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‘Ek main aur
ek tu’ is an ordinary movie with an extraordinary twist in the final stages,
which makes it a bit better than the mediocre. Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor
are two young people all by themselves in Vegas (Ve-gus, and not Vegaas, for
God’s sakes!) and both are incidentally unemployed when they accidentally meet.
Imran is the only son in a stinking rich, socialite family in posh upmarket
Mumbai. His parents, Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah are control freaks and
they have raised their son as their puppet, who does everything according to
their choice and wish- from selecting ties, clothes and hairdo, to whether to
eat with a fork or chopsticks, to compulsorily chewing his food 32 times before
swallowing. He has been ‘made into’ an architect, against his choice of course
(he wanted to be a photographer), and after being employed by the 11th
best architectural firm in the world briefly, he is sacked, a fact that he is
unable disclose to his parents, for obvious reasons. He however, is rich enough
to sustain himself well till he finds another job for himself. Kareena, on the
other hand, is from a completely unorthodox and broad-minded Christian family
in Mumbai, though not as well off economically as Imran’s family. She is a
hair-stylist, who also has been without a job for some time, has had four
‘screwed-up’ relationships before she meets Imran; is a fun-loving,
everything-goes kind of a girl. Imran and Kareena meet each other when the
former helps her with some petty change at the billing counter of a store.
Circumstances make them meet a few more times on the same day, making Kareena
believe that Imraan had been sent by her ex boy-friend to spy on her, and she
smacks him a few times. Soon Kareena realizes her folly and to make up, she
offers to have a drink with him. They end up getting drunk that night and
walking into a wedding chapel and getting married! Next morning Imraan is
aghast to find himself in 69 pose with Kareena in his bed (don’t get ideas;
they just sleep on different ends of a double bed, fully clothed, including
their shoes!). Once sober, they decide that the wedding was indeed a stupidity
and they should get it ‘annulled’ a la Britney Spears. However, Kareeena’s
landlords chuck her out of their apartment for the lapse in rent payment, and
Imran once again offers help and allows her to live with him for a few days.
Soon he discovers that he is in love with her. Kareena herself is shown to be
quite pally with him. They touch and hug each other, but there is no sign of
romance between them. They even share the same bed for a night but all they
keep doing thru the night is switch the light on and off and talk to each other
about their career options! I mean, Imran might have been brought up to be an
absolute upright guy with morals and all, but if anyone is in bed with a
stunning beauty like Kareena, and does not feel the physical spark, then he is
either gay, a saint, really high on ‘moral values’, low on testosterone, or he
really wears his underwear very, very tight! And Kareena herself, despite her
past four ‘screwed up’ relationships does not feel romantically attracted
towards a handsome bloke who by her own admission is ‘perfectly average’.
Imran, of course thinks that she loves him as much as he does, only that their
love is yet undeclared one. Circumstances lead them to visit Mumbai, and Imran
is forced to live with Kareena’s family coz he couldn’t tell his parents of his
visit to Mumbai coz he could not tell them that he has lost his job. Kareena’s
folks are shown to be a bit too broad-minded, with the first thing her dad asks
her on seeing them is whether she slept with him. God, Pa, no! Kareena takes
Imraan around Mumbai including her old school where she shows him places where
she, as a school-girl, did more flirting and kissing boyfriends than study.
Finally, when she takes him to the ‘kissing spot’ of the school- a secluded
staircase, Imran, thinking she’s giving him a cue, bends forward to kiss her on
the lips. She withdraws with a frown, and bang comes Imran’s world tumbling
down on his head. Kareena tells him she likes him as a friend but never felt
romantically for him. Imran loses his cool for a short period but gathers
himself soon, realizing that Kareena never in fact loved him romantically. A
frustrated Imraan finally rebels with his family (he meets his family
accidentally in Mumbai), and thankfully starts wearing clothes of his own
choice. They both return to Vegas, and Imraan actually keeps his hopes alive
with Kareena, and dreams of re-visiting the wedding chapel once more with her,
this time in their senses.
Though the
movie is entirely about two people, Kareena and Imraan, making the audience
actually think at times if there are any other characters in the film, the
story is interspersed with scenes that supposedly help build the protagonist’s
character- quite literally! Early in their friendship, Kareena forces Imraan to
call up his ex girl-friend and ask for a date.
As it turns out to be, she is a horny female, who on hearing that Imraan
could be ‘wild’, and that he has ‘done
it’ at times in the loo, rushes to the loo of the restaurant they are sitting in,
dragging him along and tries to do things with him. Imraan can be excused here
for not playing up with her given the circumstances, the location and the looks
of his femme-fatale! Ugh!
And then
there is the aging wife of his father’s friend, who never misses a chance to
pinch his bottoms! Poor guy!
And then
there’s a technical goof-up, which I bet most of the audience missed. Kareena
supposedly didn’t want to be a hair-stylist. She in fact wanted to be a ballet
dancer, but couldn’t because she broke her ankle in her childhood and now she
has a ‘steel ball’ somewhere in her ankle! I am an orthopedic surgeon but I
have never heard of ‘steel balls’ in ankles! (Balls to that)
Overall the
movie is ok, watchable once. Performances are ok as well, and kareena looks
stunning at times. Imraan looks too thin in his orthodox clothes, and even
after Kareena redoes his hair, he still looks unkempt. Top class actors like
Boman and Ratna Pathak don’t have enough meat in their roles, though Ratna’s
role reminded me of her part as ‘Maya Sarabhai’ in the famed TV show ‘Sarabhai
v/s Sarabhai’. The numbers are hummable
but I wouldn’t keep them on my playlist.
My rating:
2.5 on 5
