(**Some Spoilers**)
I think Nikhil Advani tried to be too clever with this one, and it backfired on him. He did everything right with Kal Ho Naa Ho, unfortunately this one does not live up to the standard he left. I have to say I expected a lot more from this movie, being a Kal Ho Naa Ho lover, I thought this would be of the same level, unfortunately not.
Salaam-e-Ishq is a poor Love Actually ripoff. Love Actually isn't the best film ever made I admit, but it is better than this and it isn't a friggin' 3 and a half hours long! And Love Actually had EIGHT couples/story lines, and managed to be much shorter than Salaam-e-Ishq, whereas Salaam-e-Ishq has SIX couples/story lines, and is SO much longer. Then again, trust Bollywood to add in like a million song and dance sequences.
The stories: Tehzeeb and Ashutosh (Vidya Balan, John Abraham) are a young couple in love and cannot keep their hands off each other, when Tehzeeb loses her memory, she forgets him and their love, and Ashutosh must get it back. Vinay (Anil Kapoor) and Seema (Juhi Chawla) who have been married for a long time. They live in London, have 2 children, and a large house. However Vinay is not content with this and his relationship with his family breaks when he gets involved with a much younger woman named Anjali. Shiven (Akshaye Khanna) and Seema's sister Gia (Ayesha Takia) are engaged, but Shiven has a commitment phobia and gets cold feet very easily. Gia loves him deeply but when she realises his cold feet she leaves him. And Shiven has to get her back somehow. Kkamini (Priyanka Chopra) is an item girl in the Film Industry but craves to be a full-blown heroine, unfortunately the media won't take her seriously and neither will film directors. Kkamini creates a phony lover named Rahul to push her into the media spotlight, but when a Rahul (Salman Khan) comes along she is forced to go with it and her lie becomes a reality. Raju (played by Govinda) is a taxi driver with big dreams of love. He believes one day his blonde, blue-eyed dream girl will step through the airport doors and into his taxi. One day it happens, but not in the way he expects. Sohail Khan and Ishaa Koppikar make small appearances every now and then as Couple Six, who want to spice up their personal life.
The performances seemed very forced, and I was not impressed. Juhi Chawla, was the only one who acted in the whole film. She was practically screaming "I am the only decent performer" throughout the whole 3 and a half hours, and I wish she had been given a bigger part. She was so wasted. Anil Kapoor, her on screen husband didn't impress me. He was so wooden and did nothing but look stoned in his scenes, which was meant to be 'love'. He also fell in love with a young girl who I found extremely unattractive, and the scenes with Juhi and Anil's kids was seriously exaggerated. But I liked the Juhi-Anil story best and found it the story which was the most real.
Priyanka Chopra looked strangely gorgeous, but her storyline with Salman was utter rubbish. Since when do publicity stunts come true? Their plot was a load of b.s and the performances of both of them were just as bad. They had the worst storyline but the most screen time in the movie, I wonder why (hint hint, director was scared of Salman)
Another story that was very well done was the Gia-Shiven story. Akshaye Khanna is a really good actor. I haven't seen many of his films but I saw Dil Chahta Hai and I loved him in it, and he was just as good here. He was in a very Chandler-Bing-from-Friends mode, but he did it well and his on screen chemistry with Ayesha Takia is memorable. They didn't have too much time together but I really liked their story.
Vidya Balan and John Abraham's try on Tehzeeb and Ashutosh was cute but not perfect. Vidya played her part well but John did not seem to match up to her. Not only did he seem very fake all through the movie but his performance was really over-the-top. He needed to tone it down a little and be more natural.
Govinda was extremely good as Raju but I didn't like his partner Shannon Esrechowitz. Her attempt to speak Hindi was an a poor attempt to be like Alice Patten from Rang De Basanti. On the other hand she had a good chemistry with Govinda and some of their scenes together are the most memorable in the film. Ishaa Koppikar and Sohail Khan just embarrassed themselves throughout and made me cringe every time they came on screen. Since when people get intimate like that I do not know. Thank God their parts weren't big or I would have been extremely irritated.
Salaam-e-Ishq is commercially successful but there is barely any substance. This would have been a great film if it had been executed correctly.
