Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd'
UK Rated: 12A
Runtime: 119min 52secs
Tagline: Marriages are full of surprises.
Written & Directed by: Reema Kagti
Plot Outline
A number of newly-wed diverse couples have decided to embark upon a tour from Bombay to Goa (correction: Mumbai to Goa) for their Honeymoon, but what one doesn't predict is the experience in store for them.
There is a Bengali couple with a conservative husband (Kay Kay Menon) and a raring-to-go wife (Raima Sen). There is a perfect Parsi couple (Abhay Deol – Minissha Lamba) who are always in sync with each other and never ever catch up a fight. A Gujarati duo Hitesh (Ranvir) and Shilpa (Dia Mirza) forms the imperfect couple. Then there is an NRI (non-residential indian) Richie (Vikram Chatwal) married to a Bambaiyya girl (Sandhya Mridul). A college lovebird duo (Amisha Patel – Karan Khanna) and an elderly couple (Boman Irani – Shabana Azmi) complete the dozen honeymooners.
So what's the story? Well their characterizations itself is the story.
Overall Impressions:
A pleasant little comedy, no way near as cheesy as I'd thought it'd be from what I gathered from the publicity and adverts.. and this is a huge plus. Its a simple story of how each couple deals with the transition into a married life & the surprises that can come with it. It reminded me a little of Kucch Meetha Ho Jaaye from last year which followed a delayed plane flight and a bunch of families dealing with their troubles at an airport, but this one is certainly a better take, more direct, more realistic, more fun.
Many light-hearted moments, integrated with an on-going radio narrative, with some flashbacks & songs from the yesteryears are a definite nice touch. Seems like some of the ideas I'd been discussing with friends again have been stolen by these directors with Time Machines - damned them. With the number of times this has happened its far more than Déjà Vu. :-P
The film does end rather abruptly, but I guess this is merely reflecting that not all issues between couples are going to be resolved on their honeymoon (though some are).
While most of the characters have put in a decent performance, Kay Kay Menon steals the show. His character is the strongest & made totally believable with his sincere act. You instantly connect with his character of a modern day man but with a conservative traditional backdrop. On the other hand, the one performance that stands out for the wrong reasons is Amisha Patel, as opposed to the resolution they chose with her I would have been much happier if they simply decided to throw her off the bus. She simply irritated.
A fun ride, realistic characters, realistic problems, filmy solution - (6.5 out of 10)
Is this not incredibly similar to Salaam-E-Ishq?
You know, funnily enough I'd never actually thought of it that way, it does both have six pairs in it. That said, the similarity does end there.
This one is about Recently married couples on their honeymoon & is just short of 2 hours long.
Salaam-e-Ishq is over 3 and a half hours & is a much grander, larger than life film, this is more, could happen to anyone (bar one of the couples). Also the pairs in Salaam-e-Ishq are entirely independant of each other & its the way they integrate the stories that makes it unique, here its easy, they're all on a bus hanging out on holiday.
Hopefully that clears that up. :)