Love Express

Cast: Sahil Mehta,Vikas Katyal,Mannat Ravi,Priyum Galav,Om Puri

Director: Sunny Bhambani

God and Subhash Ghai know that the film industry needs new talent. It is, therefore, heartening to see Ghai patronise newcomers. Sadly, "Love Express" is an uninspired vehicle to accommodate new talents. Everyone connected with this rather touchingly disoriented low-budget romantic comedy set in 'speeding' train, is untried and eager to make an impression. The amateurishness of presentation is in some ways, a sign of burgeoning talent. The students of Ghai's acting school seem in search of their bearings. And that's what makes them so endearing.

The set representing the chugging train is quickly filled up with a wedding party, assorted uncles and aunts, nieces, nephews and oddball characters who burst in pop-bhangra songs as though they are auditioning for India's Most Flaunted. The characters revel in their loud quirkiness because that's the way a Punjabi wedding entourage is expected to behave. Subtlety or whatever we may call any attempt to infuse an aesthetic restraint to a film about wedding revelry, is at a low premium here. The debutant director has a grip over his characters but not much of an idea as to how to package them in any way that appears innovative.

The two newcomers playing the reluctant bride and the groom struggle with lines that try hard to replicate the trendy cynicism of today's wannabe-cool brigade. The small-town social climbers with their fake designer bags and borrowed accents were far more palpably credible in Aanand Kumar's "Tanu Weds Manu". "Love Express" expresses neither a love for the small-town milieu that it tries to pack into a train of caricatural characters, nor does it display any fluidity in its narration.

The actors possess no wherewithal to make the loud caricatural characters spoofy in their flamboyance. At the most, we can smile indulgently at the new talent that Subhash Ghai's film school throws forward. Decades ago Ghai acted in a film Umang about youthful aspirations. "Love Express" makes you wonder what these young guns really want. Right from the plot which tries fitting into the genre of films like 'Tanu Weds Manu' or 'Jab We Met' to the overall treatment, there is formulaic approach written all over 'Love Express. Nothing wrong with that but only as long as the formula is used appropriately. In case of 'Love Express', debutant director Sunny Bhambani doesn't get it right, hence resulting in a film which starts and finishes without involving you even once. This is where the film falters as well as there isn't any grip on the proceedings.

Boy (Sunny Bhambani) and girl (Mannat Ravi) are packed off in a train even as their relatives are celebrating their impending marriage. Of course they don't want it but the trouble is to convince their parents. How they try various tricks to separate from each other and in the process only end up falling in love results in a predictable end to story that hangs on a thin plot. Well, nothing wrong with a thin plot as long as there are enough ingredients to make the proceedings interesting. Unfortunately though this doesn't quite happen in 'Love Express' which has a few engaging but inconsistently spread hilarious moments. Of course the man who contributes to most of the smiles (and at a couple of places even full throated laughter) is Om Puri as the loveable 'dadaji'. However that is not good enough for audience to indeed empathise with the characters who just don't manage to put enough 'jaan' into the narrative.

Now that's indeed a pity because the film's plot had enough scope for ample fun moments to be interspersed with the narrative. Road movies bring with them the kind of setting where ensemble characters can come in close proximity, hence resulting in hilarious situations. Unfortunately though what one sees in 'Love Express' is sheer caricature of Punjabi characters with everyone seen as singing and dancing and being loud at the drop of the hat. Even performance wise the film is just about okay with Sahil Mehta and Mannat Ravi being decent though not striking enough to win your heart. Vikas Katyal and Priyum Galav too just about pass muster though (expectedly) Om Puri is what makes the film reasonably tolerable. There is a horde of character artists in the film and they basically just about fill in the blanks.

Film's production values are just about average though music is decent. However one can well sense that Subhash Ghai, who presents the film, wasn't too confident about the film either due to which there has been absolutely no zing in the promotion. Also, fate of some films is decided after the release of the first poster and the first promo itself. 'Love Express' is one such film. Right from the way the film looked to the way the characters interacted with each other to the wannabe 'we are Punjabis, join us in all the fun' mood that it aimed at creating, 'Love Express' was just not happening when the First Look came out.

No wonder, when the makers couldn't stuff anything exciting in those two minutes, it was rest assured that holding a grip in those two hours would be a mighty challenging task as well.