I think Nikhil Advani tried to be too clever with this one, and it backfired on him. He did everything right with Kal Ho Naa Ho, unfortunately this one does not live up to the standard he left. I have to say I expected a lot more from this movie, being a Kal Ho Naa Ho lover, I thought this would be of the same level, unfortunately not.
Salaam-e-Ishq is a poor Love Actually ripoff. Love Actually isn't the best film ever made I admit, but it is better than this and it isn't a friggin' 3 and a half hours long! And Love Actually had EIGHT couples/story lines, and managed to be much shorter than Salaam-e-Ishq, whereas Salaam-e-Ishq has SIX couples/story lines, and is SO much longer. Then again, trust Bollywood to add in like a million song and dance sequences.
The stories: Tehzeeb and Ashutosh (Vidya Balan, John Abraham) are a young couple in love and cannot keep their hands off each other, when Tehzeeb loses her memory, she forgets him and their love, and Ashutosh must get it back. Vinay (Anil Kapoor) and Seema (Juhi Chawla) who have been married for a long time. They live in London, have 2 children, and a large house. However Vinay is not content with this and his relationship with his family breaks when he gets involved with a much younger woman named Anjali. Shiven (Akshaye Khanna) and Seema's sister Gia (Ayesha Takia) are engaged, but Shiven has a commitment phobia and gets cold feet very easily. Gia loves him deeply but when she realises his cold feet she leaves him. And Shiven has to get her back somehow. Kkamini (Priyanka Chopra) is an item girl in the Film Industry but craves to be a full-blown heroine, unfortunately the media won't take her seriously and neither will film directors. Kkamini creates a phony lover named Rahul to push her into the media spotlight, but when a Rahul (Salman Khan) comes along she is forced to go with it and her lie becomes a reality. Raju (played by Govinda) is a taxi driver with big dreams of love. He believes one day his blonde, blue-eyed dream girl will step through the airport doors and into his taxi. One day it happens, but not in the way he expects. Sohail Khan and Ishaa Koppikar make small appearances every now and then as Couple Six, who want to spice up their personal life.
The performances seemed very forced, and I was not impressed. Juhi Chawla, was the only one who acted in the whole film. She was practically screaming "I am the only decent performer" throughout the whole 3 and a half hours, and I wish she had been given a bigger part. She was so wasted. Anil Kapoor, her on screen husband didn't impress me. He was so wooden and did nothing but look stoned in his scenes, which was meant to be 'love'. He also fell in love with a young girl who I found extremely unattractive, and the scenes with Juhi and Anil's kids was seriously exaggerated. But I liked the Juhi-Anil story best and found it the story which was the most real.
Priyanka Chopra looked strangely gorgeous, but her storyline with Salman was utter rubbish. Since when do publicity stunts come true? Their plot was a load of b.s and the performances of both of them were just as bad. They had the worst storyline but the most screen time in the movie, I wonder why (hint hint, director was scared of Salman)
Another story that was very well done was the Gia-Shiven story. Akshaye Khanna is a really good actor. I haven't seen many of his films but I saw Dil Chahta Hai and I loved him in it, and he was just as good here. He was in a very Chandler-Bing-from-Friends mode, but he did it well and his on screen chemistry with Ayesha Takia is memorable. They didn't have too much time together but I really liked their story.
Vidya Balan and John Abraham's try on Tehzeeb and Ashutosh was cute but not perfect. Vidya played her part well but John did not seem to match up to her. Not only did he seem very fake all through the movie but his performance was really over-the-top. He needed to tone it down a little and be more natural.
Govinda was extremely good as Raju but I didn't like his partner Shannon Esrechowitz. Her attempt to speak Hindi was an a poor attempt to be like Alice Patten from Rang De Basanti. On the other hand she had a good chemistry with Govinda and some of their scenes together are the most memorable in the film. Ishaa Koppikar and Sohail Khan just embarrassed themselves throughout and made me cringe every time they came on screen. Since when people get intimate like that I do not know. Thank God their parts weren't big or I would have been extremely irritated.
Salaam-e-Ishq is commercially successful but there is barely any substance. This would have been a great film if it had been executed correctly.