To be frank, I was not expecting much from this movie till yesterday. But when I read it on the net, that the movie is directed by Imtiaz Ali, the same person who directed one of my favorite movies, Socha Na Tha, my expectation level quickly reached on top. Today, despite being hammered by No Smoking, I went for this one. And, I this movie made my day.

Okay.. ok.. I know it’s my bad habit to give an idea about the whole movie in first paragraph and then always start the 2nd para with OK.. haha so, let me just quickly take you through the storyline…

The story is pretty simple and straightforward. I will let Wikipedia do the job

Aditya (Shahid Kapoor), a defeated industrialist, is even more broken as the girl he loves is getting married. Unable to muster up the courage to return home, he drifts out of the gathering and aimlessly boards a train, bounding away into the night.

As destiny would have it, on the train he meets Geet (Kareena Kapoor) – a beautiful but annoyingly talkative girl who is leaving Mumbai to go her hometown – Bhatinda (Punjab). Later, she has plans of eloping with her boyfriend.

Geet irritates Aditya to the point of getting him to leave the train. As she tries to get him back on the train, she ends up missing it and the two find themselves stranded on a desolate station with no luggage or money.

Begins the idyllic journey through the exuberant North Indian heartland in which this odd couple will make their way through buses and taxis and camel-carts, crossing Highways and deserts and lakes, meeting all kinds of people, to reach her house in Punjab ……. On arrival, Geet’s family mistakes the two for lovers. Before this misconception can be cleared, Geet escapes to her boyfriend in Manali. Aditya leaves with her, confirming the suspicion that they are lovers. In Manali, Aditya feels empowered to return to Mumbai and resurrect his ailing business.

Life takes a positive turn and Aditya begins to do well. One day Geet’s family who think that she is with him confronts Aditya. He is shocked to learn that Geet has not returned home. He takes it upon himself to find her. He finally tracks her down in a Himalayan town and begins another journey to reach Bhatinda and flow into the colors and conceptions of a loud and happy North Indian family!

As mentioned earlier, there is nothing great in the story but the way director handled it was brilliant. Everyone in the theatre knew what’s gonna happen next but the movie gets you so much involved that you don’t feel like leaving your seat even for a minute. I still remember, in the ending, when they played the song, in most of the movies, people start leaving their seats, around that time but surprisingly people were glued to their seats, waiting for more.. and this is what I call victory of the director.

Like in Socha Na Tha, he made sure that execution is perfect and things are natural. People will automatically start liking and loving them.

I think after Chameli, this was the 2nd movie where I really liked Kareena’s acting. In the whole first half, I was just wondering, what is wrong with this girl, she can act so well and where was she till now? She acted so naturally, I could hear many claps from the audience.

Now, this does not mean that Shahid was bad.. I think this one will be his one of the best performances. He was good in Vivah and much better here.

The music was kind of ok, couple of songs were very nice though.. specially the Mauja Mauja one.. and there was one more slow song but I am not able to recollect the name..

Overall, I enjoyed the movie a lot. It was a sweet cute love story. I would rate it [rating:3.5/5]. The movie should do good business as there is an open ground till November 9th. (Saawariya and Om Shanti Om)

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