AFTER HALLA Bol and Sunday, Ajay Devgan must have hoped the best for U, Me aur Hum; more so because it is his directorial debut. However, the film can best be described as U, Me aur Ham.

 

Need the reviewer write more?

 

The film borrows its basic premise from the Hollywood flick ‘Twenty First Dates’, about a guy who starts afresh each day with his girl, because the girl has a failing memory. The point is U, Me aur Hum is not a copy of the film and how you wish it was, because then the film could have been better (audiences can always hope for the best).

 

The film starts with Devgan’s son falling for a girl (Hazel). Doting dad, Devgan spots it and eggs him on to pursue her. The son is reluctant. The father lays a bet with his son that he would woo any lady and then the son would have to propose to Hazel. 

 

Son agrees and tells Devgan to woo Kajol. Now the discerning viewer already knows the plot. 

 

Devgan woos Kajol by telling her a story set 25 years earlier. The story has a guy – exact replica of Devgan – and a girl – exact replica of Kajol – and how they fell in love aboard a luxury-liner.

 

Interested? 

 

Oh yeah, the luxury-liner has two couples too, Devgan’s friends – Sumit Raghvan and Divya Dutta, and Karan Khanna and Isha Sharvani.

 

The narrative of the film is pretty much on the lines of Indra Kumar directed, Aamir-Manisha starrer, Mann (1999). That film still had a few moments that held you, here the scenes seem never-ending and the act seems a drag (so much so that a group of youngsters in the lounge were playing catch-blanket with each other and none of the viewers’ ever complained)! 

 

Though the production values are the best available, same can’t be said about the writing or even the finer nuances like characterisation (a female blurts: Indian men are like mouse, always looking for a hole!)

 

Devgan can take heart from the fact that his directorial debut is better than his father’s – Veeru Devgan’s ‘Hindustan Ki Kasam’ (1999), remember?

 

Performance wise, Kajol holds you in certain scenes; that’s about it. Devgan, with due respect to his histrionics and performances (Company, Khakee, Halla Bol), is a total miscast. His timing in the first-half as a suave, stylish, sexy, smooth-operator is totally out. It needed the charm of Akshay Kumar or the high-octane of Shahrukh Khan. As a result, Devgan never really connects with the audiences.