Hameshaa

Hameshaa -- Eternity

MAIN CAST
Saif Ali Khan -- Raja/Raju
Kajol -- Rani/Ramesha
Aditya Pancholi -- Yash

BRIEF PLOT OVERVIEW
Raja and Yash swear that they will be best friends forever. Then they fall for the same girl, a beautiful college student named Rani. Enflamed by jealousy, Yash lets Raja fall to his death, and a distraught Rani jumps down after him, swearing that Yash will never have her and she and Raja will always be together. When Rani is reincarnated 22 years later, Yash does everything in his power to overcome destiny.

FILM -- 1.5/5
Alas, Hameshaa, you could have been such an interesting film! Your premise is interesting enough, even if reincarnation stories are as popular in India as body-switching plots are in America, but your mediocre script really kills it for me. Honestly, it's hard for me to relate to a hero when his dialogue makes him sound like a crazed stalker, and the heroine is written so blandly that her only active form of resistance is to kill herself*. They probably should've removed large chunks of the script as well, specifically the last half hour, which is completely unnecessary and just drags the film on. With the exception of a few of Kajol's outfits, the costuming is as bad as Saif Ali Khan's haircut. The choreography is equally horrendous; it tends to be very jerky and jumpy, and for some crazy reason, Saif Ali Khan and Kajol pull on each other's hair a lot. Maybe it's because they can't believe they're in such an awful movie and they want to wake each other up from this nightmare...? In Hameshaa's defense, its picture quality is unusually crisp and bright for a 90s film, although its sound quality can't quite match up.

CHARACTERS -- 1.5/5
Saif Ali Khan has definitely improved with age. I like him in newer movies like Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic, but his high-pitched, nasal voice really grated on me in Hameshaa, and he isn't physically attractive in any way, shape, or form here. What's worse, his performance is really hokey, and I couldn't connect to Raja/Raju at all. Kajol's performance also feels very phoned-in and somewhat stiff, although like Shahrukh Khan, Kajol has enough charisma that she can glide through a bad performance without being too cringe-inducing. Aditya Pancholi probably does the best with what he's given. Yash is as 2-dimensional as Raja and Rani--he does typical bad guy things like scream at his servants, throw innocent people in front of trains, rub used handkerchieves all over his face like a dirty pervert, and so on and so on--but Aditya's expressive face adds some depth to the character's actions. The supporting cast is so-so.

SOUNDTRACK -- 1.5/5
Hameshaa's soundtrack is barely worth mentioning. One of the things that really gets me about this soundtrack, even more than the terrible mixing job, is the lackluster quality of the vocals. How could Anu Malik write such garbage, and how could Udit Narayan lower himself to sing it?! There's a whole lot of track blending, not so much because all of the songs sound the same, but because the songs are all very bad and/or very boring. The singular exception to this rule is the classically-styled tune Ramesha dances to right after the intermission, which features gorgeous costumes and some fluid moves by the luminous Kajol.

OVERALL -- 2/5
If it weren't for the fact that Hameshaa was one of the first Bollywood films I ever saw, I probably wouldn't care to own a copy. It's not that Hameshaa is so bad you should write it off your list completely and dub it "garbage," but it isn't something I'd waste my free time on if I had little free time to spare**. Many Bollywood films have unrealistic elements to them that are only excusable because of their charm, like the reunion scene in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, but Hameshaa makes the critical error of depending entirely on Bollywood magic with no such charm to back it up. I can't even recommend buying a cheap copy of this film, so stick with a rental if you really feel the need to see it.

TOTAL SCORE -- 6.5/20 (bad)







* Don't even try to point out Ramesha's little anti-engagement speech and first meeting with Raju, because she faints like a damsel in distress shortly after that meeting, and her escape from Yash's palace also causes the death of many people. It is ridiculously typical of masala films to make heroines swoon at large bursts of emotions, and it's equally typical for a woman to be the cause the deaths of innocent people. If a male character does the same things, he rarely causes as much of a frenzy in his wake. Yes, I know I always complain about people not accepting cultural differences, but this isn't just a cultural difference, it's an affront to well-written female characters everywhere.

** Technically I don't have a lot of free time, but I don't have class or work on Thursdays, and the weather is so bad right now that there's really nothing for me to do except stay inside. And a girl's gotta take a break from doing her homework every once in a while!