HOT 'N' HAPPENING TURNS TO BE SWEET 'N' SEXY

By Satyajit - Eye TV India Bureau

Critic's I-view


Too western, brood, weird, wacky but still vivacious, peppy and enthralling... it's a world of Yash Raj's candy floss entertainer once again. The moral ambiguity of the pop generation clubbed with megalomaniac ambience chills out as the latest offering from this most successful banner in 'Neal 'N' Nikki' (N3). The euphoric Punjabi touch in the fairyland of European natural delights remains the backdrop. Despite all the monumental success this entertainer promises rollicking bang with its weakest face value of the lot. Yash Raj's latest success formula has been the amalgamation of male and female characters as the silhouette and title of the film. "Veer and Zaara" ('Veer Zaara'), "Bunty and Babli" ('Bunty Aur Babli'), "Nick and Amber" ('Salaam Namaste') and now "Neal and Nikki" ('Neal 'N' Nikki') have been working in tandem with the audience spirit and the film's triumph.


The superstar wannabe (Uday Chopra) gets the solo bang for the first time with Tanisha, a sibling of the hottest star ever praying for resurrection. Yash Raj's tryst with upbeat cinema comes earlier with the cosmopolitan fling of live-in relationship ('Salaam Namaste') and now with pre-marital relationship in 'N3'. The urbane bunch of youngsters might cherish this joyride but the concept still remains an indigestible commodity for many.


Noted celebrities (actress Khushboo and tennis star Sania Mirza) got the acrimonious brickbatting for being extrovert in "premarital sex" remarks. This frothy joyride presents the glowing and gleaming fa硤e with Prince Charming Neal (Uday Chopra) breathing his last breath of bachelorhood. The frothy bachelor gets the fun buddy in the mould of inconsistent, hesitant and brash Nikki (Tanisha Mukherjee). The love chemistry and finally premarital sex remains the talk of the film as its innovative subject.

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The eclectic relegation of the "arranged marriage versus love marriage" maintains the crux of the story. If 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge' ('DDLJ') kick started the trend then there were endless clones following it. Ironically, this time it's "Sardar with a Guitar" (Gaurav Gera) who spills the beans and creates an anticlimax for love birds. It's wacky and cantankerous but has the candy nurtured yuppie effect that lasts long. Unlike 'DDLJ' the whiz kid is submissive and succumbs to cultural heritage of marrying piously conventional girl. Marriage sounds long and outstretched boring fixation to him and he wants to live last days of his bachelorhood in flamboyance.

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The brooding and Casanova Neal wants to breathe in the last air of freedom by deciding for vacation in fun-loving city of Vancouver. It's 21-day trip and he expects 21 different gals every day and partially succeeds too. He confronts supermodel and runaway bride as his compatriot in this philandering act. But this pleasant dream ride downslides when the dream date gets spoilt by extrovert and outspoken Nikki in weird ways. It looks like a dreamland at once but suddenly he gets trapped with his pants down with Nikki in a sleazy hotel. The dream vacation turns sour as he confronts Nikki many times for this misdeed. Soon, Nikki spots out Neal's philandering acts, and decide to chill out at holiday spot "Whistler".



In a bid to avenge her broken affair with old boyfriend, Nikki exhausted Neal into fake love relations. It disgusts Neal but finally he feels his true love for Nikki. The love chemistry grows wild and they end up in one night stand. Nikki mistook Neal's real love for one night and anticipates his rejection. The miscommunications lead to Neal accepting the proposal of arranged marriage to Sweetie (Richa Pallod). Neal believes that his real love Nikki will fight back but the climax plummets into a satirical end. Happy (Gaurav Gera) - "Sardar with a Guitar" spills the beans on the engagement day by confessing his love to wannabe bride Sweetie. The complicated looking love story comes to a happy ending concluding its high humor content.

It's unconventional and unpredictable but the joyride promises bumpy rides with loads of rollicking soundtracks.



'Neal 'N' Nikki' proves victorious on many fronts and that includes lively performances, enticing musical score, brilliant direction and high production values. Salim-Sulaiman's music is magical with super hit tracks like "Neal and Nikki", "Akh Ladiya" and "I'm in Love". The infused "Bhangra" tidbits at satirical and humorous situations were simply ecstatic. The added English number accentuates its "phirangi" touch to the film. Melodious music has been one big bright spot in Yash Raj Films and this entertainer maintains the trend convincingly. Foreign locations of Canada and Vancouver have been shot brilliantly. Cinematography by P.S Vinod is brilliant, especially at places where Neal and Nikki chemistry builds. Vaibhavi Merchant's sparkling choreography proves its worth in yuppie tracks like "Neal and Nikki" and "Halla Re".



If Saif Ali Khan with average looks can manage national award and first solo hit ('Hum Tum') then Uday Chopra can expect decent stardom with it. The funny looking actor has shown dazzling comical timing and his looks match his characterization. Uday started off with a bang in 'Mohabbatein' but got appreciated in his comical act in 'Dhoom'. Audiences expect more funny stuff from this lively dude in coming years. Tanisha Mukherjee has shed extra kilos (with extra clothes) for the film. This petite actress has been groping for success despite her strong foothold in the film world. She manages to tickle funny bone at many places but skin overexposure looks absurd. The audiences expect "feel good factor" and not the raunchy skin show in candy floss flicks. The actress seems to be too desperate for stardom and like Tanushree Dutta she has gone for overexposure.

