On the road again.

Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998) is an example of the 90’s Bollywood trend of “romance as road trip”; in these movies, a young man and woman meet while traveling to some exotic location, and instantly dislike one another. However, when things go wrong the pair are forced to work together, which leads to mutual respect, which leads to love, just in time for added complications. The big difference in Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha is that the exotic location in question is India.

Kajol plays Sanjana, a hard working orphan with a penchant for pratfalls living in a Paris which looks an awful lot like Switzerland. All Sanjana really wants out of life is a home of her own and a family to share it with, and her dream is about to come true; after years of hard work, she’s saved up enough money to buy her dream house, and despite her extreme clumsiness she’s engaged to Rahul (Bijay Anad), a presumably attractive up and coming young businessman of some sort.

Rahul is scheduled to go on a business trip to India. Sanjana wants to go with him, but she’s absolutely terrified of flying, so the plane leaves without her. Still, she’s happy with her life . . . until she gets a drunken, rambling, and downright insulting phone call from Rahul, telling her that he’s not coming back because he’s fallen in love with Nisha (Kashmira Shah.) This will not do, so she vows to go to India herself, and bring back her man.

On the plane, she meets Shekhar (Ajay Devgan), who is secretly a thief transporting a fantastically valuable diamond necklace back to India. (He does have a heart of gold and the best of motives, but we don’t find out about that until later.) Shekhar manages to distract Sanjana by arguing with her long enough for the plane to take off, and after a little turbulence, a lot of alcohol, and a full scale mid-flight dance number, the plane lands safely in Mumbai, where Shekhar spots his friendly nemesis, Inspector Khan (Om Puri) who has vowed to repay Shekhar for saving his life by putting him back on the straight and narrow, even if he has to send him to prison to do it.

Shekhar stashes the necklace in Sanjana’s luggage, but he’s sidetracked by Inspector Khan and loses track of her. By the time he finds her again, she’s gone to Rahul’s hotel, created a scene in the lobby, fainted at the sight of Rahul with his floozie, and had her luggage stolen. By the time Shekhar tracks down the thief, everything is gone except for Sanjana’s handbag. It’s only after returning the handbag and sending her on her way that Shekhar realizes the necklace must still be in the bag, and if he wants to retrieve it, he’ll have to stick close to her, which means helping her reclaim Rahul, which means a road trip.

Of course there’s a long interlude at Shekhar’s family’s farm, where Sanjana realizes that he’s a decent guy after all, and is only stealing to a)clear the mortgage on the ancestral lands, and b) (say it with me) pay for a heart operation for his young nephew.

And from there, the movie pretty much writes itself. Shekhar and Sanjana stage a fake and very public romance in order to make Rahul jealous, while growing closer to one another. Will Sanjana choose the charming bad boy with a heart of gold played by major Bollywood star (and Kajol’s real life husband) Ajay Devgan, or Rahul, the Weasel That Walks Like a Man, played by some guy with two film credits to his name?

Early in the film, Rahul establishes himself as such a vile little toad of a man that you can’t help wondering what on Earth Sanjana is thinking, wanting him back. And then, near the end, Sanjana explains what on Earth she was thinking, and the explanation makes sense and shows a degree of psychological insight that I do not expect from mid-nineties Bollywood romances.

Apart from that flash of unexpected insight, there isn’t much to separate Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha from other roadtrip romances. Everyone gets a chance to play to their particular strengths; Kajol once again showcases her skills at drama and comedy (and does a decent Lucille ball impression), while Ajay Devgan, who is not a natural comedian, gets the chance to brood and perform improbable stunts. It’s a decent entertainer.