I have been hearing these songs in everywhere during 1995-2002, and are great presents from composer duo Nadeem-Shravan who were once the ruler of romantic melodies in Bollywood. Now they are no more, and the taste of the audiences changed with new generations. I used to think this movie will be just like usual 90's style stereotypical Bollywood movies. But it seems to be little better than these, and surprisingly I liked a bit.
Ayub Khan plays as Vijay, a very honest cadet in Indian Military Academy, Dehradun or IMA who falls in love with a local young girl named Sami (no idea of her real name). Her strict mothers, who has a very tragedy history associated with IMA, and therefore doesn't trust anyone to give her daughter's hand. Besides them, there is also a local gang leader who is also crazy for Sami, and fortunately his corrupted Superintendent father favours him. On the other side, Vijay who lost his both parents in the very childhood, meets new parents to Major Rahim Khan (Kabir Bedi) and his 'begum'. The most crucial incident happens when a new young girl Kavita arrives in the town who happens to be daughter of Saeed Jaffrey. The story takes a new twist turn and makes it complicated. To know more, better you watch it at least once.
I personally liked the movie, and I really didn't expect much. But there are some very unique romantic dialogues from the three main characters – Vijay, Sami and Kavita who did their own possibilities to perform their best. Without any doubt, it is clear that this is the most interesting offer Ayub Khan received in his whole career. Other movies where he played lead role were not as effective as his role and performances in Salaami. The story writer tried to create a clear understanding between romance and military duty by emphasizing on Indian Military Academy, and it is reflected in the role of Vijay and Major Rahim Khan who continuously admire the military system. And there are several scenes involving cadets' training. These show patriotic aspects of India.
The songs were very popular in every music systems, marriage parties or crowd places during its time. The reason was nothing but heart touching romantic songs from Nadeem-Shravan. But it is boring in some way how the songs are frequently presented in the movie, which were not required. This makes the movie so long and bored to watch. It could be easily avoided. Finally, there are some dialogues from Vijay which he delivers with his broken heart, that give some reliefs for love failure people or who lost in the game of love. So, if anyone wish to see a good old romantic movie from Bollywood I would like to recommend you Salaami.
