Review: 'Tere Naal Love Ho gaya'

Film: Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya
Director: Mandeep Kumar
Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Genelia Deshmukh, Om Puri, Smita Jaykar, Tinnu Anand
Rating: ***

It always helps when you walk in to a movie theatre to watch a morning show with almost no expectations. With barely anytime to sip my morning cuppa, I settled into the desi romantic-comedy that will see Riteish and Genelia for the first time after their recent wedding.

And boy, does the film surprise you!

Mini (Genelia) is a Punjabi kudi with a Canadian passport and hence a Green card holder (I dont know how Canadians get a green card but okay). This in addition to being the daughter of a rich man Bhatti (Anand) who employs a rickshaw driver Viren (Deshmukh), a poor boy who harbours a rich dream of owning Innova taxis one day.

Bhatti introduces his daughter to a rich, dumb Jaat Sunny, but the boy's lack of ambition holds no interest for Mini. To escape this impending marriage, Mini orchestrates her own kidnapping and poor Viren who seeks nothing but Rs60,000 that Bhatti ate up, gets tangled up in the mess. As we wonder who has kidnapped whom, the duo get into a total Bunty-Babli mode to find enough money to survive.

The film is predictable so far. And by the intermission you realise that the plot is over. Boy kidnapped girl, girl is in love with boy, boy is in love with girl, both can't tell each other, the ransom is arriving. You expect the second half to be a sappy journey of expression of love etc. But the film takes a twist and the duo now land up in Viren's ancestorial home, under the supervision of his astranged family -- Father (Puri) who is a professional kidnapping kingpin, mother (jaykar), a sister, a set of pehelwaans and more.

Much fun ensues as Mini adapts to village life and forces the pehelwaans to do aerobics. Of course there's a happy end, but Kumar makes sure that we get there with a few laughs and cheers. Genelia struggles with a few scenes but is largely refreshing as the mischievous Mini, Riteish switches from a bholabhala rickshawwala to a lovelorn Romeo with much hamming, and it surprisingly works for the premise of the film.

With a story that mildly reminds you of Dil hai Ki maanta nahi and Bunty aur babli, Tere Naal... isn't exactly original.

The director doesn't shy from  using cliches like dancing around trees and in the rain and somehow makes them work. There's something about this film that appeals to me, for I grew up watching DHKMN and the likes.

The film has its flaws. There's over the top emotional drama, the drunken Genelia scene which is completely unbelievable and mildly irritating. Of course the film could have done without the forced item song, where Veena Malik's artificially abundant bosom tries to charm and fails, but other than that, this one's a fun, breezy watch.

Don't over analyse, don't think too much, just go watch and have fun.