Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.

Reema Kagti's directorial debut "Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd." is a good example of a yawning gap between an idea and its implementation. On paper the film seems to be interesting, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.Honeymoon... is a character driven film rather than a story driven one(not surprising as Kagti assisted on Dil Chahta Hai) and thus is more dependent upon characterizations and performances.

By and large, the characterizations are rather trite.Authenticity goes for a six.Every character is given some line or phrase to reiterate their ethnicity.But does that make sense? Not really. Amisha Patel never seems to be a Punjabi and is thoroughly irritating(believe me, it is not just her character but her acting as well).Karan Khanna as her husband is decent. Boman Irani's accent seems forced and he seems to be trying too hard (never such a great thing for a man but that is beside the point). Shabana Azmi is convincing but we could have been spared her lecture about 'pyaar' at the end. Abhay Deol and Minnisha Lamba come across as lassi gulping Punjabis rather than Parsis. Sandhya Mridul plays to her type and repeats her stock expressions. Vikram Chatwal is okay.

Dia Mirza is absolutely unconvincing as a Gujarati. Ranvir Shorey could well have been a trump card for the director but he is wasted.It seems Arjun Rampal was forced to do a cameo what with that uninterested look on his face. Kay Kay Menon is certainly not as his best but is still okay. Raima Sen as his wife with ambitions and dreams of her own gets the best written role and she delivers a good performance.

Mostly the film is devoid of any logic and the some of the scenes seem too far fetched.But the superhuman bit takes the cake. Then the scene where Kay Kay Menon's character takes a significant decision under the influence of intoxicants is again very illogical. The romance between the bus driver's nephew and a german is unfathomable.Also, can the director decide whether the driver is from UP, Bihar or Haryana - he seems to speak a mixed dialect.On second thoughts, he may have had a mixed parentage.

The music is nothing to write home about though two of the songs-'Sajnaji Vari Vari'and 'Pyaar Ki Yeh Kahani'- are decent and very well choreographed. Anurag Kashyap's dialogues are very uneven. Reema Kagti takes the writing credit and while watching the film I could not help the thought that though her direction is generally lacklustre, she did a decent job in coming up with an interesting story idea(though a post on imdb tells me it is copied from a Bengali Natok 'Shomudro Bilash Pvt. Ltd.'...you can always trust bollywood for originality!).

The only thing that remains with you after the film is over are three scenes.The best is the one with Shabana Azmi crying under a shower.She again proves that she is a fantastic actor. Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi are nice in the scene when they discover that Boman's ancestral home has given way to a concrete jungle. Karan Khanna's lament that 'life will never be the same again' is realistic. Hopefully next time, Reema Kagti can string together more of such scenes.

In the end, don't ride the bus...it goes nowhere.

Rating (1.5 on 4)