I recently wrote an article for Influx Magazine about my love for Indian films. However, if I'd started with "Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai", I doubt if I would have wanted to watch another Bollywood film. I find this strange, as the film was HUGELY popular and won a ton of awards-- including the IIFA awards for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director among others. Why did I dislike the film so much? Well, it's simply plastered from start to finish with clichés--and was sloppily written. Now I know that formula films are popular in India and the film was wildly successful, but this sort of film simply wouldn't do so well in the States because of the writing. I can think of many Indian films I liked much more--such as "Kahaani" and "Three Idiots"--films which were more original and lacked the strong formulaic qualities of "Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai".
Hrithik Roshan (the director's son) and Kareena Kapoor both star in this film--and both went from being unknowns to mega-stars because of this movie. Rohit (Roshan) is a poor but exceptionally handsome singer who sees a woman, Sonia (Kapoor), in the next car. He's smitten and it's love at first sight (cliche #1). Later, they meet and they instantly hit it off. Now, considering how much they are interested in each other, how would you expect Sonia to behave? Yep...she's irritable, nasty and pushes him away constantly for no discernible reason (cliche #2).
Later they get marooned on an island and, surprise, surprise, they argue and fight but later come to fall for each other (cliche #3). They return home and plan on getting married--when disaster strikes and they cannot yet get married (cliche #4). And, in the interim, she travels to New Zealand and meets a man who is the exact double for Rohit (cliche #5).
More clichés exist in this film....but you get the picture. The bottom line is that I hate it when plots seem contrived and formulaic--and this film clearly is both. Now it's not all bad--the stars gave nice performances when they weren't behaving stupidly. Plus, if you are looking for eye candy, both stars are quite beautiful. Roshan in particular is just pretty...not necessarily rugged--just very, very pretty. And, although the songs sounded tinnier than more recent Indian films, they were catchy. The bottom line is that I do not understand the reasons for this film's amazing success.
Hrithik Roshan (the director's son) and Kareena Kapoor both star in this film--and both went from being unknowns to mega-stars because of this movie. Rohit (Roshan) is a poor but exceptionally handsome singer who sees a woman, Sonia (Kapoor), in the next car. He's smitten and it's love at first sight (cliche #1). Later, they meet and they instantly hit it off. Now, considering how much they are interested in each other, how would you expect Sonia to behave? Yep...she's irritable, nasty and pushes him away constantly for no discernible reason (cliche #2).
Later they get marooned on an island and, surprise, surprise, they argue and fight but later come to fall for each other (cliche #3). They return home and plan on getting married--when disaster strikes and they cannot yet get married (cliche #4). And, in the interim, she travels to New Zealand and meets a man who is the exact double for Rohit (cliche #5).
More clichés exist in this film....but you get the picture. The bottom line is that I hate it when plots seem contrived and formulaic--and this film clearly is both. Now it's not all bad--the stars gave nice performances when they weren't behaving stupidly. Plus, if you are looking for eye candy, both stars are quite beautiful. Roshan in particular is just pretty...not necessarily rugged--just very, very pretty. And, although the songs sounded tinnier than more recent Indian films, they were catchy. The bottom line is that I do not understand the reasons for this film's amazing success.