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KAHO NAA... PYAAR HAI (2000)
Produced and Directed By Rakesh Roshan
Music: Rajesh Roshan Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Amisha Patel, Anupam Kher, Ashish Vidyarthi, Mohnish Behl, Johnny Lever
Running Time: 177 Minutes 40 Seconds
CineRating: 3.5 out of 10
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A commercial and critical smash in India, Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai offers ample proof that beautiful stars, exotic locations and vapid storylines are not just an American formula for boxoffice success. Borrowing from just about every Bollywood hit from the last five years, Roshan's film carefully packages together all the requisite elements of a Bollywood blockbuster, but lacks most of the passion.
Roshan's son, Hrithik (making his movie debut), stars as Rohit, a down-to-earth musician/singer who is smitten with Sonia (Amisha Patel, also making her debut), a wealthy but good-natured girl. Due to circumstances not worth explaining, the two end up stranded on a deserted island together where they sing to one another and fall in love, before Sonia's father shows up to take them back to civilization.
To prove his worth to Sonia's disapproving father, Rohit, with the help of his friends, launches a successful singing career, which eventually leads to him organizing a concert for his legion of fans. However, on the day of the event, Rohit witnesses a murder and is chased by the corrupt police, who run him and his motorcycle off the road and into the ocean. Although his body is not recovered, Rohit is presumed dead.
Sonia's father sends her off to New Zealand to help ease her broken heart, but once there she crosses paths with Raj, a young man who looks exactly like her dear departed Rohit. Raj develops a crush on Sonia, but she avoids him because his physical appearance brings back too many painful memories. However, after Raj follows Sonia back to Bombay, all hell breaks loose when one of the corrupt officers mistakes him for Rohit.
While even the best Bollywood movies require a certain suspension of disbelief on the viewer's part, the storyline of Kaho Naa... is quite ludicrous even by Bollywood standards, and the movie lacks the kind of inventive song-and-dance numbers or colorful performances that could have compensated for the storyline's failures. The first half of the movie opts for cheesy romance that never seems more than skin deep, while the latter half resembles a bad Jean-Claude Van Damme movie with a similar amount of plot contrivances (--Hey, let's draw out the killers by putting on a concert!). The movie pours on the melodrama with all the finesse of a soup kitchen, and scenes like those in which Rohit's younger brother goes into shock upon learning of his brother's death, only to later appear with noticeable bags under his eyes, are more gut-wrenchingly funny than heartrending.
Director Roshan uses the lush cinematography to make the most of his attractive locations, but his direction is too staid and straightforward to keep the viewer emotionally invested in the long-winded and corny plot. The songs are nice but bland, and the dance choregraphy is aesthetically pleasing but instantly forgettable. Hrithik Roshan (who became a huge star because of this film) and Amisha Patel bring their physical attractiveness to the table, but little else. The lavish 2-disc DVD presentation of Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, which features the entertaining bonus song-and-dance number "Jaaneman Jaaneman" (from the extended-cut theatrical release), is one of the best looking Bollywood DVDs yet. Alas, the film doesn't live up to such a royal treatment.
The DVD extras include footage from the Filmfare Awards, where a misty-eyed Hrithik Roshan reveals to the audience that he considered quitting the film industry after his father was shot following Kaho Naa...'s success (an incident reportedly related to underworld strongarm tactics). Not surprisingly, the moment is far more riveting than anything in the film that precedes it.
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DVD Specs:
DEI 2-DVD Set
All Regions
Removable English Subs (Songs included)
Theatrical Trailers
TV Promos
Filmfare Awards Footage
Interviews
Booklet Featuring Song Lyrics (in Hindi)
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