Saif Ali Khan .... Nick ,
Preity Zinta .... Ambar
Arshad Warsi ....
Tania Zaetta ....
Theatrical Release Date: Sep 9, 2005
Runtime: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Release Company: Yash Raj Films
She has come to Australia to study medicine and
mostly to avoid her nagging parents who keep pestering
her with possible suitors for marriage. In Melbourne,
she works part time as a radio jockey for the radio
station Salaam Namaste. she knits together the
non-resident Indian population with chatter and song.
He is an architect whose creativity comes
out not on the drawing board but in the culinary delights
that he cooks in the restaurant Nick of Time in
Melbourne. A chef by profession, Nick is an easy-come-easy-go
guy who likes to party and live a life without commitments.
Synopsis:
Falling in Love. It's very easy to do. Being in love
– now that's the tough part! Join us as we say
"Salaam Namaste" to Nick (Saif Ali Khan)
and Ambar (Preity Zinta) down under in the city of
Melbourne. He's a Chef; she's a Radio Jockey.They're
young, they're cool, they're independent – and
together they make the BEST pair!
Salaam Namaste,dumps the traditional ways
in which `boys and girls' meet, woo, and marry. We
have, instead, two people in their early 20s, who
have relocated to distant Australia, because they
want to live lives on their own terms.
Both decide (he pushes for it; she's reluctant in
the beginning, then an enthusiastic participant) to
`live in' to see what their feelings are for each
other. Could they bear to see another person on the
other pillow, ten years down the line? And both face
the dilemma many young people do who adopt the sex-before-marriage
route: Should they keep the baby, or not?
It isn't as if Siddharth Raj Anand's debut feature
pushes the envelope all the way. Nick and Ambar, played
by Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta, start off in separate
rooms. So hey, it's not just the bed stuff that's
on their minds. It is in his, but he's a man, okay?
But she needs to be in love before she succumbs: she's
a good Indian girl at her core, see?
Then there's the whole pregnancy thing. He doesn't
want a baby, so she fetches up at a friendly neighbourhood
clinic, but can't bring herself to get rid of the
baby. She decides to have the baby, all for herself,
and tells him off when he refuses to have anything
to do with them. But gosh, we can't have an illegitimate
baby blighting a good Indian girl's life, even if
she has had consensual premarital-sex, so just before
she delivers twins, in probably the most hilarious
half-an-hour hospital sequence in Hindi movies, Nick
proposes to Ambar. Remember Nine Months, the Hugh
Grant-Julia Marshal Hollywood film?
He could have refused to commit himself, and she
could have gone on to have her babies, and make a
go of it all by herself. But that would have been
perhaps too radical (as it is, with Ms Zinta not hiding
her huge belly decorously in oversize maternity gowns,
flaunting it instead in T-shirts, and even singing
a song with the aforementioned tummy swaying in our
faces, can be discomfiting for conservative types).
And that certainly wouldn't have been what Yash Chopra,
the granddaddy of the Bollywood love story, would
have wanted for his banner.
But there is no doubt that romantic comedies have
made a foray into Hindi movies. The advent of the
romantic comedy, a Hollywood staple for decades, was
heralded by last year's hugely successful Hum Tum,
also, fittingly a Yashraj production. By definition,
a rom com is a movie in which two adults (not a boy
and a girl) come together of their own accord, and
start exploring what happens when they get into a
relationship.
This is very far removed from the chat mangni-pat
byaah (quick engagement, quick marriage) stuff that
potboilers have lived off, all these years. There
are no large families, no perky cousins, sisters,
brothers, and parents and grandparents to either facilitate,
or guide the pair, and there are certainly no larger-than-life
villains in the shape of evil in-laws to drive them
asunder.
It is not Cruel Fate but Quirky Tics that keep a
couple together, or apart, in a true-blue rom com.
Hum Tum had Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee (like
good modern-day men and women, both have smart New-Age
professions: she is a fashion designer, he is a cartoonist)
coming together, drifting apart, and then finally
coming together, in a desi version of When Harry Met
Sally, one of the most winning rom coms Hollywood
has spun out. In the Hollywood version, both have
relationships which involve sexual congress with significant
others; in the Hindi movie, Saif is shown to be so
busy getting ahead that he doesn't have time to chase
women; Rani's beloved husband conveniently dies, so
she is free and available.
The New-Age Couple (it is now time to actually claim
this grown-up term for a man and woman who choose
to be a unit) bickers and argues. Both the man and
woman are allowed to have points of views. Both are
allowed to sizzle up the screen and indulge in passion:
Salaam Namaste says it is okay for consenting adults
to get up close and personal. The fact that Ambar
has `done it' with her boyfriend doesn't make her
bad, or a girl with `loose morals'. Heavy-handed morality
and hypocrisies of the kind that layer lovers, in
fact, have nothing to do with it. It is only when
the question of snuffing out a life arises, that the
ethical and moral issues are trotted out.
Then there's the `comedy' part of it. The script
in both Hum Tum and Salaam Namaste, and other recent
films, which have revolved around adult relationships,
has allowed for lines and situations normally reserved
for the resident joker. What these movies are saying
is what young people have known all along: that it
is perfectly possible to giggle and laugh while you
are at it; neither love, nor what happens after, is
a matter which provides space for only glycerine and
tears.
Young love has moved on. It looks as if the movies
are waking up to it, finally. Salaam Namaste is pure
fluff and completely lightweight, but it is a film
that reflects changing time and mores. Bye-bye nodding
flowers, and necking swans... hello, Ambar and Nick.
Shubhra Gupta
thehindubusinessline
