Kuch Pyar, Kaafi Magic

So it is a Friday night and the mister and I are planning on doing a little bit of shopping. Again as usual, we ditch the shopping in favor of movie, specially when I make a puppy dog face convincing the mister to watch Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic. Specially when I see Rani Mukherji in person (Squee!) in the same theater complex. So I am on job now - show availability check, tickets check, time to have dinner check.

Now, time to watch the film.

I am a pro-kids movies and I am used to seeing theaters filled with kids (being a Harry Potter fan and all that). So a theater full of kids to watch this movie doesn't surprise me.

In short, Ranbeer Talwar (Saif Ali Khan) is a lonely winner. Winner because he has won every competition in life and is a successful businessman who has risen on his own. Lonely because that's what he is. He has lost everyone he has ever attached himself to. So he becomes stone. Once such winning night, he meets with an accident as a result of which he is responsible for two deaths, Mr and Mrs Walia, rendering their four children - Vashisht, Iqbal, Aditi, and Avantika - parentless. For one year, the orphans are transferred from one relative to another.

In a decision that will be known as "one of the most unique decisions in the history of Indian Judicial System", the court (aka the judge Sharat Saxena) appoints Ranbeer as the court-appointed legal guardian to the children till the youngest, Avantika, is 18. To win the children's approval to live with him , he has only three months, failing which he will be sentenced to a non-bailable lifer.

Just to satisfy the court, Ranbeer and Malaika (Amisha Patel in a special appearance - why?) arrange to make the children comfortable. Obviously, the children hate Ranbeer. Fair enough. They do not want to like the arrangements made for them. Result: They are all sad and confused and angry.

Enter the technicolor heavens where, God (Rishi Kapoor) - Hi-tech God and very cute - is on his everyday rounds of the world. It is now he comes across this emergency situation on earth and decides to send his pet angel, Geeta (Rani Mukherji) despite the protests raised by the rest of the angel staff.

The rest of the story is how Geeta succeeds in building a bond between the children and Ranbeer (bonus success: manage to get Ranbeer to ditch Malaika).

The beginning of the film is a bit slow as it has you wondering who is this mother and son pair and what is their role. But as the kid advances in his life, you understand why child Ranbeer has become a cold person - someone who doesn't shake hands with the person presenting him an award and walks away. Obviously he has noone to celebrate his success with.

The children are cute. In character, the unity among them is mentionable. They gang up together. What impressed me is - for the lack of the better word, power - Vasisht has over his younger siblings. It is not surprising that even Ranbeer is scared to bond with the rest of the kids without Vasisht's knowledge. The accusation in the kid's eyes is powerful. The actor, Akshat Chopra, performs this role with finesse. The other kids do a good job too.

Saif Ali Khan has done a decent job in this film. His transition from a cold businessman to Ranbeer bhaiya is almost seamless. Although his wardrobe in this film deserves a mention. A wardrobe worth oohin and aahing. Rani Mukherjee, as Geeta, is cute as an angel, what with the expression of curiosity on seeing Ranbeer's tears. She doesn't know what tears are! She wonders why people cry and if crying is bad, why humans find pleasure in it. Her costume is a trademark of the film. Her introduction, in the form of the song Bulbula, almost reminded me of these lines:

"How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?"

- Sound of Music

Rishi Kapoor makes an appearance as God, and he brings a freshly modern perspective to the concept of God. He uses GPS to make his rounds into the world. He appears whenever someone says "Hey Bhagwaan!" What that concluded to me is that God is around to help you in many forms, all you have to do is look.

What I mainly felt judging from the general opinion of the public is that the release of the film could have been timed better. The vacations have just ended and, in this frenzy, most of the children must have not seen the film. If the film had been released a month before, it would have grossed more in the box office and become a hit.

The music is alright, with one theme music playing whenever a character or two reach a milestone in the bonding process. The song, Lazy Lamhe, is not very important to the plot and could have been done away with. But I guess they needed something to show that Amisha is really there in the film. If it were not for this song, parents would have not thought twice about taking their kids to this film. I'd say that there is no harm in taking the kids, this song can be ignored. Again, that is my opinion.

What I didn't like about the film are the loose ends regarding the fact that Geeta is actually an angel. Till the end, it was not clear if Ranbeer did come to know that Geeta is actually an angel and that is exactly the reason why she couldn't cry. Technical problem, dude Ranbeer, not denial.

What I like about the film were the messages put across in the film, the most important being a lesson in forgiveness.