SALAAM NAMASTE

Reviews, credits & stills

Producer: YashRaj

Director: Siddharth Raj Anand

Writer: Siddharth Raj Anand

Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Arshad Warsi, Jugal Hansraj, Tania Zaetta, Javed Jaffrey.

Music: Vishal-Shekhar

Lyrics: Jaideep Sahni

In Hindi with English subtitles.

Love and marriage are two vital ingredients in Bollywood films, and it's rare for one not to lead to the other. Kudos therefore to writer/director Siddharth Raj Anand for taking a more contemporary look at love and relationships in Salaam Namaste, a romantic comedy in which an Indian chef (Saif Ali Khan) and radio jockey (Preity Zinta) prefer to share a bed than get wed. Littered with laughs and one-liners, this is one entertainer that dares to defy convention.

Away from their traditional families in India, Nick (Khan) and Ambar (Zinta) are living their dream life down under in Melbourne. But when a meeting at a friend's wedding leads to them falling in love, the independent duo take a leap of faith by moving in together. No big deal if you're a Caucasian couple, but in the world of Bollywood this is as bold as it gets. Soon Ambar's untidiness and Nick's fondness for the sports channel takes it toll. But that's nothing compared to the shock in store when they discover Ambar is pregnant.

"RISQUÉ BUT RESPONSIBLE"

By openly discussing taboo subjects like contraception and sex before marriage, and avoiding clichés of extended families and lavish weddings, Anand manages to create a Hindi romp that is risqué but responsible in its examination of the psychology of love and differences between the sexes. However, bearing a more than passing resemblance to Hollywood rom-com Nine Months means missing out on prizes for originality. Nevertheless quirky performances from Khan and Zinta, and a madcap cameo by Javed Jafferi as their Crocodile Dundee-style Indian landlord, makes Salaam Namaste an affair to remember.

Reviewed by Jaspreet Pandohar    http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/09/06/salaam_namaste_2005_review.shtml

 

Bollywood is changing with the times. It's become a major international player, in fact. The movies are now much more accessible to non-Indian audiences and they're filling a space virtually abandoned by Western cinema. If there is a typical Bollywood film, it's a big, glossy production with gorgeous stars, a shamelessly romantic plot and lots of singing and dancing. They're entertaining in the way American and British movies were 50 or 60 years ago, delivering a rosy, dreamlike escape from everyday reality. But that's changing, too.

Salaam Namaste fairly bristles with youthful exuberance and high spirits.

If the setting looks familiar, it is. Salaam Namaste is the first Hindi movie to be shot entirely in Australia and our dancers had to learn some new moves.

SIDDARTH RAJ ANAND (writer-director Salaam Namaste): "I came to Australia last year, or last November. I went to Brisbane and I went to the Gold Coast, I came to Sydney, I went to Melbourne. I just loved the vibe of Melbourne, the cafes, the river, the streets.

Twenty-seven-year-old Siddarth Anand is one of the new generation and Salaam Namaste deals with subjects once beyond the pale for mainstream Indian cinema. Nick and Ambar are far from home when they fall in love and start living together. Marriage isn't talked about until Ambar falls pregnant. These are hot social issues but writer-director Anand knows his audience.

SIDDARTH RAJ ANAND: "I'm pretty much sure that I only want to make films that are entertaining … that the audience will get entertained by, I don't want to make films for my sake."

Bollywood Masala Indian Film FestivalTo that end, he cast two of India's biggest stars, Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta as his carefree young lovers. And he managed to include a satirical Crocodile Dundee character as well.

Indian cinema generally, and Bollywood especially, is responding rapidly to the world outside, thanks to television.

MITU BHOWMICK LANGE (co-director Bollywood Masala Indian Film Festival): "There's been such an ambush of foreign channels, satellite channels and from having just one-and-a-half government channels, we now have 56 channels free to air, so everybody's minds have really opened."

And even when the subject matter is familiar the treatment is increasingly sophisticated. Dripping with exotic nostalgia, the romantic epic Parineeta has positively luscious production values swirling around its tortured young lovers. The depth of filmmaking talent in India is astonishing.

But Bollywood is still unapologetically star-driven and Shah Rukh Khan is currently the biggest star of all. In Veer-Zaara, he's an Indian Air Force pilot who falls in love with a Pakistani girl — Preity Zinta, again. And trying to save them from a tragic fate, and compete in a male-dominated society, the reigning queen of Indian cinema, Rani Mukherjee.

Bollywood Masala Indian Film FestivalBollywood stars typically have short, intense lives. Not yet 30, Rani Mukherjee has appeared in more than 30 films in less than 10 years. And like many Hollywood actors, she's using her celebrity to propel her into serious, dramatic roles.

She gives a remarkably passionate performance as a blind, deaf girl in Black, an Indian version of the Helen Keller story, in which she stars opposite veteran Amitabh Bachchan, acknowledged as the greatest Hindi actor of all time.

Films like Blackwin her awards and critical praise, but Rani Mukherjee keeps her headlock on mainstream audiences with popular comedies as well. Bunty Aur Babli is the work of another young director, Shaad Ali Sahgal, whose films break new ground.

SHAAD ALI SAHGAL: "I don't know whether risks is the right word because no one still really knows what the formula is to a successful film, whether it is a song and dance film or a song film, no one knows what's going to work, so I think it's just one's convictions and what one is completely sure of and it motivates you to do something more than what's been happening."

Many of the films in Bollywood Masala stray outside the familiar territory of Hindi cinema. They don't all have singing and dancing, and some of them are dark and edgy.

MITU BHOWMICK LANGE: "With these 12 films what we have tried to do is put forward to the Australian filmgoers really wholesome, fun, entertaining yet thought provoking and socially relevant, mix of films which have something for everyone."

Bollywood Masala Indian Film FestivalIf you're already familiar with Hindi cinema, you don't need me to tell you that it's developed into much more than an exotic curiosity, or a kind of ethnic cul de sac. It burst those borders long ago and its diversity and technical sophistication defer to no one. But if you haven't yet tasted the delights of Bollywood, there's a whole new world waiting for you.

Peter Thompson,   http://sunday.ninemsn.com.au/sunday/film_reviews/article_1916.asp