Business rating: 2.5/5 (Two-and-a-half stars)
Star cast: Ritesh Deshmukh, Genelia D'souza, Om Puri, Tinnu Anand.
What's Good: Several comedy scenes; the hit music; the family drama; the emotional drama.
What's Bad: Some clichd comedy scenes; lack of justification for the love angle.
Verdict: The entertaining second half and the hit music save Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya and make it a plus fare for Tips and UTV. However, a few of the distributors who have acquired territorial distribution rights at fancy prices will not be able to make money.
Loo break: A couple in the first half.
Watch or Not?: Watch it for getting entertained.
UTV Motion Pictures and Tips Industries Ltd.'s Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya (UA) is, as the title suggests, a love story. Viren (Ritesh Deshmukh) is an autorickshaw driver who works for Mini's (Genelia D'souza) father, Bhatti (Tinnu Anand). Mini is a tomboy who loves adventures. Mini's marriage is finalised with a boy, Sunny (Kartar Cheema), who is only interested in going to Canada and looks at Mini as his ticket to the foreign land because she is a green card holder. Mini, of course, doesn't approve of the prospective groom but all her pleas to her father to not go ahead with the proposed marriage fall on deaf ears. Around the same time, Bhatti's action causes Viren a loss of his hard-earned money to the tune of Rs. 60,000. Seeing this as an opportunity and wanting to not marry Sunny, Mini orchestrates her own kidnapping by Viren. She asks Viren to demand ransom money from her father for her release, from which he could keep his Rs. 60,000 and give her the rest.
Days pass and Mini begins to get fond of Viren. Viren also likes her. Even as their love story is just blossoming, Viren and Mini are kidnapped and taken to the haveli of Chaudhary (Om Puri). It turns out that Viren alias Chhotu is Chaudhary's son. He had left his home six years ago as he did not approve of his father's dubious ways of earning money by kidnapping people. Staying in the Chaudhary's house are his younger brother (Gurmeet Sajan), Viren's mother (Smita Jayakar), foster sister, Dhaani (Chitrashi Rawat), and foster brother, Naidu (Navin Prabhakar), as also those kidnapped and in his custody. Chaudhary is quite an autocratic person but Mini soon wins his heart and also gets his softer side to the fore. Others in the household also grow extremely fond of Mini who, in any case, wants to get married to Viren. But Viren has his own reasons for not wishing to take Mini as his wife.
Simultaneously, as is his wont, Chaudhary has asked Bhatti to send him ransom money to secure the freedom of his daughter. Here, Mini impresses Chaudhary by giving him tips to manage his kidnapping business more efficiently. For this reason, Chaudhary sees a prospective daughter-in-law in Mini who would successfully inherit his business.
What happens thereafter? Does Bhatti come to Chaudhary with the ransom money? Does Mini return home with her father? Or does she stay back to marry Viren? Does Viren agree to marry her? Do his parents agree to take Mini as their daughter-in-law? Does Bhatti want Mini to marry Viren or Sunny?
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya Review (Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya Movie Stills)
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya Review: Script Analysis
Dhieyo Sandhu's story of a girl falling in love with her kidnapper is not new, the only difference here being that he is not her real kidnapper but is rather forced to kidnap her. However, what differentiates this story from the earlier ones of this kind is the family angle of the boy. Therefore, the second half of the film becomes more of a family drama rather than remaining a love story, which is both, good and entertaining. The screenplay, also penned by Dhieyo Sandhu, is routine in the first half. Many of the scenes are clichd and although the emphasis is on humour and comedy, several of the light-hearted scenes don't evoke the desired response from the audience. In fact, some of the comedy scenes look contrived and fall flat on their face.
But things take a dramatic turn after interval. The drama becomes very entertaining and enjoyable once the focus shifts to 'Agwaha House', as Chaudhary's haveli is nicknamed by people because of his business of aghwaha (kidnapping). Not just the characterisation of Chaudhary but his dialogues and entire demeanour are also so entertaining that the audience enjoys every bit of the post-interval portion. As it is, the writer has not been able to convince the audience about Mini falling in love with Viren, a mere autorickshaw driver, which is also why the family drama in the Chaudhary household appeals far more. In fact, the love angle in the pre-interval portion is the weakest part of the screenplay.
The pre-climax more than lives up to the build-up in the second half of the film and will actually make the weak-hearted cry while getting a lump in the throats of the strong-hearted. The best part of the pre-climax is the ease with which the emotions take over and consume the viewers from what till then is essentially a light-hearted fun film. The climax may be predictable but again, the lecture by Chaudhary before the climax makes it (climax) more interesting. Also, the demands made by Viren of Mini in the last scene are cute and instantly evoke laughter. It wouldn't be wrong to say that save for the emotional pre-climax, the second half has a number of light scenes which bring a smile on the faces of the viewers and, oftentimes, also elicit laughter. Dhieyo Sandhu's dialogues are very nice.
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya Review: Star Performances
Ritesh Deshmukh does a truly fine job, especially in the post-interval portion and in the first part of the first half. Genelia D'souza lives her role in the second half and even her going overboard in a few scenes in the first half is easily forgotten because of her superlative and absolutely endearing performance in the latter half. Om Puri deserves high praise for his acting. He is just too wonderful and it wouldn't be incorrect to say that he and Genelia are the life of the post-interval portion. Smita Jayakar puts in a dignified show. Tinnu Anand plays his part well. Chitrashi Rawat has her moments and makes the most of them. She is endearing. Navin Prabhakar also does a fine job. Gurmeet Sajan is good as Chaudhary's younger brother who never talks. Kartar Cheema does what is required of him in the role of Sunny. As his parents, Rana Jung Bahadur and Satwant Kaur are alright. Amandeep, Aman Randhawa and Gagan Bhangu, all as Sunny's friends, lend fair support. Rana Ranbir (as petrol pump owner Tony Singh), Akshita Sharma (as Mini's friend, Softy), Nishan Cheema and Nihal Purba (both as Viren's friends), Harsh Sethi (as Chaudhary's aide, Jatta) and Diljit Dosanjh (as himself in the Pee pa song) provide adequate support. Veena Malik lends oomph and sex appeal in her graceful Fann ban gayi song.
