Honeymoon 1973 Movie Reviews

Audience has been thirsting for new subjects with every passing month and there is no room for complacency, especially for the fist time directors. With backup of producers like Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar, there is not much error margin available for debutant director Reema Kagti, especially with tremendous promotion helping the awareness about the film. This is the reason why you expect narrative to kick start on fast-paced note, especially considering the fact that the film is just two hours long.

Director Kagti doesn't disappoint in that aspect at all as along with the opening credits comes the introductions of each of the 6 newly married honeymooning couples on their journey from Mumbai to Goa. You can't help laughing along in the very first 10 minutes of the film itself due to the quirky manner in which the guide demonstrates his English abilities (or the lack of it).

You know where the film is headed (well....almost) as soon as the introductions begin!

Sitting with hands firmly clasped, Aspi [Abhay Deol, natural, yet again] and Zaara [Minisha Lamba, decent] look like one cute couple who may still be trying to figure out about bees and birds. Well, they turn into a dog and a cat as soon as the doors of their honeymoon cottage close! They walk the same, swim the same, think the same, dance the same steps, and well...even demand the same Fresh Lime Soda; all in same breath. You don't really expect €˜humans€™ to be in so compatible. Will you?

Partho [Kay Kay Menon, flawless as a Bengali] and Milly [Raima Sen, very good] had loved each other from college times. Still being a lady who stands for being the 'woman-on-top', she loves to dance, go paragliding in a saree, shoo off petty 'goondas' with her karate chops and be on the top when it comes to bed games! And to think of it, Partho always thought that he had found a woman who would turn out to be what he wanted! And then he changes....for her, and himself!

Oscar [Boman Irani in yet another superb act and reminding of great Sanjeev Kumar] and Nahid [Shabana Azmi, where have you been ma'm?] are the most level headed and mature of all. As 'Mr. & Mrs. 55' [termed by Oscar himself], they have lived through good and bad times and were now trying to find solace in each other. As someone who had just lost and lost, Nahid wanted Oscar to realize the importance of grabbing something that he had lost. What was that?

Bunty [Vikram Chatwal, likeable] and Madhu [Sandhya Mridul, please keep making more appearances] are the coolest of the lot. Hanging around with friends, dancing around with folks, drinking and making merry, they were the ones who were having the best times amongst all on this trip....well, almost! Because when the nights switched off, the story was completely different. What was it that made Bunty being averse to any physical proximity with Madhu? Was it she? Or was it him?

Vicki [Karan Khanna, good in initial reels] and Pinky [Ameesha Patel, understanding the nuances of her cute-n-loud character well] are one of those good looking newly wed urban youngsters. Opposites attract, but in this case the saying wasn't exactly turning out to be true. Pinky was influenced by Yash Chopra school of romance while Bunty had suddenly started getting aloof. And no, Pinky's talkative nature, her ever ready mood for romance and her love for anything that was 'pink' were not the reasons for that!

Hitesh [Ranvir Shorey, playing a character well yet again] could have never imagined that it could turn out to be so bad in his 'first every honeymoon - as he says'! Not only his saree clad wife Seelpa, oops, Shilpa [Dia Mirza, cute, especially when she prays to God] was ever weepy, she was also a touch-me-not kinds. But was she really a touch-me-not? Ask Jignesh [Arjun Rampal, fine in his 2 minutes appearance], her closet lover!

Good part about HTPL is that it is truly original with the culmination of 6 stories being believable.

Like Zaara and Aspi finding the truth about each other [quirky, seemingly impossible, but highly amusing], Partho and Milly adjusting to each other and exploring their other side [would be understood by all married couples], Oscar and Nahid finding not just each other but also a family [believable], Bunty and Madhu realizing that for spending life, you could just be best friends, if not lovers [heart warming to the core], Vicki and Pinky starting life afresh [weakest ending of all, not quite brought out well] and Hitesh not doing 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' with Shilpa [wish there was more meat in this story]!

A new style is brought to the narrative as Reema incorporates a RJ telling the background of each of the 6 couples through a brief commentary and oldie songs. At places it works, at places it doesn't work.

It could have been easy to present Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Parsi etc. as caricatures but credit to sensible writing that none of that happens and things stay to be subtle. Like Kay Kay being a Bengali is shown to be ever caring, and interested in helping out a fellow being, even if it gets him in trouble with a frustrated Gujarati Ranveer.

Or Ranveer talking about doing 'hisaab' on returning back to his town after the shock he got from his Seelpa. Or the Punjabi gal Ameesha saying 'Ye Dono Kitne How So Very Cute Hain'. Or the Christian Boman taking his Muslim wife Shabana to his ancestral house in Goa. Or the middle class Bombay girl Sandhya still rooted to the values and tradition in spite of wearing an oh-so-hep persona. And how about Parsi couple Abhay and Minisha? Well the characters they play hardly needed a cultural upbringing or religion!

Anurag Kashyap's [of Black Friday fame] dialogues are balanced. He doesn't go over the top even once and keeps it simple....and natural. Some of the best lines are reserved for Boman though.

Music forms an integral part of the narrative and doesn't force itself in except for the romantic number picturised on Ameesha and Karan that comes soon after interval. Just not required. On the other hand 'Halke Halke' that runs in the background is the most melodious of lot while 'Sajana Jee' towards the end brings the house down. In fact this is the stage where the movies reaches an all time high again since all this while one had been expecting the second half of the film to be as brilliant and howlarious as the first half. Though the second half is also decent, it doesn't quite carry on the mood of the first half that had simply breezed through.

To sum it up:

HTPL is not episodic
HTPL doesn't intend to connect 6 different stories to make them all end on a similar note
HTPL doesn't fake itself to be an "ensemble piece" (a much used and abused term today!) and instead just focuses on taking you through a journey

In short, HTPL entertains without taking itself too seriously. And that's where the film's beauty lies.