Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai

This is the first Bollywood film I'm giving my "5 out of 10" rating. I usually reserve that for "So bad it's good" films. Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai is no exception. Although it's clearly a comedy at times, it's just as often funny when it's not supposed to be--both the comedy and the serious bits are frequently ridiculous. That makes it a lot of fun to watch, but it's not exactly a good film.

The plot, in a nutshell (a nutshell is really all there is to it), features Karan (Tusshar Kapoor) trying to find and court Pooja Saxena (Kareena Kapoor--she and Tusshar are not related as far as I know; they at least do not seem to be closely related). Karan happened to see Pooja from a distance and instantly fell in love with her. They keep having close encounters, but something always interrupts, and in a typical Bollywood move, Karan never musters the courage to initiate anything other than polite, casual conversation. Karan lives in a moderately sized Indian town. Pooja is from the States, visiting relatives to do research on "Indian culture", and trying to get accepted into Harvard. Karan is much less scholarly. He has a cadre of relatively goofy friends, they have a band, and we learn that he can fight unbelievably well.

The idea of the plot isn't horrible, even if it is simplistic. Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai is basically a series of misadventures. The problems with the plot arise in the way director Satish Kaushik and writers Rumi Jaffrey and Karunakar handle it. For the first half-hour, they're basically just treading water. Kareena Kapoor doesn't appear until the 35-minute mark. We have a fifth of a typically overlong film just to introduce characters, in absence of any real story. Further, because of the simplicity and the necessity of increasing the severity of the misadventures, and also related to length, we have a film that peaks at least 40 minutes before it is over. Like too many Bollywood films, this story would have played much better if kept to 90 minutes. On the positive side, the ending is refreshingly unusual. Kaushik and crew avoid simply resorting to clichés.

But there are bigger problems with Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai than the plot. Kareena Kapoor, although more than pleasant to look at, consistently comes across as if she thinks she's doing a shampoo commercial rather than a dramatic film. She constantly "glamour mugs" in an exaggerated way, and she's regularly flipping and bouncing her hair around (her first scene, where she's bouncing up and down and showing off her decorated hands, is particularly funny for its absurdity). This was one of her earlier films, so maybe the ridiculous and ill-suited overacting is more excusable, but that makes it no less unintentionally funny to watch. Admittedly, her acting has improved rapidly. She didn't seem so out of place in Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003), although on the other hand, that film is absurdly cartoonish at times.

Tusshar Kapoor comes across as the better actor here, even though this was his first film. But as decent as he is, Kaushik and crew have him and the rest of the cast doing ridiculous things. The bits that are supposed to be comic--like Karan's daydreaming leading to him using his friend as a guitar--are okay for their ridiculousness. To be funny, there has to be something "out of place", roughly. But a number of scenes that are supposed to be climactically dramatic--such as an attempted rescue from a cliff, or Karan's proposed and actual birthday presents to Pooja, end up being just as funny.

Kaushik also stages a couple absurd fight scenes, with random "striking" sound effects that reminded me of the hilarious fight scenes in Mudda (2003). For my tastes, there was also an overabundance of songs, which featured way too much "look how young and hip we are" mugging, some very fake musicianship from our stars (doesn't any member of an Indian film crew know how to set up a drumset?), and some very "flamboyant" dancing and posing from some of the male back-up dancers. Of course, the typical travelogue cinematography accompanies most of the love songs. Much of the Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai was filmed in New Zealand, and Kaushik does a good job of exploiting the setting, even if that means prominent appearances of businesses such as McDonald's and Burger King. No one involved with this film is reluctant to show their immersion in popular western youth culture, even though it usually comes across as more goofy (and occasionally behind the times--just check out the preppy shoulder sweater) than anything else. The first scene is in a disco, with a crowd dancing to "Who let the Dogs Out", before Balram Singh (Amrish Puri) begins his constant utterances of "very good, very very good", as he has a group of girls "rate" boys he parades across the stage. That gives you a good taste of what is in store for the length of the film.

If you do not speak Hindi, you're in for a bit of an extra challenge with Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai, as much of the dialogue moves by very quickly, resulting in subtitles that disappear quicker than you can read them. There are more lines than usual that remain untranslated, and for some reason, they just didn't bother to translate the lyrics to the songs at all.

If you're in the mood for some silly humor, both intentional and unintentional, this is worth a watch. You'll laugh at the film as often as you laugh with it. Just don't use this film to introduce any of your friends to Bollywood.

This is the debut movie of Jeetendra's son Tusshar Kapoor. It is a light hearted family movie with plenty of romance and comedy. It tells the simple story of a Boy who falls in love with a girl, but is not sure how to express his love. Its a 2 in a half hour movie, about him trying to show his love, but still manages to entertain. Tusshar Kapoor delivers a Good performance, not bad at all for a debut. His next bunch of films sucked at the box office. Kareena Kapoor was quite good believe it or Not. Amrish Puri was amazingly funny in a great performance. Satish Kaushik makes a great movie that you can enjoy. Overall, this is worth the watch, give the movie a chance, You may like it.

MUJHE KUCH KEHNA HAI was the first film of Tusshar plus it was actually Kareena's first hit

The movie is a typical love story where the guy proposes only in the end but it's well handled and tusshar's character is shown very boy next door which works

His scenes with his father(Dalip Tahil) and Tauji(Amrish in a delightful role) are well handled the love story is well treated though they are some additional scenes like the prolonged first half and also the forced action scene between Tusshar and Yashpal

Even the end is a bit implausible and looks too sudden but yet the film has nice moments like the entire track where Kareena is saved by Tusshar, even your heart does go for Tusshar

Direction by Satish Kaushik is good thakfully not overboard with drama Music is good Camera-work is decent

Tusshar looks the boy next door but a problem with him is his too laidback and his expressions are too babyish at many places but however Satish directs him well, and he does well in emotions and comedy but his screen presence is always a problem and also his dial delivery Kareena is decent however she tends to overdo her role many times yet she is simple compared to her crap poo roles Amrish is wonderful, i like to see him in such roles rather then the bordering on comic villainy roles he did many times though he excelled in many villainous roles yet he did some crap ones In this film he is superb in comedy and steals the show and he has always been a delight in comedy Dalip Tahil is okay Himani Shivpuri is alright Rinki khanna is too loud

Watched Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai 2-3 times on Star Pravah channel & watched it on Disney+Hotstar also. Seriously, movie was really nice and Tusshar's character is all about a one-sided lover who wants to win Pooja's heart & decides to propose her & rest is the history you"all must know. Don't believe on ratings, a movie which deserves 7.4/10 now has 4.7/10 idk why, Well Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai is as good as Kaho Na Pyaar Hai. Overall the songs are too good especially KK's Pyar Re & MKKH title track.

Boy meets girl...he falls instantly for her...he struggles to find a way to enter her heart...dramatic twists...and eventually they end up together. Isn't this a typical Hindi film plot outline? You bet.

But to be honest, MKKH is a pretty decent film. This was my first ever Hindi film I think, and I fell in love with it on the first screening. Seeing it again, I see the negative points too, but there is no doubt it is a good movie.

I thought Tusshar Kapoor does an impressive job for his first film. He and Kareena have a great chemistry. I admit, Kareena is good too, these were the days when she was all innocent and pretty. I liked her in this movie, and I like her in these types of roles. I am not that big a fan of her new stuff.

The music is really nice. Very melodious and catchy, and each song is well crafted. I enjoyed it.

Its as cheesy as hell, but enjoyable