Richa Pallod lives up to expectations in a tiny role. Gaurav Gera and Priya Sachdeva justify their characters with excellence. The supporting cast (Kamini Khanna, Chander Khanna) along with foreign actors (Alexander Montez, Serindar Swan and Samantha Mcleod) hold the fort commendably.



The plot sounds obvious with new kid on block Arjun Sablok hoping for resurrection after hopeless 'Na Tum Jaano Na Hum'. Like Karan Johar, Arjun was one of Shah Rukh buddy "Robby" in magnanimous hit 'DDLJ'. The director scores perfect ten this time following the comeback stride of Kunal Kohli ('Hum Tum') and Anees Bazmi ('No Entry'). The humor quotient has been well maintained with free flow of slapstick event supporting it. Arjun Sablok and Anvita Dutta Gupta's immaculate and fun-loving script and screenplay prove worthy for this frolicking entertainer. His first directorial venture 'Na Tum Jaano Na Hum' failed to find audiences because of its slow pace and insipid narration. It seems the director has patched up this time by delivering fast paced entertainer that lasts for two hours.



Teenyboppers have funny joyride with this entertainer and producers can expect promising returns. The film delivers the needful to the urbane audience particularly and multiplexes will definitely benefit from its release. The disappointing Diwali releases followed by series of flops might have disappointed many but this will bring cheers to them. In the end, audiences will find this hot "n" happening film to be sweet "n" sexy.

*** Rana Sahab get ready for SWEET N SEXY JOY RIDE

From the most negative and critical reviews (Indiafm as well as Rediff), it looks like they over did it and it may not be accepted as a family film. Have to be cautious.

On the other hand if you believe that films with worst reviews, go on to become hits, this film may verry well become a hit??

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Other 2 films releasrd along with Neal & Nikki, EK AJNABEE and KALYUG have received much better reviews (2.5 and 3 stars as compared to 1 star for Neal & Nikki; out of 4 stars). Let's see who wins the race??

i might go see it tomorrow with my friends since it looks like a teen comedy movie, so thats my type, the worse thing is that since it was filmed here, you will have people getting excited and making a lot of noise ( like in pardes) like whats the big deal, but a plus side is nandu is also in here from jassi jassi koi nahi

Looked pretty stupid to me. Is this what they think of the West, skimpy clothes and sleeping around?

isn't it though?

what's sad is that they are developing their culture on these presumptions.

Indeed!! YRF are selling this culture to new generation for big moolah!

sleeping around is in the west, but i rarely see anyone wearing that kinda skimpy clothes( except for the beach)

LOL, so that's the totality of Western culture, huh? Most of these Indian "Westernized" films take only the absolute superficiality of the images of the west. As if they watched MTV and E! for a couple of hours and concluded, "This is it." This is no different from when the world used to think all Americans were cowboys and rode horses.

do NOT go see the movie its so pathetic, and what were they talking about 21 kisses there were only a couple, my friends and i were talking through out the movie, and whats up with tanisha showing her assets, she doesnt even have big ones to show, and the facts were all wrong like this chick told him to meet her @ pacific center and he meets her at a tennis court, p.c. is a mall!, and when they said that there are all those hot chicks in whistler well there isnt it will be funny if someone comes down and drives to whistler for hot chicks, the only people u would find there are usually old, and when they are going to whistler they are on a fearry when its actully 2hrs driving and no fearris go there overall skip this 2h movie

Ahemm.... from what you described DVD sales will do better. Thank you.

Looking at US boxoffice weekend #s, Neal & Nikki seems to have flopped, and badly at that. Perhaps this is the first YRF distributed film to have done so badly in the US in the recent times.

A meagre $ 75,000 from 44 screens (screen average = $ 1704).

Ek Ajnabee did a lot better fetching $ 121,000 from 38 screens ($ 3200 per screen).

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

I saw this last night. For what it was, it was sporadically entertaining, if ultimately not too good. It's pretty typical Yash Raj stuff so if you like YR flix, you'll like this, but if you don't you'll hate it. It's basically their attempt at making a sex comedy, however tame by Western standards. Quite cheesy too. That said, even though Uday Chopra and Tanisha are likable, I don't think they'll ever be superstar material. There are a few decent numbers and the pacing is pretty good (only an hour 40!)

'Neal N Nikki' criticized; flops!

By Our Correspondent ©2005 Bollyvista.com







Producer Yash Chopra and his production 'Neal N Nikki' has come under severe criticism from all quarters for being an unnecessarily vulgar, lewd and a badly directed film. People are surprised that the Indian censors gave it a U/A rating considering the profound usage of foul language, revealing outfits and obscene gestures.

Even on a commercial level, director Arjun Sablok's attempt to recreate an 'American Pie' kind of a comedy and has failed. This is his second flop after the Hrithik Roshan-Saif Ali Khan-Esha Deol starrer 'Na Tum Jaano Na Hum'

US collections:

Neal & Nikki gets just $ 500 per screen 2nd weekend. Finishes theatrical run with just $ 100 K.
$ 500 K is average for semidecent run.

Ek Ajnabee has double of N&N in every category.(i.e. per screen, weekend take, total collections.)

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

I am so happy to see this FLOP on YRF arrogant face!!