Foreign Land

Pardes

Pardes is very long and a touch predictable. Still, it's not a bad watch and could have been a good film with better editing. Shahrukh gives an uncharacteristically restrained performance, although he does go over the top towards the end. Mahima is charming but overdoes the cuteness. Amrish Puri is solid as usual. Apoorva Agnihotri is weak. The songs are great. I specially liked the gentle "Do Dil Mil Rahen Hain". The film goes overboard in its depiction of NRIs and I can understand why some reviewers hate it. The patriotism on display could have been toned down. Still watchable on TV/DVD. Overall 6/10

Mahima Choudhary acted very well considering that it was her first film. Overall a good family movie without violence and sex for a change.

before i write the comment of this film, i have to say I'm a fan of Khan movies.i saw the movie.. Shahrukh Khan was great in it.. but if i say about the story it was not so inspiring..the movie has nice songs. .the movie is certainly saved by it songs and Shahrukh khan.the movie is specially focused on NRIs on how they are living their lives.but i say its not actually focused by the director as i compare it with reality.the movie is not good enough to rate it excellent and not bad to say awful , i say it is so so. if any body watch this film, one would wonder so this is Pardes. i say this movie deserves 5 out of 10.

Americans have no morals or values. An Indian born in America smokes, drinks and sees women as sexual objects. He's a snob. He has no morals or values. An Indian born in India living in America has morals and values. He is the ideal boyfriend. The ideal husband. The ideal son. The ideal son-in-law. He is Shah Rukh Khan. These are some of the stereotypes prominent in Pardes. If you look past these you actually have quite a lovely story. SPOILER Boy has to get married. Boy gets engaged to traditional Indian girl. Girl believes boy is her Raj Kumar. In his natural environment girl sees his true colors. Girl finds true love in the arms of her fiancé's friend. Pardes' strong points are surely the actors and actresses in particular Mahima Choudhary. Despite their stereotypical characters, they manage to make their characters tangible. Watching Mahima is an absolute delight and she shows great promise in one of her very first roles. These stereotypes however sometimes stretch the realms of reality. Or should I say reality as perceived by a Westernized Indian? ***/5 stars

Subhash Ghai always shows NRIs in bad light and Indians as too good His carricatured NRIs in PARDES, TAAL are e.g.s of those The film is just that, The NRIs are shown as bad, while our Indians are shown as pure Ganga type The film is typical, there are some good situations but the story isn't different nor is the treatment In fact surprisingly SRK played the role of getting a girl for someone else a lot in 1997, be it KOYLA, PARDES Direction by Subhash Ghai is ordinary Music is good In this film SRK is a pleasure, here he doesn't ham thankfully as he always does Here he is well directed and gives a restrained performance Mahima is decent, she looks gorgeous but sadly her career didn't' go ahead Apoorva is too awkward Amongst rest Amrish Puri excels as usual Alok Nath is stereotypical rest are okay

The character of Shah Rukh Khan in this movie, is the perfect son-in-law. I think every girl who sees him in this movie would fall in love with his character Arjun. This unselfish boy, who is brought up in a home where some of them treated him like dirt. The persons I truly disliked were the 2aunts. Looking like witches and being really arrogant about the money they owned and their dislikes of any one with less money (I call it the American syndrome). Mahima Choudrey was and is gorgeous, the role of Ganga was really a bit too much, but I could understand her point of view. The scene with the snake was quit weird, the director could have solved that in another way. Don't know what the point was of this particular scene. Also the last song of the movie was totally uncalled for. I won't spoil it by saying why, but that song could have been edited somewhere else in the movie.

This is an excellent film, Sharukh Khan gives an astounding performance as Arjun, Mahima Choudhary puts a lot of effort in to her character as the chemistry between Mahima and Sharukh shows throughout the film. This is a different film from the others as it concentrates on the differences between countries. The songs in the film are also meaningful and romantic. Overall, this film is one of my favourite films.

Pardes was a Hit movie from great director Subash Ghai. It tells the story of a girl from India, who has a arranged marriage with a guy from America. She gets engaged to him and travel to USA, and realises her fiancé is not a nice person. This is more of a woman's point of view based movie that stars Superstar Shahrukh Khan. He doesn't give a great performance as he usually does. This is mainly because the movie is more based on Mahima's life. Mahima looks very sexy and gives a fairly good performance. Her character is a little immature, which doesn't impress me. There is a scene where she is asked to sing a song in front of many people including her fiancé and in laws, but she see's Shahrukh, leaves the stage and runs toward him. She is suppose to be a village girl so it is acceptable. I'm sure not all village girls are this immature, not to understand, its bad manners and disrespectful to do this. Apoorva plays the Fiancé in a pathetic performance. His character has no realism, there is a scene where he starts a fight in the club with a American person. He starts talking to him in Hindi in a dreadful looking scene. Poor music and the movie does get a little slow at time. The ending looks rushed and unprofessional. Overall not such a bad film.

Many claim this movie as one of the best of 1990s Bollywood for its family values. Its family values are only true to a point. It hails Indian values, and makes a not so subtle statement that America is the home of debauchers and drunkards. It insinuates that wayward immigrants to America have to be "redeemed" by Indian virtue. It was so comically bad, hence, the 3 rating.