CAST: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma

DIRECTION: Imtiaz Ali

GENRE: Romance

DURATION: 2 hours 24 minutes

STORY

After a month-long tour of Europe, Sejal (Anushka) is just about to board her flight to India, when she realises that her engagement ring is lost. In quest of the object, she hires the same tour-guide Harry (Shah Rukh) and together they set off visiting the exact same spots that she and her family visited— in the hope of finding the heirloom. Of course the journey proves to be much more…

REVIEW

The plot is wafer-thin and it’s been done to death by none other than Imtiaz Ali in each of his earlier films—be it Jab We Met, Cocktail (writer) and Tamasha. It’s the routine girl is engaged elsewhere story but she discovers half-way through that her soulmate is someone other. In this case, Sejal is engaged to Rupen but actually ends up falling for Harry. Let’s give the devil his due, Imtiaz’s films do coax and cajole you to take a journey inwards instead of just doing the peripheral one. But in this film, the soul-searching bits between the leads don’t quite add up. What makes this film watchable though is the presence of Shah Rukh and Anushka both of who are in top-form in their Punjabi and Gujarati `impersonations’. In fact, SRK is like old wine, the more he matures, the better he romances. Boy, when he seals it with a kiss, he’s irresistible!

The music is average but Radha will definitely get you to attempt a bhangra-garba mix at your next house party. However, sound advice would be that you actually buy yourself a tour ticket to Europe and soak in the sights for real.

Of course, if you’re in the mood for a cheaper option of touring the continent, buy yourself a JHMS ticket and get transported to foreign destinations captured efficiently by cinematographer K U Mohanan, In this case, there’s the added advantage of a Punjabi `munda’ playing your friend, philosopher, lover and guide.

The journey from Netherlands to Nur Mahal treats you to an opera, pole-dancing and SRK in every frame. Despite it all, you’re tempted to tell the filmmaker that the script of this travelogue that seems to have gone missing, could perhaps be languishing in his own backyard.