Customer Reviews

Hum Tum DVD 2004

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This movie is not your typical Hindi movie. To a certain extent, yes, it is about how a boy and a girl get together. But I did not find it formulaic or dull. The dialogue between the hero and heroine was fun and lively, the music happy but not too pop-ish, and the little animated character skits were very funny. I would highly recommend seeing and purchasing this movie.

I saw this when I visited my Indian friends in Silicon Valley. I wanted to be polite and just sit thru it when they put this DVD on. In a few minutes I was hooked. When one guy said he wanted to pause the movie and go out, the rest of us told him to sit down. This is the only Indian movie I have ever seen and I loved it so much I went out and bought it. Sort of an Indian Notting Hill or Serendipity.

The story is shot in Paris, New York and Mumbai, so you get to see some beautiful places. The girl is beyond beautiful. The guy is cool and they both are skilled actors. Both characters grow in the movie from life's tribulations.

A really cute aspect is the very brief cartoon sketches inserted into the movie, as the guy is an author of children's books in the story. If you like romantic comedies, see this movie.

I've recently finished watching and being hugely entertained by Salaam | Namaste (2 Disc Set) and Dil Chahta Hai, two Hindi films which featured Saif Ali Khan. My HUM TUM dvd came in the mail yesterday and, believe me, I wasted no time in eagerly liberating it from its plastic seal. I've heard good things about the film and now, after screening it, I can bravely state that these glowing reviews are indeed well founded. Although not as enchanting as SALAAM NAMASTE, I still liked HUM TUM very much. Let's keep going.

Not every romance deliriously begins with love at first sight. Sometimes, it takes a lot longer. Years, in fact. HUM TUM (You & I) chronicles nine years in the lives of fun loving, womanizing cartoonist Karan Kapoor (Saif Ali Khan) and fastidious and serious Rhea Prakash (Rani Mukerji) as they venture from mutual enmity to a truce, then on to friendship and, finally, to something more than friendship. While it clearly patterns itself after When Harry Met Sally..., 2004's HUM TUM still manages to navigate its own course and ultimately ends up having its own cinematic identity. However, the battle of the sexes theme is kept very much intact.

I'm fast trying to collect all of Saif Ali Khan's work as, on the merit of only 3 films, he's handily overthrown Abhishek Bachchan as my reigning favorite Bollywood actor. There's something incorrigibly impish about this cat, which I like. And he is very funny, in a dry and self-deprecating way. As for Rani Mukerji, it's true that I was unimpressed with her turn in Bunty aur Babli (2 DVD Set), but her performance in Mujhse Dosti Karoge! sold me on her talent and her appeal. Here, she is wonderful as she imbues her character with intelligence, sensitivity, and independence. Rani's chemistry with Saif is superb, whether in the comedic scenes or in the emotional moments. As defined by Saif and Rani, Karan and Rhea are a bickering, opinionated, and endlessly fun couple. I couldn't get enough of them. I knew I was in good hands and in for a rollicking time from the moment I saw these two verbally sparring on the airplane to New York. And many more fine scenes were to follow but never more captivating than the touching moments in Paris and then during Rhea's first night back in India.

But fair warning to the viewer, who might be thrown off by the occasional animated interludes which feature Karan's comic strip characters Hum and Tum. These cartoon scenes are supposed to reflect Karan and Rhea's relationship at certain stages in the film. I'm of the mindset that live action and animation don't belong together (WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? being one exception) so I sighed and tolerated these scenes. For what it's worth, the animation's quality is not shabby.

The supporting cast is good, anchored by Kiron Kher's very effective role as Rhea's supportive mother and by Rishi Kapoor, who roguishly plays Karan's gallivanting, bohemian-minded father. Abhishek Bachchan shows up for a nanosecond but it's still long enough to deliver a telling cameo, while Jimmy Shergill again plays the third wheel, but, this time, actually manages to reel in a girl.

By the way, the dvd version I own also features, as a bonus, a deleted scene around 3 minutes long of Karan and Rhea having a very late nighttime phone conversation (again a callback to WHEN HARRY MET SALLY...), as well as a head boppin' music video of the song "U & I."

I get bored quite easily (you don't want to know how long it takes me to write up these reviews), so it's something of a testament to this film that I wish HUM TUM had gone on for longer than its 2 hours and 16 minutes worth of running time. I was so caught up in the doings of Karan and Rhea that it was all over before I knew it. So, thumbs up to the production crew for their seamless efforts and also to the convincing and unforced script and dialogue, making full use of the leads' natural ease and charisma. Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji make it seem so effortless. They need to team up again, dammit. Preferably in a film, but I'll even settle for a karaoke duet in my local pub. Or a potato sack race. Anything! Also, I can never get enough of Rhea's biting "Karan - shut up!" My only quasi-nag about HUM TUM is that Saif's character is forced to undergo a "Tom Cruise" hairdo phase. That was just cruel. But funny.

Another movie on the war between the sexes, this one with a indian spin on excellent film good music if you like hindi music, acting was top for me.the funney part is nobody wins in this movie or in this war, because everybody is sleeping with the foes.

Hum Tum is a film I would give 5/10. It's not what people made it out to be but then I realise a lot of girls who went for this film were looking forward to like a movie because they had nothing better to do. I think this movie doesnt have a great storyline and the irritating animation cartoons keep coming in to irritate me to the extent I look elsewhere.

I saw this in the theater. This movie has Saif Ali Khan, one of the most irritatingly over rated actors around us. Rani plays her role,as usual, with elegance and compassion. This movie tried to be an Indian version of Serendipity or another movie the name of which I can't recall.

Anyhow,there is nothing much to this movie unless it's been a while since you saw Rishi Kapoor in a film. This movie is what I would recommend to any Indian girl between 10 and 30 and the only reason the guys probably liked this movie was because of the girls who went with them to watch it.
In simpler words, it's for the bored people who think Saif Ali Khan is a stud who can act on an idiotically predictable performance.

Sorry.
Watch "Chalte Chalte" instead.