Once there was Kajra Re, now make way for Sajnaji vaari vaari. This heartily sung and joyously choreographed song is enough of paisa vasool in Honeymoon Travels and is bound to get the nation on its toes. Here dance is not just about matching step for step or moving in perfect synchronisation but just about enjoying the beat and the rhythm. And Kay Kay at its centre moves so fantastically that all my misgivings about him getting trapped into ‘intense’ roles came pleasantly undone.
Despite its obvious flaws, Kagti’s debut film is good fun and very enjoyable. It teases and tickles you into smiling. Like Salaam-E-Ishq it’s about six different set of characters—six couples who get into a bus for a honeymoon to Goa. However, unlike S-E-I it keeps their stories short and sweet, doesn’t get convoluted and boring. The tales are inventively strung together with a radio voiceover and each of them has an old Hindi song underlining the romance. Essentially, the film is not about stories at all but offers quirky vignettes of people who are coincidentally caught together. The regional, cultural eccentricities are brought out nicely—naughty but not offensive. It also helps that the actors are in fine form, specially Ranvir Shorey as the conned Gujju husband, Raima Sen as the spunky Bengali gal who prefers to learn martial arts instead of Rabindra Sangeet and Kay Kay as her oily-haired husband. Even an actress with limited range, Amisha Patel, gets perfectly cast as the irritating, talkative and airy Punju bride Pinky. The most tongue-in-cheek turn is to have the "perfect" couple, coordinated right down to their shirts, trace their roots back to the superheroes or else how can you not quarrel in 16 years of knowing each other? And the most wonderful scene is that of the sari-clad Raima skydiving on the beach. I could feel her liberation.
The end does get preachy and the two ‘gay’ tracks don’t find a neat resolution. But so is it in life. Like Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Khosla Ka Ghosla last year, I won’t be surprised if this small film proves to be 2007’s first sleeper hit.
High Fives
Bollywood
1. Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd
2. Eklavya
3. Guru
4. Vivah
5. Black Friday
Hollywood
1. Ghost Rider
2. The Number 23
3. Bridge to Terabithia
4. Reno 911!: Miami
5. Norbit
Country
1. Taking the Long Way (Dixie Chicks)
2. Some Hearts (Carrie Underwood)
3. Me and My Gang (Rascal Flatts)
4. Love, Pain... (Keith Urban)
5. If You’re Going Through Hell (R. Atkins)
Courtesy: Film Information
