(2004)
3.5
Josh Ralske
Critics may call Hum Tum a rip-off of When Harry Met Sally, forgetting perhaps how much that film owed to Woody Allen's work. Buoyed by charming performances and a surprisingly mature romantic story line, Kunal Kohli's film overcomes minor deficiencies in its score to succeed as a fine Bollywood musical. While the addition of cutesy animated sequences breaks up the flow of the movie, without adding much insight, these segments do offer insight into the work and mindset of the cartoonist, Karan (Saif Ali Khan), the film's male lead. The musical numbers are fairly lackluster by Bollywood standards, and the addition of a few pseudo hip-hop catch phrases and rapping, increasingly common in these films, doesn't help. Still, the numbers are generally well conceived, at least, on a visual level. A musical sequence before Rhea's (Rani Mukherjee) wedding is frothy fun, and the London-set "Chak De," with its background chorus of Brit kids, has a bouncy appeal. There are a few clever in-jokes that longtime Bollywood fans will appreciate. For example, Rishi Kapoor, who plays Karan's playboy photographer dad, starred in Bobby, the film from which Kiron Kher's character (Rhea's traditional mom) takes her nickname. Kher and Kapoor deliver wonderfully warm and comic supporting turns. Saif Ali Khan, who looks kind of like an Indian Gael García Bernal, balances comedy and drama with unusual subtlety and grace, while Mukherjee, with a sexy rasp in her voice, makes an engaging romantic foil and expertly conveys Rhea's growing maturity over the course of the film. That maturity is matched by the film's relative emotional honesty. While it's sweetly romantic, Hum Tum gratifyingly avoids melodrama. All the major characters are essentially likeable and believable, and the hero doesn't even get beaten up.
Hum Tum on AllMovie
Hum Tum (2004)
