Review of Ishq Vishk

Ishq Vishk (2003)
4/10
Storyline from 60's repeated again in 21st century
8 August 2004
Yesterday, I watched the movie "Ishq Vishq" for the first time on TV, and was surprised to see how this movie was hit or popular?

It is not that it is a bad movie, or I would have never watched the movie completely. But what is surprising is that there is no storyline to tell, or even if it has the story, it is the same old story - same case of old wine in new bottle. Boy meets girl in college, here it is the turn of boy to reject girl's feelings, and then ultimately coming to terms. So what is new here?

The movie has the feeling of "deja vu" in its entire run. In 60s, Shammi Kapoor (and his clones) tried to woo Asha Parekh on tunes of OP Naiyyar, in 70s it was turn of Rishi Kapoor to gyrate on Pancham's tunes, in 90s, it was turn of Aamir Khan / Akshay Kumar and Madhuri Dixit (and others) to romance on tunes of Anand Milind/Nadeem Shravan / Jatin Lalit. And now, in 2004, you have Shahid Kapoor

The most irritating part is the never changing psychological profile of girls in the movie. Even in the year of 2004, they are as "pativrata" as their black and white counter parts (Meena Kumari in white saari singing a Bhajan in front of Lord Krishna). The girls are foolish enough to fall in love, when the guys fake their feelings towards them, just to get some favour. It feels they haven't learnt anything from their mothers and grand mothers. Falling in love is so easy for them.

And for gods sake, a 19 year old performing a "karva chauth" for his husband-to-be!!!!!!!!!!!. Gimme a break. The Indian directors do not seem to be free of DDLJ hangover. And please, Karva Chauth is only a North Indian tradition. When will our producers learn, that there is a whole India out there who is culturally very different from Northern India.

Women's liberation movement or political correctness is almost unheard of in Bollywood. Just showing heroine wearing skimpy ultramodern clothes, and gyrating in discos does not make them independent. It is the thoughts that count. But hell, who cares ???

And the teenagers in the movie always are wealthy sons of their wealthy parents. They study in south Bombay college, drive cars, wear expensive clothes, live in palace-like homes where they have their own separate bedrooms, eat burger-coke-fries, go to discos.

And what is the deal with the hero Rajeev? Isn't he mature enough to analyze his own feelings? Why he suddenly abandons the other girls without proper reason? Just because the first girl loves him does not mean that he will find true love only from her. What about the other girl's feelings?

The story writers even cannot think new name for the characters. The hero is "Rajeev", heroine is "Payal". Even before 20 years, we had the same name. The characters are of new generation, but can't have new names.

But hey, who cares. The producers made money, the actors had their share of fame, the public enjoyed the movie. So who gives a damn about the logic. And in that case, when did logic took a front seat in Bollywood movies
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