हम तुम
I have been told that this sweet romantic comedy lifts many elements from When Harry Met Sally. I have not seen that film, so for me Hum tum ("me and you") stands on its own as a cute and entertaining timepass.
Hum tum spans seven years in the lives of Karan Kapoor (Saif Ali Khan) and Riya Prakash (Rani Mukherjee). (The subtitles rendered her name as "Rhea," but the film's characters were so clearly saying "Riya" that I cannot make myself adopt the odd westernized spelling.) Karan draws a comic strip about the timeless battle of the sexes; Riya is a fashion student and later, as the film jaunts first the US and then to Paris, a designer and boutique owner. Karan and Riya first meet on an airplane and instantly drive one another crazy; during the course of the film they meet and fight, and meet and fight several times over. A number of obstacles interfere with the development of their relationship - geography, for one, and Riya's marriage for another - but the main stumbling-block on their road to destiny is Karan himself, who has all the poise and maturity of his arrested adolescence. As a result for much of the film Riya does not take him very seriously, even when it is apparent to the audience that he is crazy about her. Eventually, though, Riya and Karan learn to communicate with one another, and accept that they were made for each other.
For a romantic comedy to work, it needs the audience to buy into the romance. Because the resolution of a film like Hum tum is a foregone conclusion, the audience has not only to like the characters, but to have a rooting interest in their winding up together. Hum tum's romance achieves this because whatever their initial attraction on first meeting, Karan and Riya grow and change over the seven-year span of the film, and their love is ultimately based on the very solid foundation of friendship that develops between them. They are not merely two kids who met while traveling; they have weathered responsibility and loss. Karan, who comes into the romance with more to prove - he's a breezy, arrogant player at the film's beginning - steps up for Riya when she really needs a good friend. This makes the film's denouement satisfying, as the romance grows along with the characters, and it can be genuinely believed that they have a future together.
With its modern characters and international settings, Hum tum is of the recent breed of Bollywood films that perhaps appeal more to young middle class urbanites (and Indians living abroad) than to other sectors of the Indian movie-going public. A device that becomes available as a result of this - and that helps make Hum tum a more grown-up love story than, say, Dilwale dulhania le jayenge - is that of sex. Sex is not rampant or gratuitous in the film, but Riya and Karan do have a sexual encounter at a key point in their relationship, and their respective (and perhaps anti-stereotypical) reactions to it make for the most interesting portion of the film. Riya, who has been married, sees it as an elevation of their relationship, an affirmative step that they have taken from friendship and into couple-hood, and one that she is glowingly happy about. Karan reacts with shame and horror, fearing that he's taken advantage of Riya and crossed an unforgiveable line. The misunderstanding poignantly illustrates that love and connection is not sufficient, without clear communication, to foster a healthy relationship.
A weakness in Hum tum is its pedestrian and completely unmemorable music, which interferes with the story more than it should (and far more than well-done music often does in very good Bollywood films). Also interrupting the stories are short animated sequences featuring the bickering of Karan's cartoon characters "Hum" and "Tum;" these are cute enough, but don't add very much that couldn't have been conveyed in live action by Karan and Riya themselves. These are not a serious drawbacks, though, as the film is on balance funny and entertaining, its characters appealing and sweet.