इश्क़
Ishq ("Romance") is all over the place - even for a masala film. It is part slapstick comedy, part socio-political diatribe, part violent melodrama. The story is time-honored - a rich boy and a rich girl fall in love with a poor boy and a poor girl (respectively); the rich family disapproves, and plots and schemes to separate them. The first half of the film is full of slapstick silliness as the romances develop. In the second half, the story turns dark, as the family's aggressive plans and the kids' desperate responses take violent shape. The last half hour, in particular, was so over-the-top that it pretty much wrecked any enjoyment I might have taken in the first two hours of the film.
You may be getting the impression that I didn't much like Ishq. It does have some redeeming features, notably its principals, Aamir Khan and Kajol (as the poor kids) and Ajay Devgan and Juhi Chawla (as the rich kids), who are all adorable and funny. And the songs were fun - bad, but fun. I went back and watched most of them again when I was done with the film, but I haven't felt any urgent need to watch them since. I can't really recommend Ishq for the faint of heart or for those who don't already have a taste for Bollywood and a sense of humor about how bad it can be when it goes wrong.
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