Yaadein...

Let's look at why I feel that "Yaadein" is a nice, entertaining movie (and justifies a score much higher than the 4.5/10 awarded to it:

1. The songs are really terrific.

2. Everyone has acted quite well when compared to the acting levels that one generally sees in Hindi cinema.

3. The story is credible.

4. The director is very well known.

So why has this movie got such a low score?

My personal belief is that Hindi movies get wild, inconsistent ratings from fans who have not thought the matter sufficiently through. How else can one justify a rating of 9.2/10 for "Dil Chahta Hai" and just 6.0/10 for "Asoka"? Is "Dil Chahta Hai" a better movie than, say, "Shawshank Redemption" which was rated 9.0/10?

"Dil Chata Hai" is good. But 9.2/10? I don't think so. And does "Asoka" deserve the low rating of 6.0/10? I don't think so.

It appears that very few people rate Hindi movies compared to the numbers of reviews that English movies get (45 people rated "Yaadein"; 75,837 people rates "Shawshank Redemption"). This causes distortion in the average especially when the "swing" (as seen in the case of "Yaddein") is so large.

I belive that "Yaadein" should be rated 6.0/10. It's a nice entertaining movie and not the sinking ship that it has been likened to.

See it and decide for yourself.

At the outset, I must warn you that I am biased. About two months ago, I bought a large number of Mukta Arts shares assuming that if Yaadein became a hit, market sentiment would drive up the price and get me decent returns. As a result, I was desperate to see the film on the first day of its release - but try as I may I could not get tickets; not even scalper's tickets (or black tickets as we call them).

I finally managed to see the film the week after, two days ago; again I could not get tickets the regular way, but eventually managed to get extras at Cine Planet, the new swanky theatre complex at Sion. Despite the film having received bad reviews, people are still queueing up to see the film, possibly I suspect, to see how bad the film really is.

What was Subhash Ghai even thinking of! Pardes and Taal were tolerable, the former because of Shahrukh and the latter because of the music and Anil Kapoor. Both also had crisp editing and lush looks. But Hrithik is no Shahrukh; at least currently, he does not have the ability to rise above the role. Kareena is still very raw. Jackie Shroff, who surprisingly is the pivot around which the movie revolves, just can't act. The editing is clumsy, the rest of the supporting acts are average to worse, the cinematography is at places terrible, the dialogues make no sense, the story is patchy, the music is no great shakes...I could just go on.

And what is the story? Jackie Shroff is a middle-class restauranteur (with a swimming pool) living in England, a father of three daughters, who loses his wife (Rati Agnihotri, probably the only saving grace of the movie) in a shoot-out. They then move to India, because the only thing he wants to do, is to get his daughters married, which he does pretty fast, especially as far as his first two daughters (forgettable faces) are concerned. Hrithik is a foster son of his, who eventually falls in love with Kareena. Due to a crazy set of circumstances, they can't actually get together, but eventually in a silly, contrived ending, they do.

The audience reaction at Cine Planet was interesting. Everyone was just waiting for the next embarrassing moment, wondering how much worse the film would actually get. The cringing feeling was similar to the one I had while watching Toofan and Jadugar wondering whether Amitabh had lost his brains. And the use of brand placement for advertising is a joke. Coke as cokemohabbat.com and Pass-Pass (a mouth-freshener) are blatantly thrust upon the audience. I don't think I'll be having Pass-Pass for some time to come, considering that it will immediately remind me of Yaadein.

Subhash Ghai has gone or record saying that his target market is the foreign market where people pay 7-10$ for a ticket and he does not really care for the guy paying 10 rupees in a small town in Bihar. Which may make economic sense (though I doubt it)...but doesn't the movie still have to be good? Or is it that the desi crowd abroad is so film-starved that it will lap up anything thrust upon it? I wonder...on Friday, the Mukta Arts stock actually went up by 10%, because of market news that the film is a hit abroad, in the UK and US. If the desis abroad think this film is worth seeing, they are welcome to it; and if that helps me make up my current 30% loss in the stock, all the better!

Subhash ghai attempts to make a love story which falls flat on its face. This is probably one of those movies which really test your perseverance..(of staying in the hall). I am yet to leave a movie in the middle but if there is one movie which could have broken my unblemished record, yaadein has to be it. The movie is a story of a father trying to become a dost of his three grown-up daughters who have been brought up in London. Now obviously, the father is Indian to the core and there are enough dialogues in the movie about sanskriti etc.

The father(played by Jackie shroff) wobbles between the two extreme views about mohabbat(whether it is good or bad) and there are a lot of sub-plots none of which is allowed to develop. The romance between Hrithik and kareena is pathetic with all the usual fundas thrown in(viz saving the heroine, puppy love etc). Hrithik may have a great following but (this is my personal opinion only)he has yet to show any subtelty in his acting. He tries very hard to show his love which translates to shouting and making faces (a.l.a shahrukh) instead of letting his eyes do the talking. There are twists:) like rich boy-poor girl, love is good/bad, another girl, a dead sweetheart always dressed in white, sacrifice to show gratitude etc which are just ghai's attempts to borrow from the breed of directors who are adept at making love-stories. Ovreall, a forgettable movie.

I was disappointed by this movie because of its heavy recycling of the same old plot with new speeches. From the trailers it looked like it would be a good movie, but like other reviewers at IMDB I feel that this movie was an utter disappointment. The only thing that might save the movie are the cinematography, songs and the music, and _maybe_ the acting of Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor. By the way, this review was sponsored by Coca Cola (sorry, I just couldn't resist ;-) )

Yaadien was one of the most anticipated films of 2001 in India, because not only was it a big film, but it was a film directed by showman Subhash Ghai, at the time considered the finest filmmaker in Hindi Cinema, it was also a film with chartbuster music, it was also a movie featuring two talented promising young actors/actresses Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor, and it was a movie also starring veteran actor Jackie Shroff. But this movie bombed critically and commercially BIG TIME, I tell you why.......

This movie. I have to say from the film cover, looked pretty promising. I felt this movie will be golden, and it starred Hrithik Roshan, one of the best actors of Hindi Cinema, and my favorite actor, so I watched this movie, and man was I disappointed. Fifteen minutes into this movie, I felt forwarding it, because it was such a slow movie. It was very boring and dull until the song title song Yaadien, but pretty much after that it was downhill.

I have to say this is one terrible written movie, its stereotypical, clichéd.......you get the picture, very typical. The direction was LAME, i mean come on, a man who directed Pardes and Taal, directs this bore crap. This film's biggest flaw was its direction. Second acting, unlike the screenplay and direction, acting was better. Hrithik is a talented performer, thats why he was a able to pull of this undeveloped character, but he was unconsistent and offbeat, because of the bland and lame screenplay and direction. Kareena Kapoor, who back then was known to be a very over expressive actress, did a wonderful job, in this movie. Hrithik and Kareena's chemistry set the screen on fire. Jackie did an alright job. And as far of the rest of the cast, they acted well according to their characters.

I have to say, the actors tried really hard and it shows, What saves the movie from becoming a total disaster, are the musical numbers. Watch it only if you are a Kareena or Hrithik fan, DO NOT WATCH IT, THINKING ITS A SUBASH GHAI MOVIE, by the way, after this movie, Mr. Subash Ghai entered a career slump, and pretty much his career was over. Thankyou!