Watched Salaam-E-Ishq yesterday. I was not going to watch it and was not too excited about it in general, but was pulled into the hype by some cousins.

Then, just day before yesterday, I heard some reviews from people that it was too long and there was not much to the storyline and stuff. Made me sort of not too keen to go to the movie. But since I am all alone (the wife and baby are enjoying an extended vacation), I thought I might as well go.

So I did. And it was quite enjoyable. Yes, it was long - 3 hours and 50 minutes including the interval, but the good thing is that I did not feel that it was too long. I saw the time once before the interval and once close to the end. And that was only to estimate how long it has been, not because of boredom.

It has been a while since I saw such a multi-starrer. And it was not bad. I was just hoping that there would be a larger link between the characters than what was shown, but that may be because I am watching too much of Lost, which resumes normal programming next Wednesday! ;-)

The music was pathetic and the songs should have been made optional (watch it online on the movie’s site if you want to). It would have saved them 15 minutes of run time.

I loved Anil Kapoor’s performance. His expressions were brilliant. Seeing a young girl being very forward-thinking and making moves on him left him sort of open-jawed and he showed those feelings very well. Good job. Who was that bimbo, by the way?

Speaking of Anil, how long has he been actively working in Bollywood? He still packs a punch in all his roles. Commendable. And I was wondering if he and Juhi came together in any movie as a couple in their ‘younger’ years. Could not think of any. But my knowledge of movies is very limited so I don’t know. Of course, Juhi had a very small role but you can still call them an on-screen pair for this movie :-)

Govinda’s Raju was another great character. I felt he was quite flat and un-funny in Bhaagam Bhag, but here his delivery was great and timing was perfect. And of course the lost in translation jokes were quite funny. The gori chick looked a lot like Renee Zellweger, didn’t she? She was ok, by the way. I felt the gori in Rang De did a much better job, but maybe it was because she had a much bigger role in that movie and spoke a lot more.

Akshaye Khanna’s character was ok but his acting was funny. Ayesha Takia had not much to do, but in a lot of shots she actually looks like Priyanka. And speaking of Priyanka, I understand it was her first (was it?) comedic role and she overacted through it to the point that she was actually irritating. Salman Khan was decent in patches, but I have a mental block against him so I cannot comment too highly in any way.

I think John Abraham and Vidya Balan’s characters could have been dropped without impacting the story much. Totally detached story from the rest of the movie and almost felt like the producer/director owed them a movie role or something!

The Sohail Khan/Isha Koppikar couple was another couple that could have been completely left out and not made any impact on the storyline. But it was so-so comedy on their part.

Overall, its ok to watch it once. Definitely not buying the DVD or the CD.

Cross posted at Desicritics.org