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Review:
Hum Tum. Him and Her. Man and Woman. Yash Chopra's Hum Tum is a classic battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy. The story of cartoonist Karan (Saif Ali Khan) and student/businesswoman Rhea (Rani Mukerji) unfolds over a nine year period in which both characters and their relationship grow and become something the actors succeed in making you actually care about.
Karan and Rhea meet as students on a flight to New York, pack more into a six hour stopover in Amsterdam en route than I'd dare, and part ways unable to see eye-to-eye on Karan's self-confessed bad attitude towards women. But from the moment he blenches at being dragged by Rhea into Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum he won my heart. Had the same experience myself at his age.
Dutch masters we can both leave. Karan's comic bemusement at the sight of Ruben's lurid depiction of Cimon and Pero (young woman with old man at her
breast) is believable and spot on for his age and character - Saif Ali Khan's comic touches are deft.
Karan and Rhea's paths cross again in New York, Paris and India, accompanied by wind, rain and snow (something always goes wrong). Rhea marries; the surprise guest actor playing her fiancé drew well-deserved murmurs of approval from the female section of the audience. But will Karan's belief that true love will always find a way in the end come true for these two?
There are no outstanding musical numbers in Hum Tum (Saif Ali Khan managing to look cool leaping about in a song sequence in Paris with a bunch of cheerleaders holding red pom poms is getting there), but this is not a failing. The humour and narrative carry the movie. However, at 142 minutes - shortish for a Bollywood movie - the pace begins to drag at the end. Hum Tum could have benefited from a 10 minute chop, and screening it with the intended intermission. Subtitling the songs, while perhaps a little distracting, would also have helped (think how integral the lyrics were in Lagaan). These are minor quibbles. Hum Tum was funny. We enjoyed it and so did the rest of the audience. Recommended. 7 bags of product placed Lay's Chips out of 10 by Helen Morgan
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