Saturday, July 12

Film: Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic Click for more info

Why they didn't spell Thoda with an R I don't know - it took me ages to figure out what this film was called and even then it had to be explained to me.

Anyway, Mary Poppins meets Bollywood in this, a film about the successful but not-really-as-grumpy-as-he-should-be Ranbeer having to look after the cute but not-really-as-naughty-as-they-should-be kids of the couple he killed in a car accident. On the way he is helped by Geeta, who manages to bring all involved together into one big happy family.

There's no mistaking that TPTM has charm. It's cute and funny when it needs to be, and Rani Mukherjee's infectiously cheerful Geeta is upstaged only by the (somewhat generic) orphan kids. It's also well put together - although superfluous, the special effects aren't all that shabby, and there aren't any major problems with the filming or direction.

My biggest issue is with the characters themselves. There just seems to be zero development with them all. Take the shirt-button challenged Ranbeer for example. Any other film would follow him as he transformed from a wicked step dad into a loving father, but since he's not that bad from the start this doesn't quite happen. The same goes for the relationships between all the characters - they accept their situation all too easily in my opinion and there was no friction, tension and so, interest.

Which is a shame, since in spite of the absolutely barmy (and wholly unnecessary) context in which the story is told, TPTM could have been something much bigger. As it stand it's all a bit shallow and uninteresting, and if it wasn't for Rani's fun performance I would have found watching it a big waste of time.

3 comments:

  1. It's a 'd' not an 'r' because in the Hindi language there are many forms of 'r' there's the soft 'r' transliterated as 'r' but then there's the hard 'r' transliterated as 'd'. It's more about staying true to the Hindi language.

    Have a look at this:
    http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hindi.htm

    The letter 'dha'(3rd line of consonants) is the same as 'rha' (1st line of additional consonant) except the latter has a dot at the bottom, so you can see that the 'rha' actually comes from the 'dha' hence it's donated as 'd' in the film and not 'r' as 'thoda' is spelt with the hard 'r' in the Hindi language not the soft 'r' (ie. 'ra' - 6th line of the consonants).

    Erm, hope that helps!

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  2. they both (saif and rani) look hagged in the promo's .. amisha's bod looks hot in that lazy lanhe song - shame about the face though

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  3. hey (someone, anyone!) dont punjabis pronounce thoRa with a 'd' not r?

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