Kuch Tum Kaho Kuch Hum Kahein   Producer: Dr. D. Rama Naidu Director: Dr. D. Rama Naidu Starring: Fardeen Khan, Vikram Gokhale, Farida Jalal, Sharad Kapoor, Introducing Richa Pallod Music: Anu Maliik Lyrics: Sameer Genre: Emotional Recommended Audience: General Film Released on: 28 June 2002 Reviewed by: Rakesh Budhu  - Rating: 5.5 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review Music Review

Family farces continue to make their way to cinema halls. And while many of them do manage to leave an impression with viewers, Kuch Tum Kaho Kuch Hum Kahein lacks many of the strategic ideals to pull it off. The film carries with it a reminiscent of Badhaai Ho Badhaai in the mending of two broken families theme, and then continues with a cliché-ridden plot. Certainly cliché’s have never been a factor in a truly bad flick but when a film has not much else going for it, the result is a bland attempt.

Abhay is the happy go lucky protagonist who mysteriously comes into the lives of the family members of his grandfather (Vikram Gokhale). Abhay slowly becomes friendly with every one in the house bringing cheer to the entire village. And amidst this budding relationship he falls in love with Mangla, a visitor at his grandfather’s home. It soon becomes apparent that Abhay had his reasons for entering the lives of his grandfather’s family. Abhay’s aim was to remove the hard feelings between his family and his grandfather’s. And he is successful in doing so. Only to walk into his own problems. Now that he is officially a member of the family he must marry someone they find for him. But Abhay is in love with Mangla, and that too is unapproved by the family. The mystery is revealed as to where Abhay’s past came from and is revealed as if to whether Mangla and Abhay have a future together. 

First and foremost, the starkingly similar storyline to Badhaai Ho Badhaai is quite evident. In fact the major difference, or sole difference, is the history behind the male protagonists past (in Badhaai Ho Badhaai’s case it  involves Anil becoming fat). We would certainly get bored of the same old story at the rate Bollywood is going.

But Kuch Tum Kaho Kuch Hum Kahein does have its differences of which some are in its favor. Primarily, director Ravi Shankar has chosen a homely village setting for the film and manages to keep the homey feeling alive through out the film (barring the song sequences, of course). The film ably keeps its family feel throughout its long presentation. However, as with most family films, many of the occurrences are not justified, and the script leaves the viewer feeling stupid. But the film is unable to cover this up with all of the other stuff. Mainly, the direction and music. Ravi Shankar is just decent in his direction of the family sequences, in which he succeeds in some parts to get the right emotives across. Otherwise he is typical in the romance scenes and about average in the film over all. And when things get too tedious one would at least hope for some decent tunes to ease things up and that Anu Maliik does not give us. He doesn’t come close. The cinematography fails to make up for the bad tunes, and while beautiful, don’t match the look of the film at all. On the other hand, the village look has been well portrayed.

The performances are also commendable for the most part. Names like Farida Jalal and Vikram Gokhale are actually given opportunities to show their talent rather than typical one-liners, and they are commendable. Debutante Richa Pallod looks stunning naturally, but it is a surprise that they didn’t add some more glamour to her natural beauty. The actress was last scene as little Sri Devi in Lamhe, and not that the sequence asked for much there, she doesn’t give that powerful of a performance. Sharad Kapoor in a negative avatar again has too much of a clichéd role to portray and doesn’t do much to make it rise above its poor and typical characterization. And the comedy sequence with Rajpal Yadav is also dull and annoying. In the end, Fardeen comes out a winner with a decent performance. He’s obviously put in some effort into his performance.

The equation that Ravi Shankar and producer Dr. D. Rama Naidu had hoped to come up with when making this family film doesn’t work in their favor this time. Kuch Tum Kaho Kuch Hum Kahein is thus nothing worthwhile for anyone.