Love In Nepal HH

Director: Rajat Mukherjee

Starring: Sonu Nigam, Fllora

Saini, Rajpal Yadav, Vijay Raaz

Rajat Mukherjee knows the ad world well. He fills up the pauses in the soundtrack with chuckles and some naughty knocks on the knuckles as ‘Harry’ (Sonu Nigam) meets ‘Sally’ (Fllora Saini) in the boardroom. There are instant fireworks. And for the rest of the film the pair flare their nostrils and shrug at each other like Tom and Jerry... or like the lead couple in Rob Reiner’s romantic comedy ‘When Harry Met Sally’.

Trouble with this film about accidents and crime in Nepal, is it’s too frothy to be fun. The characters are so much in keeping with the age old rules of romantic comedy that you know for sure the couple will bicker just long enough for that mid-narrative smooch that would take their breath away.

After a reasonably well-paced first-half where Mukherjee lets Sonu have a ball as the stereotypically rakish ad man, the second-half plunges into a frantic crime caper with assorted villains running around with loaded guns and other energetic ammunition that give the film a certain febrile spontaneity.

So what’s the deal? Abby meets Maxi, hates her guts all the way to scenic Pokhara in Nepal, silences her screeching and flaring with a longish smooch, gets caught in bed with a woman he wouldn’t be caught dead with. But ha! She is.

Police investigation has some funny moments, for example Abby’s devoted assistant Sandy (Shweta Keshwani) dodging the cops when she realises her boss is the prime suspect.

Mukherjee stretches the just-for-fun mood a little too thinly over the plot. Nonetheless the film is zany in fits. Sameer Arora’s dialogues are the kind of outrageous banter that people in corporate houses exchange.

The cast is pleasant enough, though neither frightfully glamorous nor charming. With his carefully worked-out look and eyebrow-raised arrogance, Sonu moves many steps ahead of his earlier acting opportunities.

Rajpal Yadav brings in a rather interesting subplot. — Subhash K Jha