Review: U, Me aur Hum [BLAST FROM PAST]

[BLAST FROM PAST: With AOL shutting shop, most of my reviews went offline. While I did not really save all of them, I still have quite a few in my sent mails. So, here on for sometime I shall be posting reviews that i wrote while I was still with Sanskriti Media.  

** Note: UNEDITED versions. And really early samples of writing... times when Vineeja Suresh, my colleague, would shout at me to improve. Hopefully I did in due course!]

Note: Ajay was still a Devgan back then. Now he is Devgn!

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Divya Dutta, Sumeet Raghavan, Karran Khanna, Isha Sharvani, Hazel

Director and Producer: Ajay Devgan

Cinematographer: Aseem Bajaj

Music Director: Vishal Bharadwaj

Mushy love stories are often something that has made people laugh and cry along and of course they are loved as much. U Me aur Hum could have easily fallen into this category but Ajay Devgan injected enough of drama in the film to grow it out of a mere teen story to a mature story on relationships and how they are to be kept.

U Me aur Hum is primarily a story about a couple – Ajay (Ajay Devgan) and Piya (Kajol) who met in a cruise. It was love at first sight for Ajay while Piya was just serving drinks. And then he gets onto a mission of making Piya fall in love creating lies and illusions about himself. All's fine till Ajay tells Piya that he had creating this entire persona to get her. They depart but as love goes Piya is back to Ajay and they get married. The first half goes kind of slow talking about all things bright. But with the interval, the film takes a serious turn as Ajay finds Piya is suffering from Alzheimer's and is soon set to lose all memory – even about him. So Ajay has a simple job at hand – court his lady every day! There you get the desi version of popular Hollywood flicks Notebook and 50 first dates. The second half comes out better and smoother than the first.

Ajay Devgn's first directorial

The story is basically a cut to flash back from present and back format, Ajay giving out a story on his life. Just one things that does not fit in is that twenty fives years ago, when we was supposedly young and handsome, the clothes were same as well as the cars! Ekta kapoor influence!  

The dialogues are done well with inbuilt humour, many of which are adult in nature hence getting them the U/A certificate. There is not much that can go wrong with a screenplay when it's a copy! One thing that is noteworthy is the way the friends have been used. They are more a part of the family and have characters.

Technically the film's editing could have been finer by cutting out some parts of the first half and make it shorter. However the montages when the couple falls in love are done well. The highlight of the film is definitely the cinematography. Aseem Bajaj comes up with a project that could be held as reference to students in filters, lights and composition. Background music is ok and Vishal Bhardwaj's playback music may not be outstanding as a standalone but works good in the film. The make up is done well and the two look really convincing as 50-year olds. The special effects are done well too.

U Me aur Hum can boast of good performance. The Sumeet Raghavan and Divya Dutta bring in brightness and fun to screen with their fight as an unhappily married couple. Ajay Devgan is not quite the cool flirt he tries to portray in the first half but he suits the second half better which demands an intense actor. Kajol is definitely the show stopper. She comes up with yet another of her 'kajol' performances.

Overall Ajay Devgan's first movie is good but not good enough. It does make you laugh with the character during comic situations but does not for once make you cry for the sad moments. Girls and romantics should find this film a copybook for romance and how to lead life. The film should get an opening due to the star value and the promos.

PS: Ever since Kajol made a comeback with Fanaa which became a huge hit, Ajay Devgan has seen terrible times with all films going for a toss. May be U, Me aur Hum could do bring good times for him yet again considering all his films with Kajol has done well except Raju Chacha.