U Me Aur Hum

Ajay Devgan's directorial debut U, Me Aur Hum is quite interesting for its light and colourful background. But despite a promising combination of romance and drama, beautiful locations and two great actors who are perfect for their respective parts, it loses itself. It is lost within all the unnecessary jokes, the confusing flashbacks and the ever-changing sequences from present to past and vice-versa. It's a good story marred by unstable and average film-making. In the first half it heavily relies on comedy that does not really bring out great laughs. In the second, it is far more interesting but never really manages to remain consistent. The dialogues, the drama are uninspiring, as is the film. The film is generally watchable despite the weak script and has several great things about it. Kajol and Ajay Devgan, a real-life couple, give two good performances, and their chemistry is obviously good as it has always been. Ajay, in a different role, is cool, mature and convincing. Aactually, as a director, he does a relatively impressive debut as well, and he rightly makes his talented wife the centre of attention here. Yeh, and it is our Kajol, who is natural and compelling. I liked the entire concept of Alzheimer and predicted a typical emotionally temperamental film. Happily, it didn't go over-the-top. But sadly, I somehow lost it and didn't see the point of the film. Maybe I should re-watch it.

These days in Bollywood, handicap (whether mental or physical) seems to be the trend. Even the popular 'Om Shanti Om' parodies this. After 'Black', 'Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara', 'Fanaa', 'Taare Zameen Par', 'Naina' etc, we have 'U, Me Aur Hum' and the only film that stands out is 'Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara' followed by 'Taare Zameen Par' to an extent. So what's wrong with 'U, Me Aur Hum'? Well, there's too many wrongs in this one.

The screenplay is inconsistent, imbalanced and exaggerated. The writing is just so bad that some of the dialogues make one cringe. The Ajay-Piya before-marriage love story is both unconvincing and uninteresting thanks to the terrible writing. The scenes on the ship are boring. It does remind one of 'Mann' (a movie which I liked except for the ripoff part) but the Ajay-Kajol chemistry does not match up to what Aamir and Manisha had (in addition 'Mann' had some very good dialogues). Most of the jokes and 'one-liners' fail to make an impression. While in the post-interval portion when one would expect things to get better as the story takes a drastic turn, things are too exaggerated.

The camera-work is both overused and misused. Why were scenes being shot from a strange angle? The close-ups were irritating as they were pointlessly in-your-face. The CGI is terrible AND it is excessively overdone. The songs are forgettable. Most of them are better forgotten. The salsa sequence is terrible (the horrendous cinematography does not help here) and some of the backup dancers were laughable.

As a director Ajay Devgan fails to put it all together. He should have hired a better writer and written something better himself (since he's credited as writer). His film looks very messy. As an actor he's average. Watch Jim Broadbent in 'Iris' to see an amazing performance and compare that to Ajay's (both are similar roles). Kajol too gives an inconsistent performance which is overall average. It does not rank among her best. The supporting cast don't leave a mark. Isha Shervani is there to say a sentence or two and to remind us of how flexible she is. Divya Dutta hams in the beginning but is gradually okay.

Devgan may have had good intentions and in some scenes it is apparent that he really tried to do well. Acting and directing is a tough task and only few talented people manage to pull that off. Sadly that isn't the case for Mr. Devgan. And why is it that in most (if not all) Hindi films, healthcare institutes are shown as this cold indifferent lonely place? Yes, support from family and friends is important but sometimes people do need to be admitted to institutes where they can be taken better care of because what others provide is really not enough.

I was very disappointed by Raju Chacha (which was produced by Ajay Devgan) and I was hoping U ME AUR HUM will not go the same way.

And believe me I ended up enjoying the movie. Though I am not yet sure whether this a rip-off of some Hollywood movie, but was impressed with the cute love story, refreshing camera work, eye-catching colors, funny and enjoyable dialouges, good music (though it could have done with less songs) and last very very good acting by Ajay and Kajol.

After Amir Khan, its Ajay Devgan's turn to impress.

Strongly Recommended!!!

8.5/10

From the way this movie began, I had no idea where it was heading. There was a certain silliness in the opening, but its really a bait and switch situation. In fact, for some time, you are really baffled by what is going on. Ajay is telling a story, and from the way the story is visualized, you have a lot of reason to assume he is telling his own story, even though he doesn't present it that way. Until you get through most of the way into the story, you have no choice but to follow the story as if it is a parable or something.

Then comes the big crunch, the rainy scene where the whole mood completely changes. But still the story-teller keeps his hole card out of sight.

When the true nature of what is going on becomes evident, you realize the story is one of the most frightening anyone can imagine, and only then do you really appreciate the quality of the acting.

So, I think I've seen Ajay Devgan's best movies. And I'm pretty sure I've seen Kajol at her best. And I've liked every movie since their marriage, whether comical or serious, where they played the lead roles. But I'm pretty convinced this is, at least, Ajay's best. And somewhere near Kajol's best. I hope one or both gets at least a nomination in next year's award round.

All I had seen of this movie was a lot of promos and nothing much else. But I was rather surprised with the content of this movie and was very pleased to see one of my favourite actresses, Kajol, back on the screen.

Ajay goes on a cruise with a couple of friends where he meets Pia, a waitress and for him its love at first sight but for Pia, she follows her heart and watches Ajay, who is a Physchiatrist, make a fool of himself by getting drunk. The next day, she has the pleasure of handing him a massive bill to pay for. However, everything goes well and the two get married until one day, Pia tells Ajay that she can't remember much.

Starring Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Divya Dutta, Vishesh Didwani and Robin Bhatt, this is a good debut for the "Top Gun," Ajay Devgan for his directorial debut. He has done a good job of it and more so as he has highlighted a disease - Alzheimers, which is affecting countless people in this world. Not even the late President Ronald Regan, of the United States, where, as well as in the other countries, a lot of money has been spent on research, could be saved from this. Kajol's acting, and not just because she is one of my favourite actresses, is good, but because she has managed to carry her part extremely well. The romantic part, is not for Ajay Devgan. Its may be because I am use to watching him in action roles. But I felt it was not for him and may be it should have been handed over to the likes of Shah Rukh. And what was most annoying was the amount of times the character kept on saying: "You know..." I am sorry but if this was in an examination, the writer would have failed for repeating countless times - I lost count completely. In fact the last count I remember was 12.Also, the first half could have been shortened a bit and some scenes could have been edited as they were making the first half a bit dragging. There were moments, where I felt like going to sleep or doing something else.

U, Me Aur Hum is definitely a movie that is one of the best that have been released so far this year. The credit for a good directional debut is definitely for Ajay Devgan and this is a movie that is good to watch.