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya Review: Direction & Music
Mandeep Kumar shows promise as director in his maiden Hindi film. The latter part of the first half gives one the impression that he is losing control but he strikes back after interval and handles the scenes with such clarity and command that he makes his mark for sure. His treatment of the emotional scenes deserves distinction marks. Music (Sachin-Jigar) is a major plus point of the film. Every song is a delight to hear and comes as an entertaining interlude in the film. Piya, Jeene de and Tu mohabbat hai are excellent songs. Pee pa and Fann ban gayi have appeal for the masses and front-benchers. Picturisation of the songs (by Piyush Panchal, Geeta Kapur and Pappu-Maalu) are good but could've been better. The picturisation of the remixed version of Tu mohabbat hai, by Vinnil Markan, is nice. Lyrics, penned by Priya Panchal and Mayur Puri, are very appealing. Background score (by Sachin-Jigar) is okay. Chirantan Das' cinematography is of a good standard. Kaushal-Moses' action scenes are okay. Editing, by Manish More, is good but needed to be crisper. Production and technical values are of a nice standard.
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya Review: Komal Nahta's Verdict
On the whole, Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya is an entertaining film and will, therefore, be liked by families. Its music is a major plus point just as its second half is. A couple of territorial distributors, who have paid fancy prices, may not make money, but profits to Tips and UTV are assured. In fact, Tips has already made money on its investment.
http://www.koimoi.com/reviews/tere-naal-love-ho-gaya-review/One, the romance should be livewire. Ditto for the chemistry between the on-screen pair.
Two, the movie ought to make the viewer chuckle.
Three, it shouldn't fall prey to predictability.
If you get the above-mentioned characteristics right, chances are you may be smiling from ear to ear on the decisive Friday. Okay, does TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA, directed by Mandeep Kumar, live up to the set standards? Oh yes, you do exit the auditorium with a smile on your face.
Love stories with real-life couples don't spell magic at the turnstiles, opined an industry insider, to which my instant retort was if the film works, everything works. Actors, chemistry, songs, technical aspects et al are only as good as the film. After making their big screen debut with TUJHE MERI KASAM, Riteish and Genelia were paired in MASTI. TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA is the third film that teams the two talents. This one ought to be their best, right? Well, Riteish and Genelia look great together, no two opinions on that, and the real-life husband-wife team get ample opportunity to sparkle in their third outing. There are hiccups too -- the film dips in the middle of the second hour -- but, thankfully, it comes alive towards the pre-climax moments, which leads to a winning finale. The credit, to a large extent, goes to Riteish and Genelia for rising beyond a commonplace screenplay.
Bhatti [Tinnu Anand] is keen to get his daughter Mini [Genelia Deshmukh] married. He even chooses a guy who, he thinks, will keep his daughter happy thanks to his riches. In the meantime, Viren [Riteish Deshmukh] feels Bhatti has swindled him of his hard-earned money and confronts Bhatti in an intoxicated state. Seizing the opportunity of escaping from the situation [of marrying a guy she barely knows], Mini flees with Viren, making the episode look as if Viren has kidnapped Mini. Gradually, a romance develops between the unlikely couple.
I've frequently said that humor is serious business. Though the humor in TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA borders on illogicality, like AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI, you can't deny that it keeps you hooked nonetheless. Sure, there're times when you feel that the humor is forced, but you don't grudge and grumble since the intention to entertain and amuse the viewer endlessly are crystal clear from the very inception.
I'd like to add that TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA is not 'inspired' or 'adapted' from Danny Boyle's A LIFE LESS ORDINARY, as being widely said. Following a graph of making an easy-on-your-senses film, the director reserves the best for the penultimate 25 odd minutes. Prior to that, the film vacillates between engrossing to passable to humdrum stuff. Agree, specifics are irrelevant in this case because the director or the writer isn't aiming for realism or practicality here. This is a synthetic world, let's not disregard this fact.
The one issue I hold against the writer is that the goings-on cannot maintain the energy consistently. I mean, the writer had the opportunity to make a real rib-tickling comic fare, but what appears on screen is only moderately amusing. You aren't amused at every juvenile gag, nor do you submit to the insanity entirely. But, like I stated earlier, the concluding reels are dramatic and thoroughly enjoyable. Especially the final moments.
Sachin-Jigar's musical score is pleasant. The songs are in tandem with the mood of the movie. It's peppy and energetic, catering to a young audience. I'd like to make a special note of the cinematography [and the lush-green locales, of course], which is eye-catching.
TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA would've crumbled in the hands of lesser talent. Riteish is earnest, delivering a subdued performance. He underplays his part beautifully, not going overboard one bit. Genelia is a livewire who adds to the insanity. She looks fresh, has a great comic timing and handles her part magnificently. Together, Riteish and Genelia elevate the film a few notches above the ordinary. Om Puri is remarkable, especially in the sequence when Genelia is asked to return to her father. Tinnu Anand is excellent. Smita Jaykar is wonderful. Veena Malik's item number is strictly okay.
On the whole, TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA is refreshing and succeeds in its endeavor of amusing and entertaining, more particularly in its second hour. In addition, the sparkling performances by Riteish and Genelia is the mainstay of the film.
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya has too much saccharine, otherwise it retains a frothy, smooth texture says Preeti Arora.
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