Cyclone Phyan may have scared the wits out of Mumbaikars but it certainly provided a good enough platform to director Kunal Deshmukh for his film “Tum Mile”.
The rain scenes in the film and its reference to a similar tragedy could have hit home if it had been made compellingly. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen.
The film, a love story set in the backdrop of the 2005 Mumbai floods, could have been India’s first “disaster” film but settles for a long-drawn-out unoriginal plot with sporadic shots of rain and people shouting “mujhe bachao”.
Emraan Hashmi and Soha Ali Khan play Akshay and Sanjana, former lovers who meet on a flight to India on July 26, 2005, the day when Mumbai went under water.
Akshay is a brooding artist who also waits tables at a café in Cape Town. Sanjana, on the other hand, is a journalist with a rich father.
Their story is told in flashback, even as both Sanjana and Akshay struggle for survival in the rain.
Unfortunately, it is the flashback which takes up more screen time than the tragedy itself, which would have provided a far more interesting backdrop.
There are hardly any exciting moments and the special effects are tacky. Both Hashmi and Khan aren’t able to muster up the intensity required for their roles and don’t have much chemistry going.
In the end, this film ends up a soppy love story rather than a racy disaster film. Take a life jacket along to save yourself.
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11 comments so far
Felt like running out of the theatre during half time, haven’t seen a crappier movie than this in recent memory…
- Posted by PraveenEmraan thinks he can act, the plots and scenes are so predictable that Mukesh doesn’t know what to grind anymore. In one of the scenes he seems to’ve taken completely from Titanic, incl the key drop and find of cabin flooding! So pathetic, will never again go for a Mukesh bhatt movie!!!
Hi Shilpa,
I have been a continuous reader of your Blogs which has always have a negative impression about our Bollywood movies.
I would like to know which Bollywood movie, even in the past has interested you so that I may get to know your taste of genre of movies.
Thanks,
- Posted by GauravGaurav
Shilpa: At the risk of sounding extremely pretentious, I tend to agree with Gaurav. With the exception of Shawshank Redemption, I don’t ever recall your complete approval for any of the movies. I wonder why! Is it because you’ve a ‘classic’ movie benchmark from every genre for the films that you review? Here you say this “could’ve been India’s first “disaster” film” – I presume this means that you have some other international ‘disaster’ film in mind which serves as a benchmark for this film?
Does it always have to be that you need to compare a film with a preceding classic for this to be any good?
Well, to drive my point home - here are some of the headings of your articles – You’ll notice that the titles itself of the more recent articles have this negative air as compared to your previous articles which tried to look at the positive side of the films as well
Jail: Avoid this three-hour sentence; Aladin: The magic fades away; London Dreams: Falls short of promise (What promise? Who promised anything?); Main Aur Mrs Khanna: A mindless romance; Blue: No colour this Diwali; Acid Factory: Heartburn best avoided; What’s Your Raashee: Celestial Disaster; Dil Bole Hadippa: Clichéd, average fare; Quick Gun Murugan: Mind it!; Sikander: Good idea but not so good execution; Kaminey: The director is the real star; Agyaat: You really don’t want to know; Love Aaj Kal: Not very original but it works; Luck: Don’t stretch your luck with this one; ‘Short Kut’ takes the long, boring route; Kambakkht Ishq: You have to see it to believe it; New York: A film that will grow on you; Kal Kissne Dekha: Not really future perfect; Kal Kissne Dekha: Not really future perfect; Videsh: Stark and unsettling; Firaaq: A hard-hitting debut by Nandita Das; Gulaal: Holds up the mirror to an unpleasant reality; “13B”: Don’t expect to get too scared; Delhi 6: Mehra’s mirror has many faces; Billu: Watch it for Irrfan Khan; Dev D: A different take on an age-old hero; Luck By Chance: An insider’s look at Bollywood; Chandni Chowk to China: Sticking to the formula; Ghajini: Aamir’s most commercial film yet
- Posted by MeenuHey nice headings. I can actually guess the title of the next review: “Kurbaan - Do not sacrifice your precious time”
hehe
- Posted by AthiraGood one.. let me try my hand at this one.. radio - i wish it was actaully on the radio, then I could have switched it off!
- Posted by Dpyaar impossible - direction, acting, screenplay also impossible..!!
Here’s the next one .. Rocket Singh - Singing into space in a rocket !!
- Posted by AdithyaHey this is fun… Kites: This movie does not fly, and has long tail!
- Posted by MintiThree idiots - Who’ll be the 4th one? The one who watch’s it 1st?
- Posted by Shamanthor may be - Three Idiots; I am sane enuf, not to watch it!
- Posted by Shamanth“2012- The world ends”- They did not know how to end the movie do they really know that the world is going to end.
- Posted by KumaranGaurav and Meenu,
There’s nothing worong in calling a spade a spade. I always find Shilpa’s blogs very accurate.
- Posted by HanitAt least she is not trying to surreptiously trying to please some film makers (like many other critics do, who give 4 or 5 star ratings to some of the most idiotic films I’ve seen based on their reviews)
It’s high time Bollywood filmakers stop taking their audiences to be dumb n for granted. Just some slick packaging doesn’t always translate into good films. Agreed, we’ve a rich history of good films and amazing film directots but just compare out 800 movies churned out every every year how many of them make good money. Most of the films tauted as “different” n “mature” come across as nothing more than a sham. Very few film makers, like Vishal Bhardwaj, want to put real effort in scriptwriting n screenplays.
Living in your ivory castles never does anyone any good. Just saying Indan films r as good as Hollywood doesn’t make it the truth. True some of them r, but sadly most of them r not.