Hearty laughs are only few and far between in this pre-marital, romantic comedy directed by Satish Kaushik.
Undoubtedly, the storyline and the basic plot of 'Shaadi Se Pehle' is quite interesting, although not original. The movie seems inspired from Amol Palekar's 1979 movie 'Meri Biwi Ki Shaadi'.
To put it simply, the movie tells the story of a man who mistakenly believes that his living days are numbered and therefore he tries to make his girlfriend hate him so that she can settle down with someone else without having to go through the pain of his death.
A story like this provides ample scope for hilarity and wit. But what 'Shaadi Se Pehle' serves is a series of clichéd situations marked mostly by average, non-functional humour. There are indeed some funny moments in the movie, but they are outweighed by overtly deliberate attempts to make the audience laugh.
Akshaye Khanna plays Aashish, a poor man in love with a rich girl Rani (Ayesha Takia). Aashish suffers from hypertension. Any situation of slightest tension leaves him with frayed nerves. Aashish's love for Rani is not approved by her parents who think he is far beneath their daughter to match her as a husband.
The story begins to roll when Aashish mistakenly starts believing that he has cancer after overhearing his doctor's conversation on the phone.
Suddenly the hypochondriac in Aashish comes to the fore. Resigning himself to his fate, Aashish decides he would not let Rani bereave over his death. He loves her too much to bring her any kind of pain.
So he decides that he will make her hate him. And for this he begins to flirt with Sania (Mallika Sherawat).
Sania is an uninhibited girl who is all over Aashish at the slightest provocation. She is also the doted one of her elder brother Anna (Sunil Shetty), a belligerent goon who can't bear to see any wish of his sister unfulfilled.
Aashish's gameplan works and Rani begins to hate him. She agrees to marriage with Rohit (Aftab Shivdasani), Aashish's friend who has always harbored a crush for Rani.
Just in the nick of time before Rani's engagement, Aashish comes to know that he doesn't suffer from cancer. Now he has to undo what he has done.
Will he be able to get out of the mess he has created for himself? Will Sania, who has now grown strong affection for Aashish, let him go?
On paper, 'Shaadi Se Pehle' sounds like one potential roller coaster. But on celluloid, it turns out to be nothing more than just an average entertainer. This owing particularly to the movie's script that is riddled with hackneyed humour. The movie's dialogues lack the witty punch and freshness. Even the songs (by Himesh Reshammiya), save for a few, fail to keep the proceedings engaging.
The few funny situations in the movie inevitably involve Akshaye Khanna - be it his interaction with Rani's parents, or his confiding to his friend (Rajpal Yadav) about his illness, or his scenes with his doctor, Boman Irani. Akshaye definitely shows a flair for humour. Alas, had he had a script hilarious enough.
Ayesha Takia plays a textbook goody-goody girlfriend of the hero. She merely ends up looking bubbly and shows a bit of histrionic in the second half.
Mallika Sherawat does what she is good at. She sizzles, shows her skin and keeps drooling on the hero.
Aftab Shivdasani stays mostly on the sidelines. Sunil Shetty and Boman Irani hardly make any impact, while Rajpal Yadav is irritating at times.
To sum it up, 'Shaadi Se Pehle' is just a timepass entertainer.
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