Well, I hope title itself have given you an idea about what’s inside the review. Couldn’t agree more with Taran Adarsh from IndiaFM - Salman is too fake, and Priyanka Hams during special premiere of the movie yesterday. Nikhil definitely faltered this time due to bad story telling and worst editing - three and half hours excluding commercial breaks. Out of six stories running in parallel, only John-Vidya track seems to be completely justified, while remaining five are not at all well defined at the script level itself.

Too many cooks spoil the broth.

The expectations were definitely sky high for the movie Salaam-E-Ishq. Be its huge star cast, its music or due to its lavish sets, it is one of the biggest release of 2007. All film pundits were keenly anticipating this movie because it is first film for Nikhil Advani (Kal Ho Na Ho fame) after splitting out with Karan Johar. Loosely inspired from Hollywood flick - Love Actually, S-E-I tells six different love stories, but unlike RGV’s Darna Mana Hai these stories are inter-linked. Romantic musical have always been Bollywood’s forte, but to handle six different love stories beholding twelve different characters is a tough job and Nikhil falters here. Due course of story progression, he is not able to do justice to all.

Cast: Salman, Priyanka, John, Vidya, Akshaye, Ayesha, Anil, Juhi, Anjali, Govinda, Esha, Sohail
Rating:

As written in extended preview six love stories unfold as follows.

The first love story revolves around a eloped Muslim girl & a Hindu Boy - John & Vidya (Ashutosh & Tehzeeb). The blossoming love between them looks like a fairy tale until one day Tehzeeb meets an accident and loses her memory. Thereafter story deals with trials and tribulations that Ashutosh faces to bring his love back. Good narration in the first half, while second half part of the story has been dragged beyond acceptable limits.

The second story is revolves around happy-go-lucky cab driver Raju(Govinda) and his “dream girl” Stephanie(Shannon Esra). Unfortunately Stepjanie already has a boy friend named Rohit (Kushal Punjabi), who was going to get married with some another girl. Destiny plays game and during the course of searching Rohit, Stephanie falls in love with Raju too however both don’t express their love.

Third track is about a middle aged married couple Anil & Juhi (Vinay & Seema) with an other woman - Anjana (Anjali). Vinay was going through mid life marriage crisis when he bumped into Anjali. She promises Vinay all the things that were just in his fantasy, and he gets indulged into an extra marital affair.

Fourth story revolves around an item girl, - Priyanka (Kamini) who wants to make big in Bollywood by playing in KARAN JOHAR’s movie. For a publicity stunt, she decides to tell the media that she’s madly in love with someone called “Rahul”, however things take a twist when Salman (Rahul) turns into a reality and enters her life. Narration built upon gossip mills, this one is the most unimpressive track of all. Be its acting, storyline or its execution it falters in all departments with track.

Fifth story is just another version of Shaadi Se Pehle even with same star cast - Akshaye & Ayesha (Shiven & Gia). Shiven is engaged to Gia and the two are about to marry in 10 days when Shiven develops cold feet and breaks up his engagement with Gia.
Witnessed in movies like DCH, Pyaar Ke Side Effects, there is nothing novel in the storyline though Akshaye’s comedy makes this track at least watchable.

Final story revolves around newly married couple, who is in desperate need of some intimate romance but couldn’t get one due to various accidental circumstances that arises abruptly. This track is like a blink-and-miss story, Sohail & Esha hardly had more than four scenes in spite of its huge comedy-riot potential. Editor seems to be too naive to run scissors in the wrong place.

Salaam-E-Ishq Premire

I don’t want to ham again and again about bad story narration, running six stories in parallel, which is very difficult for a common man to perceive and understand well. Apart from that, another major department, who cheated in their work, is Editing Department. The movie could easily have been trimmed down to utmost three hours by removing various unwanted scenes and songs. The editing team seemed to have slept themselves while editing, finally causing us to sleep in the theater.

Musical score and choreography have been well gelled within the storyline. Songs like ‘’BAABUJI DHEERE CHALNA” and “TENU LEKE” are done with very good imagination, while SAIYYAN track could’ve been easily chopped out.

Now performance wise, as all actors were thorough professional, almost everyone did their job as expected but some outstanding one are Akshaye and new girls - Shannon Esra and Anjana Sukhani. Anjana sizzled with hot and sexy bod along with a million dollar face. Some of the most disappointing results were from the established ones. If you thought Priyanka was irritating in Krissh, and then you would need to take Aspirin to bear her in this movie. Salman too was sleep walking in the movie; he didn’t seem to have put any effort in his acting. Anil, Juhi, Vidya, Ayesha and Govinda have done justice to their roles. It’s pity to see less of Esha & Sohail.

The movie seemed to be missing one strong story which could hold viewers attention from the start to finish.It lacked Karan Johar’s high emotional quotient, which though seems unrealistic binds the audience’s heart with the story. After all, Love is all about soulful feelings and thats what lacked the most in S-E-I.

Six Love Stories, Yet not a date movie !

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