shaadi # 1...review....

Vashu Bhagnani and David Dhawan have an unbeatable track record: COOLIE NO. 1, HERO NO. 1, BIWI NO. 1 and BADE MIYAN CHOTE MIYAN, money-spinners all. So when the duo gets together after a hiatus, you expect them to hit a boundary yet again.

SHAADI NO. 1 follows the tradition of David Dhawan movies faithfully. Leave your thinking caps at home and throw logic to the winds when you saunter into a movieplex to watch a David Dhawan flick, that's the mantra you need to follow.

But you really can't expect every David Dhawan enterprise to be as entertaining as AANKHEN, JUDWAA and MUJHSE SHAADI KAROGI. You realize that David hasn't deviated from the tried and trusted formula he has been churning out successfully over the years, but the problem with SHAADI NO. 1 is that it runs out of ideas after an engrossing first hour.

SHAADI NO. 1 tries to pack everything available on the shelf: Comedy, double entendres, skin show, great visuals [Lyon, France] et al. You laugh aloud -- there's never a dull moment initially -- as the three husbands try to get closer to their respective wives and the subsequent plans they hatch to get closer to the three sisters. So far, so good!

But there's a slip between the cup and the lip…

Just when you thought that the aircraft was off to a great start, you gradually learn that the flight to fantasyland isn't smooth at all. The snag here lies in its post-interval portions when the story actually stagnates and you realize that the writer[s] has utilized all the tricks in the first hour itself, with not much to offer in the next hour.

All said and done, SHAADI NO. 1 doesn't sweep you off your feet, the way David's earlier rip-rollicking laugh-fests did so delightfully.

SHAADI NO. 1 tells the story of three couples: Raj [Fardeen Khan]/Bhavana [Ayesha Takia], Veer [Zayed Khan]/Diya [Esha Deol] and Aryan [Sharman Joshi]/Sonia [Soha Ali Khan].

The husbands feel that their wives don't respect them enough since they are worthless. They even try to commit suicide, but in vain. As luck would have it, they save an entrepreneur, Kothari [Satish Shah], from committing suicide, who eventually asks them to join his business.

Kothari has a problem: His daughters, Madhuri [Ria Sen], Dimple [Sophie Chaudhary] and Rekha [Aarti Chhabria], are in no mood to have an arranged marriage. Kothari wants the three guys to woo his daughters and then dump them, so that they realize that love affairs can go wrong as well.

Initially, the guys refuse to bail out Kothari, but he issues an ultimatum: Woo his daughters or else lose the job. The guys fly abroad, court the three sisters and actually fall in love with them. But when they return to India, they suddenly discover a kabab mein haddi in the form of Lucky Bhaiya [Sanjay Dutt], who claims to be a distant relative of the three wives.

In the meanwhile, Kothari wants the guys to stop dating his daughters, but they are in no mood to obey his orders. In fact, they even discuss the issue of a second marriage with their respective wives. The complications multiply…

Remake of the Telugu film SANDADE SANDADI, SHAADI NO. 1 is a typical David Dhawan flick. Never ask questions when you watch a David Dhawan film, because chances are you may not get the answers at the end of the day. But the moviegoer knows the David Dhawan formulae too well by now and wouldn't really complain if the joyride is exhilarating enough to last for two hours.

In this case, things go awry in the post-interval portions. Ideally, the second hour should've been much more racy and punch-packed, but things keep deteriorating as the story moves towards its finale. Alas, even the climax belies the expectations and is a complete letdown. In fact, the end is so bizarre that even hardcore David Dhawan fans would find it difficult to gulp it down their throat.

David Dhawan tries his best to woo the aam junta with his by-now-famous brand of comedy, but he doesn't get much help from the writer[s] of the enterprise. There's no novelty whatsoever and certain portions actually make you wonder whether the writer knows the basics of writing well enough.

Take for instance the sequence when the three guys decide to eliminate Sanju and his body even falls off a cliff. But how does he surface as a ghost? Even the climax, when he rescues the three wives one after the other, looks weird and doesn't even raise a chuckle. And how and why do the husbands have a change of heart? Most importantly, who is Sanju in the first place and why does he pretend to be the three wives' distant relative? No explanations are offered!

Anu Malik's music is another weak spot. While 'Dil Nahin Toda Karte' and 'Jitne Channel TV Ke' are somewhat foot-tapping, the rest are plain mediocre. Cinematography [Johny Lall] is up to the mark, especially the outdoor work. Dialogues [Milap Zaveri] are well worded.

SHAADI NO. 1 has a huge star cast, but only a handful of names register an impact. Fardeen, Zayed and Sharman are efficient and what comes as a [pleasant] surprise is that both Fardeen and Zayed have handled the light moments with ease. As far as the leading ladies are concerned, Ayesha Takia and Esha Deol can be singled out. Sanjay Dutt's role might appeal to the masses mainly. Satish Shah is proficient.

On the whole, SHAADI NO. 1 is too ordinary a product to leave a strong impression. At the box-office, the 5-day weekend might help the film to an extent, that's about it!

**