The Hindu : New Delhi News : One long honeymoon with lots of fun and a date with devil... .

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 25, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

One long honeymoon with lots of fun and a date with devil... .

ZIYA US SALAM

HONEYMOON TRAVELS PVT LTD

(At Delite Diamond and other Delhi theatres)

Devdas is dead. Long may love live. With "Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd", debutante director Reema Kagti turns the notion of love on its head. Yes, the roses still bloom in spring. The moth is still scorched by the flame. But there is something about love that has changed. It is no longer only an expression of longing.

It is something to smile about, to laugh about. That it might still leave a little thud in the heart, or a little sparkle in the eye is but incidental. Love is no longer so sacrosanct. Thank God: irreverent, delightful, maybe, but never fake.

"Honeymoon Travels... " is that rare film that goes beyond youth and campus, discs and candlelight dinners to give an expression to love. What's more, it never gets so serious, never for a moment so preachy that you think you have sauntered in to watch a senior citizens' love story. And it never gets so inane or juvenile that you wish you had let the bubblegum brigade handle this one. Neither too old nor too young, Kagti's film is just right. Minor irritants, little squabbles, lots of love, and some music... . The film has it all.

A story of six couples on their honeymoon, it has the sweetness of first love, and the nervous tension of the first kiss. In short, it is like life. Add a dash of the ever-so-slight hyperbole and a few comic liberties, and you have a film that nudges you, tickles you, teases you.

Game for the story? Well, it has none. Just one long saga about life on the first outing after marriage. That the director still keeps you occupied is a tribute to the breezy pace of the film, where termites are never allowed to grow and to conquer. No character gets so profound, so intense as to become bigger than the film. No character is so superfluous that the film would have lost none of its sheen without him.

Kagti takes middle class couples on a honeymoon to Goa in a special "a.c. vedio coach". Each one of them has a little tale to relate, each one of them has a little note of angst, a little note of joy. We have Shabana Azmi - yes, she is one of the characters in the honeymooning party! - and Boman Irani bringing up the senior brigade. They are there with the 20-somethings on a honeymoon, but for them it is a return journey. They both have been there, done that.

Unlike the irrepressible Sandhya Mridul with the suave Vikram Chatwal. She is a livewire, he is elegant in his laidback ways. He is U.S.-returned, she is more foreign than Indian. Ameesha Patel plays a Punjabi lass to Karan Khanna's reluctant hubby. Add to that Dia Mirza and Ranvir Sheory with their share of problems, Abhay Deol with Minissha with their packet of joy, and Kay Kay with Raima Sen with their aspirations, and you have a complete picture of every conceivable honeymooning couple.

Of course, it isnot all a sugary, sweet saga. Nor does every relationship go sour. Just like life. There are highs and lows, crests and troughs. The partners disagree on more than a subject or two, but agree to hold hands. There are times when you feel a greater punch could have been added to the narration, greater drama added. At times you wish the director had a better grip over the story. But ignore that as the failing of a newcomer too intent on reaching the destination to care about every crevice along the way.

Full credit to Kagti for bringing out the reality of life without taking recourse to a sermon.

She is also probably the first director to talk of a man attracted to a man like moth to a flame but married to a woman like rust to iron in monsoon. Her characters with same-sex affiliation do not walk unfettered in the public square. Rather, they settle life's issues like everyone else.

Backed by some fine music, some good locales and some good work by the actors, Kagti delivers. Watch it before marriage and you will enjoy "Honeymoon Travels... " Already more than a few years into matrimony? Watch it even then. It will rekindle that spark, the time when a touch meant an electric current, a smile the world. Despite the foibles, it is good fun.

GHOST RIDER

(At Spice PVR, Noida; and Delhi theatres)

It is quite a fashion to accuse Bollywood of lacking in imagination, creativity and any element of novelty. Well, sorry mates, Hollywood with its star and studio fixation is not doing much better. Peddling the predictable, toeing the trite, the bigwigs are all churning out stereotypes. Steven Johnson's "Ghost Rider", starring the intense Nicolas Cage with the affable Eva Mendes, is the latest example.

The director takes an age-old tale of Mephistopheles, adds a dash of modern mechanics. And presents a tale that hopes to ride on viewers' credulity. What's more, "Ghost Rider" is actually a bit of a mockery of the Renaissance devil, depicted variously as a Satan or evil in many Christian sources. The name is not found in the Bible but that does not prevent Johnson from taking up the story of the one who exorcises light.

What Johnson does is to take up the character and come up with the timeless fight of the innocent with the evil. Here Cage as Johnny Blaze sells his soul to Peter Fonda's devil to save his sick father. In the process he loses his sweetheart. Of course, Mephistopheles can release the soul. Just one condition: he swaps his human visage for the fire-emitting rider. Mephistopheles assigns Johnny the job of getting rid of Blackheart, Mephistopheles's son, who plans to displace his father and create a new hell even more terrible than the old one.

Cage meets his girlfriend again one moment, cajoles, pleads, secures an appointment to reconcile the differences. Next moment he is a ghost with fire all over his head! In between there is a date with the devil with all his grotesque make-up and everything. Looking for a needle of novelty? You might find one in a haystack, not here. Sorry, Eva's sensuality and Cage's intensity end up merely as saving graces of a film you might want to see if you love stars. Or enjoy cinema that is just a series of breathtaking stunts. Looking for something more meaningful? Better not.

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