Pyaar Ke Side Effects

An urban romantic comedy about a guy who is afraid of commitment. The premise isn’t uncommon for a Hollywood film but in Bollywood,where love happens only once, it seems new (we also saw a similar story in the recent Salaam-e-Ishq). More than anything the treatment is what really makes it fresh for Hindi cinema.

Debutant Writer-Director Saket Chowdary (who apparently co-wrote Santosh Sivan’s diastrous Asoka) scores with his treatment of the film. He also gets the humor right. Though I haven’t come across characters like the ones in the film, I am sure they exist in some of the metros. He manages to weave most of the songs into the screenplay well, though they could have been avoided. Pritam’s score isn’t that good anyway (excluding the lifted numbers). The dialogue by Vijay Krisha Acharya (Dhoom 2, Guru), who also goes by Victor Acharya, and Pratibha Acharya suits the film well.

Apart from the treatment, the actors make this film work. Rahul Bose is good in the lead role. This is the first film featuring Mallika Sherawat that I’ve seen and despite what her image led me to believe, she is quite a competent actress. Both the actors are well cast in the roles that seem to be made for them. The supporting cast is also good. Sharat Saxena gets a nice role as Mallika’s father and he scores. Ranvir Shorey as Rahul’s roommate is first-rate.

This is a fun un-Bollywood like romantic comedy. Watch this if you are bored with Yashraj style flicks promoting the greatness of love.