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Salaam-e-Ishq : Movie Review
26th Jan 2007 20.30 IST
By Aparajita Ghosh

It is hard to cram six different love stories in a single movie. Nikhil Advani does it, but with relative success.

Salaam-e-Ishq works only in patches. The film is technically topnotch and its plot keeps flitting from one storyline to another in a free-flowing way. And Nikhil Advani (the director) blends drama with humour and romance to try to come up with a wholesome entertainer. While humour in the film works, drama doesn’t. The second half desperately tries to bring a tear to your eye, but in vain.

This 3-hour-45 minute ‘Tribute To Love’ starts off quite grippingly. One after the other, the twelve characters are introduced. And the characters are colourful. There is a young married couple deeply in love with each other. There is a taxi driver who waits everyday for his dreamgirl, an gori mem, at the airport. There are two lovers with broken engagement. There is an item girl who would do anything to get a role into a Karan Johar film. There is a middle-aged man with unfulfilled desires. And there is a newly wed couple unable to consummate their marriage.

In this huge ensemble, ‘Salaam-e-Ishq’ gets tangled in the second half. Of the six love stories only three manage to make an impact. The others more-or-less remain bland.

Here is a brief look at the six different tracks:

Ashutosh and Tehzeeb ( John Abraham and Vidya Balan ): His father was adamantly against him marrying a Muslim girl. But Ashutosh married Tehzeeb because he loved her, and still does. Things take a grave turn when Tehzeeb is badly injured in a train accident and loses her memory.

Shiven and Gia ( Akshaye Khanna and Ayesha Takia ): He is always late when it comes to meeting Gia. An impulsive Shiven gets engaged to his girlfriend, only to have second thoughts about marriage. He doesn’t want to get tied down. And when he somehow manages to break off the engagement, he has second thoughts again. Now he realizes what he has lost.

Raju Taxiwala and Stephenie ( Govinda and Shannon Esrechowitz ): Raju, a taxi driver, passes his days with the hope that one day his dream girl would walk out of the airport door and straight into his heart. That day does come when Stephanie arrives from New York. But she comes to search for her boyfriend who is about to marry “an Indian girl”.

Kkamini and Rahul ( Priyanka Chopra and Salman Khan ): Kkamini is an item girl eager to change her image to get a role in a Karan Johar movie. She wants to be known as a “tragedy queen”. So she hatches up a fictitious story about an imaginary boyfriend named Rahul. But to her surprise, Rahul (in flesh and blood) walks into her life and claims to be her boyfriend.

Vinay and Seema ( Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla ): Fifteen years after his marriage to Seema, Vinay finds his married life too monotonous and gets attracted to a beautiful, sensuous young woman. But his extra-marital fling is soon exposed to his loving wife.

Ramdayal and Phoolvati ( Sohail Khan and Isha Koppikar ): Ramdayal, a farmer from Haryana, is so eager to spend suhaag raat with his newly wed bride that he always ends up doing something wrong. One comic blunder follows another and their marriage remains unconsummated.

Out of these six tracks, the stories featuring Akshaye Khanna and Govinda are the most entertaining. While Akshaye is simply superb in playing an eccentric, commitment phobic lover, Govinda brings the house down with his trademark humour. Sohail Khan, too, is very funny. But his track with Isha Koppikar is relegated to the background for most part of the film.

The Salman-Priyanka track is bland and boring. It is a story without any head or toe. And to make things worse, both Salman and Priyanka have acted poorly. Salman’s performance is utterly superficial. Priyanka’s is mechanical.

The Anil Kapoor-Juhi Chawla track works solely because of performances. On the other hand, the track featuring John and Vidya lacks any depth. It merely ends up as the story of a man trying to revive the lost memory of his wife. Vidya is natural in her performance while John leaves much to be desired.

South African actress Stephanie is brilliant. She brings out a whole gamut of emotions in her character. The same goes for Ayesha Takia.

‘Salaam-e-Ishq’ could have been a much better film had it not got heavy and tiresome in the second half. Despite too many tear-jerking moments, there are hardly one or two scenes that genuinely stir your emotions. All the drama simply fails to make any impact.

Of the six stories, four meet together at a big fat Indian wedding in the end. Thankfully, there is some humour in the climax to send the audiences back home with a smile on their faces.

Watch it for Akshaye and Govinda.

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Salaam-e-Ishq
Nikhil Advani
John Abraham
Vidya Balan
Akshaye Khanna
Ayesha Takia
Govinda
Shannon Esrechowitz
Priyanka Chopra
Salman Khan
Anil Kapoor
Juhi Chawla
Sohail Khan
Isha Koppikar