My disbelief suspenders are very well developed. This is a useful trait for a Bollywood fan to have, since it is (famously) not a realistic cinema;
even if you accept the song and dance numbers, popular Indian cinema
runs on coincidence, and the premises are often tortuously contrived.
Good disbelief suspenders are important, because often the best movies are the ones with the silliest premises.
In Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai (2000), Rohit (Hrithik Roshan) is a car salesman with dreams of becoming a famous singer. He’s an orphan, and he and his brother Amit (Abishek Sharma) live a poor but virtuous life in the home of a kindly retired couple (played by Farida Jalal and Satish Shah, naturally.)
When Rohit crosses paths with spoiled rich girl Sonia (Amisha Patel), sparks fly. Surprisingly, her friends have no problem with this, and one of them even hires Rohit as a singer so that he can join them on a cruise ship. During the cruise, Rohit and Sonia are briefly marooned on a desert island (you heard me!) and by the time they’re rescued, they’ve fallen deeply in love.
Unfortunately, Sonia’s father (Anupam Kher) isn’t as understanding. He has Rohit fired and blacklisted from the auto industry. Sonia runs away to be with Rohit, but Rohit is far too virtuous to marry without parental approval, so he brings her back, promising that, when he can stand on his own two feet, he will take her away with her father’s permission. Sonia’s father agrees.
Since he can’t work as a car salesman any more, the only obvious solution is for Rohit to become a famous singer, and so he sets out to do just that. he’s on the verge of succeeding, but on the day of his big debut concert, he happens to see his old boss (Dalip Tahil) and two corrupt policemen (Mohnish Bahl and Ashish Vidyarthi) murder the commissioner of police in order to cover up their drug business. Rohit is spotted, chased, and then killed. Really killed; since this was still before the intermission, I kept looking for a way he could have survived, but while the police divers don’t find the body, the audience clearly sees him bobbing at the bottom, hours after falling in. Rohit, our hero, is definitely dead.
Sonia is consumed by grief, and her father finally ships her off to New Zealand. While there, she meets Raj (Hrithik Roshan), Rohit’s double. Raj is immediately smitten, but she is tortured by memories whenever she looks at his face, which puts a damper on the budding relationship. Still, Raj is persistent enough to follow her back to India, and gracious enough to give up the chase when he realizes the pain he’s causing her. And it’s at this point that one of the corrupt policemen shoots at him, thinking that he’s Rohit risen from the grave. Soon the police are out in force hunting for Raj and Sonia, and they must go underground to expose the killers and the mysterious mastermind behind them. (Hint: It’s not Satish Shah.)
KNPH makes no effort at all to justify the central premise; Rohit has a double in New Zealand who just happens to run into Sonia, and just happens to be able to step into every aspect of Rohit’s life. The film is very clear on this point. Rohit is definitely dead, and Raj is definitely not Rohit; Sonia is quickly presented with ample evidence of Raj’s prior life in New Zealand. the two men are doubles, and we’re expected to accept that fact (and like it!)
If your disbelief suspenders are strong enough to accept the central premise, the plot holds together well, apart from the desert island sequence, which doesn’t really add anything to the film that a more conventional romantic sequence would, apart from the opportunity to see Amisha’s knickers.
This was Hrithik’s first real film role (apart from some credits as a child actor) and it’s an auspicious debut. Raj and Rohit are very distinct characters but each is likable in his own way.
The character of Sonia isn’t as successful. She’s supposed to be a spunky free spirit, but Amisha doesn’t have the comedic spark of a Karisma or Juhi or Preity, so she mostly comes off as annoying. After the Sari Point, Sonia is much more sedate, and Amisha’s performance is much more successful.
The musical score is quite nice; the songs have a consistent sound to them, and since within the universe of the film most of the music was written by Rohit, that’s important. We don’t have to accept Rohit’s musical talent on faith, because we can really hear the songs, and we know they’re good. This is good, since I can accept a convenient plot doppelganger far more easily than I can accept a musical prodigy who clearly isn’t.
In Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai (2000), Rohit (Hrithik Roshan) is a car salesman with dreams of becoming a famous singer. He’s an orphan, and he and his brother Amit (Abishek Sharma) live a poor but virtuous life in the home of a kindly retired couple (played by Farida Jalal and Satish Shah, naturally.)
When Rohit crosses paths with spoiled rich girl Sonia (Amisha Patel), sparks fly. Surprisingly, her friends have no problem with this, and one of them even hires Rohit as a singer so that he can join them on a cruise ship. During the cruise, Rohit and Sonia are briefly marooned on a desert island (you heard me!) and by the time they’re rescued, they’ve fallen deeply in love.
Unfortunately, Sonia’s father (Anupam Kher) isn’t as understanding. He has Rohit fired and blacklisted from the auto industry. Sonia runs away to be with Rohit, but Rohit is far too virtuous to marry without parental approval, so he brings her back, promising that, when he can stand on his own two feet, he will take her away with her father’s permission. Sonia’s father agrees.
Since he can’t work as a car salesman any more, the only obvious solution is for Rohit to become a famous singer, and so he sets out to do just that. he’s on the verge of succeeding, but on the day of his big debut concert, he happens to see his old boss (Dalip Tahil) and two corrupt policemen (Mohnish Bahl and Ashish Vidyarthi) murder the commissioner of police in order to cover up their drug business. Rohit is spotted, chased, and then killed. Really killed; since this was still before the intermission, I kept looking for a way he could have survived, but while the police divers don’t find the body, the audience clearly sees him bobbing at the bottom, hours after falling in. Rohit, our hero, is definitely dead.
Sonia is consumed by grief, and her father finally ships her off to New Zealand. While there, she meets Raj (Hrithik Roshan), Rohit’s double. Raj is immediately smitten, but she is tortured by memories whenever she looks at his face, which puts a damper on the budding relationship. Still, Raj is persistent enough to follow her back to India, and gracious enough to give up the chase when he realizes the pain he’s causing her. And it’s at this point that one of the corrupt policemen shoots at him, thinking that he’s Rohit risen from the grave. Soon the police are out in force hunting for Raj and Sonia, and they must go underground to expose the killers and the mysterious mastermind behind them. (Hint: It’s not Satish Shah.)
KNPH makes no effort at all to justify the central premise; Rohit has a double in New Zealand who just happens to run into Sonia, and just happens to be able to step into every aspect of Rohit’s life. The film is very clear on this point. Rohit is definitely dead, and Raj is definitely not Rohit; Sonia is quickly presented with ample evidence of Raj’s prior life in New Zealand. the two men are doubles, and we’re expected to accept that fact (and like it!)
If your disbelief suspenders are strong enough to accept the central premise, the plot holds together well, apart from the desert island sequence, which doesn’t really add anything to the film that a more conventional romantic sequence would, apart from the opportunity to see Amisha’s knickers.
This was Hrithik’s first real film role (apart from some credits as a child actor) and it’s an auspicious debut. Raj and Rohit are very distinct characters but each is likable in his own way.
The character of Sonia isn’t as successful. She’s supposed to be a spunky free spirit, but Amisha doesn’t have the comedic spark of a Karisma or Juhi or Preity, so she mostly comes off as annoying. After the Sari Point, Sonia is much more sedate, and Amisha’s performance is much more successful.
The musical score is quite nice; the songs have a consistent sound to them, and since within the universe of the film most of the music was written by Rohit, that’s important. We don’t have to accept Rohit’s musical talent on faith, because we can really hear the songs, and we know they’re good. This is good, since I can accept a convenient plot doppelganger far more easily than I can accept a musical prodigy who clearly isn’t.
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