Salaam-e-Ishq [2007]

Salaam-e-Ishq
Reviewed: 28.01.2007

Expectations: My expectations for SEI were quite high. Kal Ho Naa Ho is one of my favourite films but everyone always credits Karan for that (as he wrote the screenplay and produced it) so in a way SEI was ‘the test’ for Nikhil as far as I was concerned. Is he actually a good filmmaker? Or was KHNH a one off (and that too thanks to Karan)?

To top it off the film starred some of my all time favourite actors (Salman, Govinda, Juhi) as well some of my current favourites (John, Sohail, Akshaye, Vidya, Priyanka, Ayesha), actually I loved the entire cast. It’s a huge cast and it used to make my head spin just thinking how anyone could handle such a cast, how do you do justice to them all?

Judging by the promos the film looked really interesting, I loved the concept and then when the soundtrack came out, I found it to be one of the better movie albums in a long, long time – furthering my expectations from the movie even more.

Random Comments:

Akshaye Khanna was the ‘leading hero’ of the film. He connected everyone together – I think if there’s a “leading” (or author-backed) role in the film, it’s definitely his.

I love the songs even more now that I’ve seen the film. Saiyyan Re was one I didn’t like earlier on but now I just love the song so much! It was pictured so beautifully, as were all the other songs. In fact the choreography was absolutely fantastic, each song was extremely well shot. Hats off to Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and the choreographer(s) of the film.

The editing was really good; I loved some of the techniques used. The film shows (after KHNH) that Nikhil must have a serious eye for editing; he uses interesting techniques that other filmmakers strangely don’t.

I loved how all the stories connected together. Except for Sohail-Isha’s track (which was like the Shakespearean random clown/fool scenes haha), all the stories bounced off each other so well, I didn’t expect it to be so well sewed together. Very well written screenplay.

Basically, technically the film was awesome. Visually also it was a treat to the eyes. Beautiful costumes (and not just beautiful for the sake of it, each character was designed for suitably and that was the best thing about it), great make-up for all the artistes, and brilliant art direction, one set that really stood out was Anil-Juhi’s house, perfectly made for their lives – grey/black paint and furniture, depicting the dullness in their lives, I loved that!

Performances & Individual Stories:

Akshaye Khanna Ayesha Takia
The Story: I loved it, it was so cute and entertaining, and had me laughing uncontrollably at times, though at other times it did get a bit heavy on the emotional side (especially for Ayesha’s character, I felt so sorry for her because it seemed like every time she decided on a guy for herself to marry something or another went wrong haha).
Akshaye’s Performance I love it when Akshaye does light-hearted roles like these, he’s amazing with them. His comic timing is perfect and his facial expressions are so adorable! He suited the role perfectly and I can’t think of anyone else doing it as well as him, I loved him in it so much! With Aap Ki Khatir and now Salaam-e-Ishq, he’s definitely one of my favourite actors, I hope to see a lot more of him now.
Ayesha’s Performance Her role was very short but she did a fantastic job with whatever she had. She looked stunningly gorgeous and gave a brilliant performance. She’s such a natural actress.

Anil Kapoor Juhi Chawla Anjana
The Story: Fantastic! Absolutely brilliant, I loved their story so much. I could really feel Anil’s character…he lead such a mundane and boring life, just like me! Wake up go to the train station, go to work (well I got uni) like a zombie and then come back to the train station, come back home and go to sleep! Haha! I just loved the way they showed his character ‘coz I could so feel it! I loved how the story was written and portrayed so maturely yet there were some really cute light moments as well. I also loved Juhi’s character (and a huge special mention to the clothes she wore, so real).
Anil’s Performance Anil used to be one of my favourite actors through the end-80s and 90s time of his career, but in the 2000s he hasn’t really impressed me much he just appears so ‘wannabe’ all the time. With Salaam-e-Ishq though, that changes. He was perfect for his role and churned out a fantastically flawless performance, he rocked! And he looked good too (haha he looked so oddly cute without the moustache, even though I knew he shaved it for the film it was still such a shocker!)
Juhi’s Performance Brilliant and subtle performance. The role was short but it was quite complex. Had it been played just the slight bit wrong the whole story could’ve gone for a toss, but Juhi handled it perfectly. She performed maturely and beautifully. The beauty of her performance lies in her ability to make you feel for her, she’s such a warm actress you just feel like reaching out to her and giving her a big hug, oh and she looked so, so gorgeous!!
Anjana’s Performance I always loved this girl in her Ghar Jayegi video, she’s gorgeous! As an actress I’d say this was quite a good role for her to get her teeth into and she did just that, she made the most of it. She did a pretty good job and I liked her!

