Who Am I to You?

irfan saifl

Who Am I to You?_1080P_480P

Who Am I to You?_1080P

Over the last few months, I've become increasingly jaded and cynical about Hindi cinema. The choices seem to be narrowing to increasingly violent and brutal films with good performances or soulless masala clones with production line Barbie dolls for heroines, and songs that are forgotten seconds after they finish. I've been pushing myself to reach 150 BW films watched, and it has increasingly seemed like a waste of time and effort, often leaving me angry at the time chewed up by the drek on offer. In the last week, I've sat through Aashiq and Gumrah, both films that left me bewildered and angry at their awfulness. Then, today, I finally got to see HAHK. I went in expecting to loathe it. Despite my vigorous efforts, I just couldn't. Cinematically, there's almost nothing right with this film, but it was still great fun to watch. One IMDb review disparaged it by calling it "just a shaadi cassette", and I think that was right on the money. I also don't think that it is such a bad thing. There's an artless naivety and innocence to the film's spirit that makes it easy to overlook the fact that watching it will induce a coma in the saccharine-intolerant. I am normally very intolerant of super-sweet fluiff, but somehow this film sneaked past my outer cynic and found my inner child. It was a better K3G, better for not having all the negative elements. If you're going to make candy floss, don't try to be "cool" by spicing it with pepper, just celebrate the sugar, and that's what HAHK does. I don't know if I'll watch it again, but there are several songs that were well worth the watch, and Tuffy was great. I don't think such a film could be made today, since jaded cynicism is de rigueur for film viewers the world over, and I doubt that many directors would have the courage, or find the backers, to make such an unabashedly retro piece. To compress the "mushkil" into the last 20 or so was genius, it let the film just bubble away, with so many laughing, smiling faces that only the stoniest grinches could be unmoved. Maybe the biggest flaw with HAHK is the fact that so many subsequent films tried to copy its "formula", without realising it didn't really have one, and that calculating mimicry is no substitute for the real thing. As a film, I'd give it 5/10. For refreshing my BW palate, and reminding me of the magic of masala, I'd give it 8.

This entire film is nothing but a shitfest of poor music, atrocious acting and an even worse story. I recommend to not watch it.

This is one of the best movies ever.The direction is superb.The choreography is excellent.The story is great.It tells us about Prem and Rajesh who are orphans and are being taken care by their uncle Kailash.One day they get Rajesh engaged To Pooja chowdhary.Pooja also has a sister named Nisha.Nisha and Prem fall in love.Rajesh and Pooja get married.They have a baby noy.One day a tragic incident happens.Pooja dies after falling from a staircase.They plan Nisha to marry Rajesh.On the climax scene Pooja gives Tuffy a letter and sends it to Prem.Rajesh reads it.He realizes their feelings.All ends happily when Preem and Pooja marry.The cinematography is excellent.Madhuari and Salman are brilliant.The others are great too.The on screen chemistry is excellent.The music is excellent.The costumes are good too.Script is excellent.Dialogs are excellent.Photography is excellent.I have seen tnis 7 times already.This is Tooooooooo good.A MUST SEE MOVIE RATING-10/10

The user rating says it all. This is supposed to be the biggest hit of Indian film history! Sorry I saw it only after 2 years and it was still running full, and I din't like it. Reason : its not the original. The story was borrowed form a Telugu classic 'Abhinandana'. It was a tragedy and hence not so salable. The director cleverly moulded the story with a happy ending. It looks like a typical marwari marriage party with the all the ingredients: Big family, happy family, no bad guys. The story is thin line and moves form one song to another, with some funny tricks added, like the old trial and test methods. This is no food for the head movie. It is solely for family entertainment, a picnic and a money spinning machine. Not recommended for serious viewing.

Many of you are familiar with the feeling when after watching a film (or midway through it) you think that this was a complete waste of time and money. I almost got this feeling after watching this film. This film has very little in terms of a story line or a plot (which you can get from the IMDb summary, so let me not reiterate it). It does not take much effort to figure out what happens in the end. The main themes of this film (e.g. romantic love, family loyalty, sacrifice) have been better explored in many other Hindi films. A substantial portion of this film comprises of various ceremonies (e.g. marriage) and associated songs. I found this mind-numbing. The songs are repetitive and in fact tunes from a previous Rajshri film (Maine Pyar Kiya) can be heard in at least one of these songs (I have to watch this film again to be more specific, but I would rather be corrected than suffer through it again). The actors do justice to their roles, which is not saying much, given these roles. Mainstream Hindi films in recent decades have neither been very realistic nor critical, but they (at least the good ones) while being entertaining, have embedded some understanding and critique of the larger social context. For example, films of Amitabh have tried to show the larger forces that produce crime and the virtues of religious tolerance. This film, while being somewhat of a fable of morality (about love, family ties etc.) is very far removed from social reality – everything (people, families etc.) is made of honey and sugar – nothing in common with the real India. Some people have told me that this is a great film because it is family entertainment - no violence or sex. If this is true (and I think fans of Madhuri would disagree), I don't see why a film meant for intelligent families (adults and children) should be considered good for this reason. Then, why don't we watch only TV programs meant for children? I now come to the one redeeming feature. This film was a huge hit despite all the above problems. This made me think – what does this success reflect about our (Indian) society? I give this film 1 out of 10 for provoking my thoughts in this direction.

With the box office success of this movie, Indian film industry hit a new low. Indian film industry is still trying to come out of the bad drug that it got infected with. Just when there seemed to be some sensible movies started to come up in India, in 1994 this movie got released and brought us back to where we were 10 years back. It inspired a genre of movies which have completely meaningless melodrama, utterly nonsense dance song sequences, brainless stories. I sometimes wonder if Indian movie industry would be better if this movie (along with another crappy movie called Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) had not come. I may be wrong, Indian movies were never worth considering seriously before that also barring a very few exceptions. But this one just took it to a new low. Many people say this movie changed the face of Indian movies, and I absolutely agree with it, not for good but for worse. It has been close to one and a half decade and we are slowly managing coming out of the hangover. Hope Indian audience will be sensible enough not to create another Suraj Bhartyaja or Karan Johar.

Bad acting, no script and nonstop music. It is a treat for mindless audience.