Kash Aap Hamare Hote   Producer: Nadira Babbar Director: Ravinder Peepat Starring: Sonu Nigam, Juhi Babbar, Sharad Kapoor, Om Puri Music: Aadesh Shrivastava Lyrics: Sameer, Pravin Bhardwaj Genre: Family Recommended Audience: General Approximate Running Time: 3 Hrs Film Released on: 14 February 2002 Reviewed by: Goher Iqbal Punn  - Rating: 5.0 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review

Produced by Babbar Films P. Ltd.’s director Ravinder Peepet's Kaash Aap Hamare Hote is a tale of love. The most interesting element of the film is of course Juhi Babbar who makes her debut opposite Sonu Nigam in this romantic flick. Raj and Nadira beautifully design the stage for their daughter’s launch and no doubt succeed to some extent in their effort. The film starts off pretty well but as the drama goes on, the story starts loosening up its grip.

The story revolves around a girl, Amrita (Juhi Babbar) who loses her parents in a road accident. And there enters into picture her father’s best friend, Yashwant Raj Mankotia (Om Puri) who takes the responsibility of raising her on his shoulders and also takes the decision to get her married to his own son, Randeep (Sharad Kapoor)- settled in Canada. The marriage occurs against Randeep’s wishes. Soon Amrita comes to know that her husband’s business partner, Simone (Saadhika) is his mistress as well. She gets another bigger shock when her husband asks his friend to sleep with her. Amrita manages to escape from Randeep’s house and reaches at the doorstep of an Indian guy, Jay Kumar (Sonu Nigam) who is an illegal Indian immigrant and works at Sardar Teja Singh’s (Raj Babbar’s) sawmill.

He warmly welcomes the girl. Slowly, Jay starts loving Amrita but hides his feelings from her. Finally he gathers courage to express his true love to the girl but when he hears the news that she is already married, is shattered. And then like true Bollywood heroes, Jay fastens his belts to make her happy in life. 

The story of Kaash Aap Hamare Hote relies too heavily on an age-old theme and completely fulfills the definition of an idiom called As Old As Hills. The first half of the film raises the spirits of the audience as it has so many interesting ingredients to entertain them like Amrita’s marriage, her husband and his mistress’ scenes, Jay’s entry, Sardar Teja Singh’s appearance and all that. As the second half unzips, the story starts loosening up its grip. The focus comes entirely on the lead pair. All other characters are suddenly forgotten. And as the climax approaches, the writer remembers his duty to make a place for all the forgotten characters in the storyline.

The screenplay is poor. Johny Lever’s comedy truly portrays the fact that it has been entered forcibly. But Johny as a comedian evokes the spirits. A closer look at the film reveals that it does not have any hit number (as is the tradition these days to have one in an enterprise) to raise the emotions of the audience. But Aadesh Shrivastava as a musician personifies the mood accurately into tunes and scores a decent soundtrack. The title track registers a good impact. The direction by Ravinder Peepat is ok. But the dramatic scenes of the film portray the remarkable execution ability of him. Atul Tiwari’s dialogues are appropriate.

Manmohan Singh as a cinematographer is fantastic. Following Yash Chopra’s footsteps, he captures the gorgeous locales of Canada remarkably well. Akiv Ali’s editing is above average. Debutante Juhi Babbar is excellent. Her dialogue delivery showcases her marvelous ability to act. Though not a glamorous girl she is a true actress. Her theatrical background will play a magnificent role in shaping her acting career in an appropriate manner. Sonu Nigam improves himself in the film. Om Puri as usual is brilliant. The other cast of the film fills the bill.

On the whole, Kaash Aap Hamare Hote is an average film, which might do well at the box office.