YEH HAI JALWA - (Reviewed By Komal Nahta)
Director: David Dhawan Music: Himesh Reshammiya, Anand Raj Anand Lyrics: Sudhakar Sharma, Dev Kohli Producer: Ketan Desai Starring: Salman Khan, Amisha Patel, Sanjay Dutt, Rinke Khanna, Rati Agnihotri, Amrish Puri & Rishi Kapoor
RATING: 2.5/10
M.K.D. Films' Yeh Hai Jalwa is a comedy film with a serious story-line. An illegitimate son (Salman Khan) of a multi-millionaire NRI (Rishi Kapoor) comes to stake claim on his father's love. His mother had died when he was a kid and it is after 20 years that he learns that his father is alive and settled in London.
He gets a severe jolt when he sees that his father is a happily married man, living with his wife, two children and an old father. Embarrassed and petrified (about the consequences) to admit publicly that the boy was his illegitimate son, the father tries all the tricks to send him back to India. But the son, after entering into his life, slowly enters his house and wins over the hearts of the other family members.
Keeping his father on tenter-hooks always, he, however, makes sure not to spill the beans lest his father's family breaks up. In London, he also falls in love with a girl and gets married to her. In the end, when calamity strikes his father, he comes to the family's rescue and saves the father's life. This good deed emotionally moves the father so much that he confesses to his family about his affair with his son's mother and also accepts him as his son. The family too, indebted as it is to the boy and fond as it is of him, accepts him with open arms.
A serious issue has been made the subject matter of a comedy film. Sadly, the logical movement of the drama has been neglected in a bid to make a comic fare. For instance, the son stays in his father's house but keeps procrastinating the resolution of the issue for no justifiable reason. The resolution of the problem in the second half is quite serious and emotional. In totality, the marriage of comedy and emotions is not very smooth.
The first half, abounding in light scenes, has its share of entertaining comedy but the game of one-upmanship between the father and son is not as exciting as it should've been. A couple of important points in the screenplay have been dealt with quite casually. For example, although the father had never got married to the boy's mother, the feeling one gets in the climax is that they were both married. Also, in one scene, the son taunts his father about how he had ditched his mother after having had a physical relationship with her. The son alleging that the father had told his mother 'Raat gayee baat gayee' is uncalled for because not only had the father never uttered those words but the audience is also aware much before the scene (in which the son so alleges) that the father had had to forget his beloved as he was scared to openly revolt against his father who had already finalised his marriage to another girl.
The son, lecturing his father about himself not being after his (father's) wealth looks out of place because that misunderstanding had been cleared long since. The ridiculous behaviour of the boy's step-brother and step-sister, when they are asked to donate their kidneys to save their father's life, looks forced because the two have been shown as decent and loving children.
The aforesaid flaws and weak points notwithstanding, the screenplay (Yunus Sejawal and Imtiaz Patel) has its share of interesting moments. Dialogues (Rumi Jafri) are laced with humour and succeed in evoking laughter at several places.
Salman Khan does a very good job. He is splendid in comic scenes and equally wonderful in the emotional ones. He looks extremely handsome and his costumes are fantastic. Amisha Patel gets limited scope. She acts well and looks pretty. Rishi Kapoor is just too superb. His sense of timing and his nuances and facial expressions are a treat to watch. He is like wine - only getting better with age! Rati Agnihotri is suitably restrained and adds to the emotional value of the film. Kader Khan excels in emotional scenes in the pre-climax and climax. Anupam Kher, as the lawyer, is lovely. Rinke Khanna hardly gets any scope; she is good. Ajay Nagrath leaves a mark. Sharad Kapoor looks handsome and acts ably. Kiran Kumar and Shahbaaz Khan are effective. Sanjay Dutt, in a special appearance, has been wasted. Except for pleasing the masses with his presence, he has little else to do.
David Dhawan's direction is fair. Had he taken care to have had at least one more parallel track, the film could've been a success. As it stands, the single track loses steam after about 7 or 8 reels and from then on, the repetition in the drama becomes boring.
Himesh Reshammiya's music is okay; 'Chudi khankayi re', the title track and 'Dheere dheere' are appealing. The 'Carbon copy' song should've been a hauntingly melodious number because it is an integral part of the drama. Song picturisation (Ganesh Acharya), mostly on exquisite foreign locations, are very eye-filling. Background score (Aadesh Shrivastava) is effective. Action is functional. Camerawork (K.S. Prakash Rao) is lovely. Sets are rich and so are the production values, overall.
On the whole, with a story-line that's stretched too much, Yeh Hai Jalwa is a routine fare. Considering its low (reduced) price, it may keep some of its distributors safe, but the deficit of its producers will remain a dead loss for them.
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) and folks these NRI flicks really dont make sense at all ... Considering the fact that I saw DEVDAS again at the Cinesphere again the same night ... I think YHJ was a waste of time 