real highlights and, like the film, probes its way around several genres. My personal favourite is 'Dekho Dekho Jaanam', a compellingly cute, slightly silly Kajol/Devgan love duet (sung by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik). 'Ishq Hua Kaise Hua', the corresponding Chawla/Khan duet (Udit Narayan/Vibha Sharma) is more romantic, much less successful, but comes at least complete with lots of Swiss Alps. The disco-inspired songs are, alas, not very inspired.

Overall, this is a 3-hour tour de force, an all-in-one package of all emotions and film genres that you can imagine; not really the best of Bollywood, but still fairly enjoyable. Not sure whether it's worth the trip to the cinema, but rent the DVD and watch this if you are in a quirky mood or if you have friends over for an Indian dinner.

'Ishq' is a wacky, off-the-wall, illogical romantic-comedy-cum-drama. It stands out purely because of the awesome cast assembled by Indra Kumar. Substitute any other actors in their parts and the film loses its appeal- substantially. Aamir Khan leads the cast with great gusto and charm typical of his naughtier-than-naughty streetsmart roles. Ajay Devgan provides a somber balance to Khan's antics, and he comes in strong in the second half when things go awry between the bosom foursome. Kajol is competent in her part, never really exciting to watch but gratefully present- her character is one of the plot points of the film. It is Juhi Chawla, however, who steals the show with her high voltage comic delivery that is, appropriately, screamingly funny. Even in the parts when Indra Kumar has seemingly asked her to 'stretch' to be funny, she carries the scenes off with aplomb and skill. Her chemistry with Aamir is undeniable and the most memorable portions of the film revolve around their I-Hate-You-But-I-Love-You relationship. It's kinda sad to say but there really is no other comic beauty in India currently. Juhi Chawla was, for the time being at least, the last.

The film is one of the best films of all time.All the characters steal the show.But the most beautiful comes when the ladies have a good bonding and handle each other. As brothers Aamir and Ajay are perfect.The scene when Aamir tries to escape the other is hilarious. The fights b/w Kajol and Aamir is also funny. The plot gets serious and Kajol is supported by Aamir as a best friend. There is plot and it is beautifully executed with super songs. The climax is expected but the change in the fathers minds is surprising. There is a friendship b/w each other and is also good because of the background scores. Each character get equal role in each segment. Overall a wonderful creation that makes us watch every time we see it.