By:
Subhash
K.
Jha,
IndiaFM
Tuesday,
June
12,
2007
Samay
Samay
ki
baat
hai.
A
few
years
ago
Robbie
Grewal
made
a
thriller
with
Sushmita
Sen
cast
as
a
cop
and
single
mother
tracking
down
a
serial
killer.
Swerving
from
gritty
to
gooey
,
Robbie
does
a
sweet
a-pout
turn
in
this
gently
conceived
neatly
assembled
and
sensibly
executed
puppy-love
tale
that
throws
up
a
few
endearing
moments
and
a
whole
lot
of
actors
who
are
mush-roomed
without
getting
schmaltzy.
What
you
instantaneously
like
about
the
young
school-going
pair
is
that
they
are
in
character.
Neither
Ruslaan
Mumtaz
nor
Hazel
strain
for
effect
to
show
they're
supposed
to
be
falling
in
love
for
the
first
time.
There's
a
natural
progression
to
their
friendship
that's
never
braked
by
redundant
drama
and
other
hammy
interventions.
Most
refreshingly,
the
parents
on
both
sides
are
supremely
cool
about
the
growing
fondness
between
their
offsprings.
"Clean
up
the
mess," Ruslaan's
mom
orders
as
she
tucks
dreamily
into
chocolates
on
the
living-room
sofa.
Love,
if
you
must
know,
is
no
big
deal.
Live
with
it.
The
problems-if
we
can
call
them
that-come
from
those
familiar
yet
exasperating
ego
clashes
between
the
callow
couple.
He
litters,
she
gets
bitter.
She
likes
demonstrative
affection.
He's
embarrassed
by
any
flow
of
affection,
thanks
to
the
brood
of
jeering
friends
(all
played
by
young
actors
who
know
their
'jibe').
In
getting
the
pulse
of
the
pehla-pehla
pure-pure
feelings
,
this
flick
goes
beyond
Ken
Ghosh's
Ishq
Vishq
where
too
the
pair's
growing
care
developed
under
the
campus
stare.
MP3
is
no
'stare'way
to
heaven.
But
somewhere
you
felt
those
guys
were
faking
the
cool
in
Ishq
Vishq
or
even
Mujhe
Kuch
Kehna
Hai
.
The
actors,
grownup
and
growing,
in
Grewal's
film
are
naturals.
Watch
the
two
actresses
who
play
the
young
pair's
respective
moms.
They
are
new
to
the
screen
and
therefore
welcome
in
the
mint-fresh
scheme
of
things.
The
naughty
bits
among
the
school
brats
are
well
matched
by
the
coochie-coochie
hota
hai
in
Paris.
What
you
like
best
about
this
teen-dream
is
its
unassuming
pacing.
No
sighs
of
strain
in
the
storytelling,
no
quickening
of
the
pulse,
no
moments
that
repulse.
Easy
does
it!
...And
yes,
Ruslaan
Mumtaz
is
natural
and
vulnerable
on
camera.
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