Govinda Shannon
The Story: Aww the cutest story of the lot! I just felt like giving Govinda the biggest hug, he was so adorable…Raju’s a great guy! I think the idea of communication problems and yet they still fall in love, well…wow! That’s something eh? Haha… it had some of the cutest and funniest moments, and some really emotional times too, I really enjoyed it a lot! I think in terms of concept this was the most unique and praise-worthy.
Govinda’s Performance He’s back and with a bang! He’s such a brilliant actor and he proves that yet again with Salaam-e-Ishq. I am so happy that he got this chance because it truly was a shame that filmmakers were not signing him on anymore… I think that will definitely change now post-SEI though because he has given such a brilliant, natural, flawless and lovable performance that I think it’s undoubtedly going to revive his career and rightfully so!
Shannon’s Performance Honestly? I truly was expecting her to be awful! But she fit into the role and film so well. She was excellent. She emoted extremely well!

John Abraham Vidya Balan
The Story: The most intense and emotional story of the lot… my eyes watered up so much watching them. It reminded me a lot of Saathiya until the whole amnesia thing took place. A fantastically directed and performed story, and really heart-touching! Their romantic moments were so adorable but the other portions were just as much upsetting, I felt so sad watching…I could genuinely feel their pain. And aww Ashutosh is sucha dream guy…*sigh*
John’s Performance I am so glad that I got to see this for John…My God he was perfect! What a great performance…I’m actually failing to find words to desribe just how brilliant he was…he was just absolutely mind-blowingly outstanding…I could go on using adjectives to say how awesome he was…really, really great…I’m so proud of him! What a sparkling performance, he truly shines!!
Vidya’s Performance This girl rocks….but we all know that! So need I say more? Well I will anyway haha…she’s absolutely amazing, such a natural actress! Every role she takes on – she walks through it so flawlessly. The way I see it Vidya Balan is definitely a legend in the making.

Salman Khan Priyanka Chopra
The Story: Full on fun! This track was like all crazy and hilarious (though towards the end my eyes did start watering for them also haha).
Salman’s Performance Raaoooooooll was obviously awesome!! Salman gave a perfect performance as always, he can’t go wrong even if he wanted to! He looked like a dream and performed superb…but his role really did not demand anything of an actor of his calibre, but I have no complaints against him or Nikhil…he was perfect for and as Raaaoool, I’m glad he did it!
Priyanka’s Performance She had me in splits! Kkamini…haha I love her! She was brilliant…she could’ve easily done ‘too much’ for the role and ruined it, but she didn’t…she was perfect, I cant imagine any other actress doing this role as well as she did. Her dialogue delivery was perfect, she looked absolutely gorgeous and acted brilliant, I’m so proud of her!

Sohail Khan Ishaa Kopikar
The Story: This track was basically like those fool/clown sidetracks in Shakespeare’s plays. It didn’t have much to do with the film but wasn’t completely off-track either. It existed for comic relief, and did a brilliant job at that. The comedy was perfect and each time they came onscreen I didn’t know where to hide because I felt like laughing so ridiculously loud, it just rocked! I wish they had about 2 more scenes though, they were completely missing in the second half. However, I do understand why that is, perhaps Nikhil felt that having their comic sequences in the second half (which was quite serious) might take away from the audience concentrating on the seriousness of the other stories.
Sohail’s Performance Since his debut film I’ve been a huge fan of his and each time I watch another film of his I feel even more strongly about his being one of our better and most underrated actors. He was absolutely amazing in this film as per usual! Yet another different role he took on but he excelled and how, even with such a short role he leaves a great mark!
Ishaa’s Performance She didn’t have much to perform at all but this is one of those rare occasions when Ishaa did not annoy me hehe… she acted well (loved her broken dialogues LOL) in whatever she had to do, and looked absolutely gorgeous!!

I loved all the mini-stories, all the performances and appreciated the chemistry shared between each of the actors who shared any scenes, all of it was wonderful and I think a huge amount of credit for all of that should rightfully go to the films director…

Nikhil Advani has proved with Salaam-e-Ishq (at least to me as a viewer who always had faith in his capabilities) that he is a great filmmaker and has a lot of potential, he will go really far. Salaam-e-Ishq would probably be a really hard film to direct with so many different stories going on. It’s like directing 6 separate films and then deciding on how to put them all together, it’s a tough job but he did it with absolute ease. I’m impressed, I’m proud and he’s made me really happy, Salaam-e-Nikhil…!

Overall: Salaam-e-Ishq is everything I expected it to be. It’s entertaining, it’s beautiful and it’s full of great performances. With a load of awesome comedy and some extremely heart-touching warm and emotional moments too, it’s a winner all the way. The first film I saw in 2005 was Black. The first film I saw in 2006 was Zinda. The first film I saw in 2007 is Salaam-e-Ishq. Now I don’t think this is a classic (I do think Black and Zinda are classics) but nonetheless it is a brilliant movie. I’d definitely recommend it to each and every person who loves cinema, loves love and above all, loves entertainment, because I do believe that since Main Hoon Na this is the most entertaining film I have seen, it keeps a perfect balance between being a well made film and extremely entertaining, I can’t wait to own the DVD so I can watch it all over again and again and again.