Salaam-E-Ishq: Too many Starcast, too long too

Six love stories, Twelve characters and 3.30 hrs of length, this is the Salaam-E-Ishq. Directed by talented Nikhil Advani (Kal Ho Na Ho) and produced by MAD pictures and Orion, this movie beautifully tells the story of six different couples in very interesting way.

Story 1:

Tehzeeb [Vidya Balan] her romantic husband Ashu [John Abraham] are happily married for two years. Things take a nasty turn when her train derails and meets with accident. She loses memory!

 

Story 2:

Raju [Govinda], a cabbie, dreams about his dream girl and one day he meets his dream girl Stephanie [Shanon Esra], who's come looking for Rohit [Kushal Punjabi], her boyfriend, in India. He doesn't understand English much, so in confusion he drives her to Taj Mahal instead of Hotel Taj. Now it becomes hard for Stephaine to find Rohit and Raju helps her. Slowly she falls in love with him.

 

Story 3:

Vinay [Anil Kapoor] leads a perfect life with perfect job. He has a happy family life with Seema [Juhi Chawla] and two kids. But things change when he bumps into Anjali [Anjana Sukhani]. Anjali comes from a world that Vinay only dreams of. Vinay's life undergoes a tumultuous change.

 

Story 4:

Kamini [Priyanka Chopra], an item girl in Bollywood, aspires for the coveted heroine's role in a Karan Johar film. She devises a plot to change her image by announcing that she's into a serious relationship with a fictitious character Rahul. Suddenly, Rahul [Salman Khan] enters the scene from nowhere and her whole world turns upside down.

 

Story 5:

Shiven [Akshaye Khanna] is engaged to get married in the next 10 days with his fiancé Gia (Ayesha Takia). But he develops cold feet and wants to break off the engagement. And he does so by hurting his fiance Gia in the bargain. Gradually, he begins to realize that he is incomplete without Gia.

 

Story 6:

Ramdayal [Sohail Khan] is a middle class Haryanvi, married to Phoolwati [Isha Koppikar]. On their wedding night, in excitement they set ablaze the whole house and their desire remains unfulfilled. No matter how and where Ramdayal tries to fulfill that burning desire, something goes wrong.

 

These are the six stories and five of them get inter-connected. Among them, story of John and Vidya Balan is superb so is of Govinda and Shanon Esra. John and Vidya together look so wonderful and their chemistry is too close to heart that we might have to think about John and Bipasha. Sohail Khan and isha Koppikar's story has no relation with the rest story though it tried to make film light. Priyanka and Salman's story is full of confusions and they both look so fake. Juhi and Anil shares another good story and they both looks very realistic. Akshya and Ayesha's story also leave some marks.

In acting wise, Akshya is superb and Govinda also suits the role. Juhi and Anil shares quality acting but Priyanka and Salman, a Big No to their overacting or under-acting??? Vidya has shown why she's left mark in her previous films, a wonderful performance. john is good and Shanon (may be her first performace in bollywwod, I dunno) has done good job too.

Music is pleasant and some tracks are quiet good. Director Nikhil Advani has handles some scenes so wonderfully but may be movie was too long, so he has slipped many times. Some background scores remind us of Kal Ho Na Ho, may be because director and music directors are same so. People find it hard to remain stick to their chairs for 3.3 hrs and movie is unnecessarily lengthy at last moments. Overall huge star cast may help Salaam-E-Eshq to gain profit but long length and confusing six stories might be drawbacks.