Review of Hum Tum

Hum Tum (2004)
7/10
When Karan met Rhea
2 April 2006
As in when Harry met Sally Bollywood style. And thank God Karan met Rhea because he was sure to have met something more like GONORRHEA or worse with the way he was girl hopping in this film (a trait that was clearly handed down to him by his dad).

Karan of course is played by the hilariously dashing Saif Ali Khan and Rhea is played by that class-act of an actress called Rani Mukherji. They meet aboard a plane heading to the USA from India and instantly sparks fly, but not the kind you're thinking of. They both irritate each other to the extent that they argue over the slightest things and everything becomes a debate or battle of the sexes. While in Amsterdam, in the heat of an argument, Karan kisses Rhea and when they arrive in NYC, she is soon to find out that they are going there to meet the same person, her college best-friend who happens to also be Karan's girlfriend. Karan gets the punishment he rightfully deserves and as years pass by he returns to India one day to find out that his mum, a wedding planner by profession is planning a wedding for none other than Rhea, whom he becomes reacquainted with. He realises during the course of her engagement and marriage that he is in love with her but can do nothing to stop it.

Oh and let me also add that there are cartoons included in between many scenes, hence the title Hum Tum with the cartoon characters on the cover. Hum Tum (You and I or Yours and Mine in Hindi) are Karan's characters from a column he does for India Times newspaper which is a big hit for him and in fact, the film starts off with him giving a speech at a press conference for a book about the cartoon characters which he has just written and is a best-seller. Abhishek Bachchan who appears briefly in the film seems to have carved out a niche for himself with these sort of silly, blink and you'll miss it cameo roles he loves to play (see his roles in Salaam Namaste, and Rakht) nowadays. But then again he's Jr. B so he can pretty much do whatever the heck he wants.

The premise of a philandering husband who deserts his wife and after 17 years he returns and she accepts him back is barbaric to say the least! Did the writer's expect the audience to side with or feel sorry for Karan's dad? That was a weak point within the film. Sob sub-plots like that (and I've seen many in a lot of Hindi films) make Hindustani men look bad.

The producers not only stole from the Hollywood classic When Harry Met Sally, for the cartoon characters, there was a scene in which they not only stole the "flying scene" from Titanic, they also stole the "My heart will go on" melody. Very shameless people, those folks at Yash Raj films! Anywho, I loved the music and backdrop for this film, Rani and Saif not only had great chemistry, they also acted well and in fact did double duty as playback singers for some songs in the film as well (Well done guys! you rock!), I however detracted a few points because the film was unnecessarily long. I detected up to 10 instances where the film could have ended and left to the audience to decide what would have happened next and let me just say that 10 endings is plenty too many!
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