. . . Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (1997) has all the hallmarks of a
late nineties Bollywood romantic comedy: love at first sight, creepy
devotion, persistent bad behavior, complication for the sake of
complication, and a relationship built on a tissue-thin fabric of lies.
To be fair, though, those are also the hallmarks of romantic comedy in
general.
Wealthy businessman Kailashnath Kapoor (Anupam Kher) is vain, self-involved, and careless enough to take out a bank loan to invest in a company which is currently under investigation, despite the sensible advice of his banker, Gayatri (Beena Banerjee.) Sound financial advice is all well and good, but Kailashnath has other concerns. Most notably, his spunky, spirited daughter Ashi (Aishwarya Rai in her second film, so new to Bollywood that they didn’t bother giving her a separate character name) has reached marriageable age, and he hopes that marrying her off will stop her sleepwalking and buying horses for people.
At a wedding, Kailashnath bumps into the Malhotras, old friends who happen to be looking for a bride for their son Rohit. His problems aren’t quite over yet, however; while Ashi is not in principle opposed to an arranged marriage, a college friend was just driven to suicide by an unexpectedly drunken, adulterous, gambling husband. Ashi wants to meet Rohit first, and not in the living room with parents present - instead she plans to travel incognito to Switzerland, and observe Rohit in his natural habitat. (This is not a bad idea, in theory, though the actual execution is lacking.) After convincing her grandfather (Shammi Kapoor), the real head of the household, she’s on a plane and off to Switzerland.
It’s in Switzerland that wackiness really starts to ensue. Ashi accuses the first man she meets (Bobby Deol) of stealing her bags, and is less than amused when she realizes she’s completely wrong. The young man happens to have the hotel room next to hers, and over the next few days she clashes with him repeatedly while bungling her attempts to find Rohit; even the traditional rescue from a gang of wandering rapists doesn’t convince her to lighten up. Until, that is, she discovers that the young man is Rohit.
Ashi puts her plan into action, and quickly determines that Rohit doesn’t drink or gamble. Unfortunately, along the way she also manages to convince him that she’s an alcoholic compulsive gambler. After some furious apologies, the two make up and engage in chaste canoodling, and all is well. At least until Rohit works up the courage to confess that he’s not really Rohit at all, he’s Bobby Oberoi.
And so it goes. Like a lot of romantic comedies, and Bollywood romantic comedies in particular, every time one relationship crisis is resolved . . . Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya throws in another one. And, just as in many other romantic comedies, most of the crises are the fault of the characters themselves, and could have been avoided with a little forethought and a few moments of honest conversation. As always, it’s the execution that makes the difference. Unfortunately, Bobby and Ashi just aren’t quite charming enough, and while there are a few golden moments (most notably Ashi’s grandparents sitting on a hospital bed, reminiscing about their own courtship,) the whole film is a little too by the numbers.
Wealthy businessman Kailashnath Kapoor (Anupam Kher) is vain, self-involved, and careless enough to take out a bank loan to invest in a company which is currently under investigation, despite the sensible advice of his banker, Gayatri (Beena Banerjee.) Sound financial advice is all well and good, but Kailashnath has other concerns. Most notably, his spunky, spirited daughter Ashi (Aishwarya Rai in her second film, so new to Bollywood that they didn’t bother giving her a separate character name) has reached marriageable age, and he hopes that marrying her off will stop her sleepwalking and buying horses for people.
At a wedding, Kailashnath bumps into the Malhotras, old friends who happen to be looking for a bride for their son Rohit. His problems aren’t quite over yet, however; while Ashi is not in principle opposed to an arranged marriage, a college friend was just driven to suicide by an unexpectedly drunken, adulterous, gambling husband. Ashi wants to meet Rohit first, and not in the living room with parents present - instead she plans to travel incognito to Switzerland, and observe Rohit in his natural habitat. (This is not a bad idea, in theory, though the actual execution is lacking.) After convincing her grandfather (Shammi Kapoor), the real head of the household, she’s on a plane and off to Switzerland.
It’s in Switzerland that wackiness really starts to ensue. Ashi accuses the first man she meets (Bobby Deol) of stealing her bags, and is less than amused when she realizes she’s completely wrong. The young man happens to have the hotel room next to hers, and over the next few days she clashes with him repeatedly while bungling her attempts to find Rohit; even the traditional rescue from a gang of wandering rapists doesn’t convince her to lighten up. Until, that is, she discovers that the young man is Rohit.
Ashi puts her plan into action, and quickly determines that Rohit doesn’t drink or gamble. Unfortunately, along the way she also manages to convince him that she’s an alcoholic compulsive gambler. After some furious apologies, the two make up and engage in chaste canoodling, and all is well. At least until Rohit works up the courage to confess that he’s not really Rohit at all, he’s Bobby Oberoi.
And so it goes. Like a lot of romantic comedies, and Bollywood romantic comedies in particular, every time one relationship crisis is resolved . . . Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya throws in another one. And, just as in many other romantic comedies, most of the crises are the fault of the characters themselves, and could have been avoided with a little forethought and a few moments of honest conversation. As always, it’s the execution that makes the difference. Unfortunately, Bobby and Ashi just aren’t quite charming enough, and while there are a few golden moments (most notably Ashi’s grandparents sitting on a hospital bed, reminiscing about their own courtship,) the whole film is a little too by the numbers.
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