Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

David Dhawan’s Partner was released this Friday, which has the novel pairing of Govinda and Salman Khan, and is a rip-off the Hollywood movie Hitch. Joginder Tuteja reviews the movie and here are some excerpts:

As a cupid, Salman's job is to get two hearts meet. But doing so for Govinda, whose heart roots for his boss Katrina, is one humongous task. Reasons are aplenty. In spite of being an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, he doesn't know how to attract the attention of someone towards him. What knows is to blow a whistle, dance in as 'desi' style as possible, shed uncontrollable 'khushi-ke-aansoon' while blowing his nose the hardest way possible, walk into his MNC office while forgetting to put his pants on, worry about kissing in v/s kissing out and above all require coaching classes even for 'how-to-have-a-honeymoon'!

Sanjay Chhel's dialogues work wonders for the movie as more often than not, they are laced with wit and humor. Salim-Sulaiman's background music is of the kind that you are used to hearing in Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra films. Funky and exciting. Cinematography gives the film a young and vibrant look throughout.


Any roadblocks? Well, a couple of them. Beyond a point, the Salman-Lara track just doesn't lift the proceedings. Ok, so finally he manages to woo his 'Mumbai Massala' tabloid gossip journalist but the single mother angle followed by all the misunderstandings towards the end is just so irrelevant to the plot. Moreover the 'chota don' act by Rajpal Yadav falls flat. Surprising, because one would have expected nothing but the best with Rajpal doing a spoof on DON. Except for a stray laugh or two, there isn't much that the 'don' angle works for the film and in the end disappears completely

Insane, unbelievable,  mad, stupid, nonsense - all of these factors come together to make you go 'now-what-was-that'? But does any of this make a difference to you rolling over with laughter on your seats? No ways! This is why PARTNER turns out to be one whale of a ride that makes you clap hard, cheer loud, shed tears while laughing hard and root for Govinda and Salman. The duo demonstrate such a crackling chemistry on screen that one fails to understand why the two never came together ever since Salman made his debut 17 years back?

Rating: ***1/2