Namastey London has romance, humour, emotion and drama. It is the love story of a husband trying to win his wife over with the belief that true love always triumphs. It revolves around a young spoilt British Indian girl who has been born and brought up in the UK. The girl’s father marries her off to a simpleton from Punjab. Unfortunately the girl is still in love with her good for nothing British boyfriend even though she has tied the knot with a simpleton from India and she is even more determined to be with her boyfriend now. But her simpleton husband truly loves her and decides to win her back in his own way. In the midst the film also tackles various topics like racism towards Indians, Indian patriotism etc. The film deals with various stereotypes involving British Asians in the UK, nonetheless the script and screenplay still manage to capture the audiences’ attention. There are several moments which are truly endearing and the film has a balanced mix of everything. It is quite entertaining.
The film belongs to the genre of romance and the story and screenplay has been written by Suresh Nair. It has been directed by Vipul Shah. The film stars Akshay Kumar as Arjun, Katrina Kaif as Jasmeet/Jazz, Upen Patel as Imran Khan, Rishi Kapoor etc. The music has been composed by Himesh Reshammiya. The film is not really inspired from any particular film but has a similar story concept as Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.
Jasmeet Singh or Jazz has been born and brought up in the UK although she is an Indian. A headstrong girl she has adopted the culture of Britain but somewhere deep down the Indian values have been buried. She is in love with a British good for nothing guy but her father s totally against their relationship and whisks her off to India. He gets Jazz married to a simple Punjabi guy with traditional values. Jazz and Arjun go back to the UK and Arjun hopes that he and his wife will be happy. Unfortunately Jazz has some other plans on reaching UK; she wants to ditch Arjun and is still in love with her British boyfriend.
Arjun is heartbroken when he finds out that Jazz does not love him, but instead of being upset he decides to win her over with his ways as he truly loves her. Will Jazz accept her marriage and Arjun or will she leave him and go to her British boyfriend? Will true love triumph? Will Arjun’s love win over Jazz?
Although the story concept is not novel, the script is interesting as it introduces the not so perfect female protagonist which is rarely seen in bollywood. The script and screenplay by Suresh Nair has been written well and Vipul Shah’s execution has been done deftly. Vipul Shah has managed to depict the relationship between Katrina-Rishi Kapoor, Akshay-Katrina in a very sensitive manner. He has also explored several other facets of an Indian living in the UK such as racism and even the growing generation gap between Indian born parents and their young kids who have been born and brought up in the UK. Vipul has brought out the characteristics of Arjun and Jazz’s roles extremely well. He has taken care of all the finer nuances like costumes, make-up and looks of the characters.
The film has a well balanced dose of masala in the form of song and dance, romance and even humour. One of the most humorous parts was where Rishi Kapoor interviews several wannabe grooms from India for his daughter. There’s also loads of drama with Arjun’s large Punjabi family and the rugby tournaments bring in the fun element. The climax though predictable has a feel good factor to it. The music of the film is average but also works well during the film, Dilruba is a fine track. The cinematography with the beautiful locales of UK as well as the green pastures of Punjab is noteworthy.
However though the first part of the film is zingy and tightly knit, the second half gets a bit too long and even the enthusiasm level goes down a bit. The second half could have used a bit of editing. Also the film reinforces several stereotypes that have often been seen in films which deal with the Indian Diaspora abroad. Performances are sincere and depict effort and hard work put in by the actors. Akshay Kumar as the simple Punjabi guy but one with strong Indian roots comes across as convincing in his role. Katrina Kaif’s profound effort too is clearly visible in her fine performance. Rishi Kapoor delivers a noteworthy performance after a long gap and he is both funny and sensitive. Upen Patel too delivers a fare performance and definitely shows a lot of promise. The rest of the cast too deliver average and likeable performances in the film.
Namastey London is a simple, sweet love story in the UK with a balanced script and screenplay. It has a well balanced dose of everything that makes it a commercial potboiler. Also it caters to a huge segment of the NRI or British Asian population in UK. It is an entertaining film and at the box-office it should have an above average result.
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| Reviewed By: Rachel Fernandes |
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