Salaam-E-Ishq

What annoys me about this movie is that it could have been a classic. I mean come on this movie had so many stars in it and they couldn't afford a decent editor. I watched on a movie channel recently and with the adverts put in it was over 4 hours. I could see that the director was aiming for an epic love story on the lines of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Koun, which were long movies but he went too far.

Another problem with Salaam e Isnq is that there were so many stories and not all of them are good, I mean what was the point of the Sohail Khan storyline. They could have cut that part out and concentrated on the decent stories. The Salman Khan- Priyanka Chopra, Akshaye Khanna- Ayesha Takia story lines were an improvement but were still quite weak Amongst the good ones were the John Abraham-Vidya Balan, Govinda storyline and the Anil Kapoor- Juhi Chawla storyline.

The climax could have been thrilling but instead was a bore (I mean come on spending over 15 minutes on the climax you have got to be kidding me). On the other hand it is definitely not the worst film of the year and there were a lot of entertaining moments. The songs also were very good, especially the title song and Tenu Leke. If you have a couple of hours on your hands then you should give it a go. Could have been another Kuch Kuch Hota Hai instead becomes a Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.

Its been quite a few years since the release of " Kal Ho Na Ho", the movie which had completed the troika of hits for Dharma Productions and had launched Karan Johan's assistant Nikhil Advani in the director's seat. This time around Nikhil is back with "Salaam-e-Ishq" (which incidentally is his first movie out of Dharma Productions) which lets us know that he is all set to run his own show.

As this movie is the second release of Nikhil Advani as a director and as it also flaunts of a multi star studded star-cast they are many expectations in the minds of the audiences as they expect a movie which is supposed to re-create the "movie magic" displayed in the director's previous work. But on the contrary, what we get to witness is a movie which has nothing new in it and has employed exhausted story lines most of which a normal Indian movie-goer has already witnessed on screen over and over a zillion times.

The movie keeps moving back and forth between five main story tracks (Yes!! five and not six) each of which try to portray a different shade of love. The characters of each story try to depict everyday characters who are either in love, waiting to fall in love or running away from it. Each of the stories move around in different paths in their own respective circles until fate makes them cross paths at the end.

The movie falls short in many aspects be it the script, the story telling or the pace which just never seems to be fast enough throughout the movie. Though the movie makers have taken pains to provide the movie a good cinematography and have even taken care to polish their product with new graphical techniques, they have missed out upon one of the basic building blocks i.e. the screenplay on which the progress of the entire plot and hence the movie depends upon. The end result: a three and a half hour long movie with a story which has more than a dozen characters, most of whose roles aren't well figured out

The actors and actresses have tried to put up their best for their respective roles: Govinda as the happy-go-lucky taxi driver who is waiting for his "dream girl" to materialize, John who plays the role of a concerned husband as his wife is suffering from amnesia, Akshaye as the man who gets quirky before his marriage and decides to runaway from it, Priyanka who plays the role of an item-girl dreaming to make it big one day and Anil Kapoor the middle-aged family guy who is tired of his "boring" married life.

During the movie there are certain times when the audiences gets to laugh and this helps them get rid of some of the boredom they are burdened with and thus keeps them awake. Also the main song sequences are well pictorised and choreographed, so the audiences get to see the the makers aren't amateurs and are capable of delivering quality entertainment.

But despite this in the end the movie fails to gain the approval of the audiences who find no ingenuity and uniqueness in the movie and are mostly not impressed (if not disappointed) by the poor quality of the product which the director and the story writers have created. If only the right kind of treatment would have been given to the script and the roles of the characters were better framed, the movie could have done wonders.

this movie has lot of downsides and thats all i could see. it is painfully long and awfully directed. i could see whole audience getting impatient and waiting for it to end. run time is way over 3 hrs which could have been edited to less then 2 hrs.

transition between stories is average. most people confessed being on seating expecting something better to come out.

its funny only in pockets. ambitious project and a below par execution. govinda does a fair job, anil kapoor disappointed me, rest we as expected. if u r expecting anything close to babel or love actually then its no where close.

The movie is watchable ,but far from breathtaking. It has some great moments worth watching , but I can personally skip half of it.

There are 6 stories - some of them way too extended and some of them way too neglected.

The cast was overall good ,but the performer who really stole the show was Juhi Chawla (in those couple of minutes she had on-screen). She was the only one really acting. She delivered her role very well and made her character pretty believable.It is a miracle she did that with such a poor character story line. Govinda did a great job. Anil Kapoor and Vidya Balan were also good in terms of acting. All the others were simply okay by my opinion.

Overall not the best Hindi movie I've seen.

OK the director remakes LOVE ACTUALLY The director Nikhil Advani after debuting with KHNH does his second half and wait

He makes a 3:30 hours + film which loses on patience, time.etc The viewer seems like a 3 hrs sleep watching this film

OK they had 6 stories so it was necessary but why? 6 stories?

We have the Anil- Juhi story convincing but boring don't TV serials show such stories?

We have Govinda- Shannon story which is funny and works well

We have Akshaye-Ayesha story again believable but gets boring soon and the focus is on comedy more and that too slapstick boring comedy

We have Salman- Priyanka story which is the worst, not just acting terms, it makes no sense at all

We have Sohail- Isha story to make you laugh and the trick works at times thanks to the boredom set by most of other stories

We have John- Vidya story a good story in all respects

But then by the time all stories come in bits n pieces the viewer gets bored and sleepy The climax isn't appealing though especially The climax of Salman- Priyanka story Nikhil Advani's handling is alright at places, some stories are well handled but weak at places Music(SEL)is good, but too many songs Cinematography is nice, every story is given a different look, texture and it works

Actors Govinda rocks, after a dismissal comeback with BB he actually makes you laugh and love him in this film despite his age and weight Anil Kapoor acts his part well, though he looks out of shape and tired John excels in his part, Akshaye Khanna overacts for a change

Sohail Khan is too over- the - top and Isha has nothing to do Anjana Suknani is dismissal

Priyanka and Salman deserve an award for this film you are shocked?

Salman Khan doesn't act only, just talks like he is in his sleep and that fake accent oh god Priyanka overacts to such a standard you feel like throwing something on her, she does get better towards the end Vidya Balan is good, Juhi Chawla is okay Shannon is okay