WITHOUT GIVING THE MOVIE AWAY (Hindi movie reviews...and a little more)
27th June 2008

thoda pyaar thoda magic - Notepad

posted in Hindi Movies, Movie Notes, meetu |

This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review.

Quick Review

Though I have huge complaints in most departments, I can’t deny that it’s perfect packaging for kids in the 3-12 age group. With hardly any “sad” moments, the characters are mostly colorful and chirpy. But, given my reservations, should I actually encourage my kids to watch this when not too long ago Taare Zameen Par was around? Oh, why not? There’s enough room for everybody.

Rating: Wait for video release - no kids for company? Skip it! (Rating Scale)

See full review

Plot Summary

Ranbir (Saif Ali Khan) lands up in a situation where he is left in charge of four notorious kids. God, wants things to work out and sends Geeta, an angel (Rani Mukherjee) to help things along.

Yeah, it’s a mish-mash of all movies where kids are imposed on someone and there is a guardian angel who takes them through, here it is literally so! Hum Hai Rahi Pyaar Ke, Sound of Music, Mr. India, Bramhachari, to name a few. Also, Saif’s character reminded me a lot of Shammi Kapoor’s character in Junglee.

Just a curiosity: Why was “Harry met Sally” chosen as the poster to be put up in the penultimate sequence? Was that a tribute to where the director’s earlier movie, Hum Tum was taken from?


What worked

  • The way Ranbir’s character was established without a single dialogue, just through visuals while the opening credits were being played.
  • The special effects of God creating birds and clouds, cycling on the rainbow, angel Geeta playing with clouds.
  • The special effects in the museum. Especially with Gandhiji and the war scene ones.
  • The shot just before the interval, where Ranbir’s reflection is in between the photos of the children on the computer screen. It might as well have been a very well processed photo set-up as the desktop background of the computer.
  • Picturization of “Lazy Lamhe”, the special effects were both cute and creative.
  • Though the tributes were put together abruptly, they were cute. They covered everything from Sholay, Mera Naam Joker, Gaddar, Padosan, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Liar Liar.
  • A typical Bollywood dance right infront with Universal Studios in the background - made me laugh!


What didn’t

Note: This section simply lists the things that I did not like in this movie. This is not the overall impression about this movie. Please read the full review here
  • How did they become angels if they are trying to pull another angel (Geeta) down?
  • I had a basic problem with the judge imposing the kids on Ranbir. What if he treated the kids badly? The judge would know only after 3 months when the damage would already be done. Or was the judge pretty confident that Ranbir would take care of the kids well? I know-I know, don’t think, go with the flow…
  • The lighting on the swimming pool at night.
  • No “non-uniform” dress to school on her birthday! How sad! And why was the shower running water in the background throughout that scene in the bathroom?
  • Is that how Ranbir enter his house every day, stealthily?
  • Ranbir’s monitor conked off, right? Why was he worried about his files?!
  • Why was the little girl standing outside the office when the computer was getting repaired?
  • How come none of them are wearing seat belts in the car in Los Angeles and San Diego!! In fact, I’d think the 5 year old would need to be in a booster seat!
  • The lip sync was pretty bad in the song shot in Universal Studios.

Nitty-Gritty

This section lists things that I think are not important to the overall impact of the movie. In most cases, it could be explained away by something like, “we noticed the glitch after the scene was shot and there were schedule/budget issues and thus we could not re-shoot it”. I like giving the makers the benefit of doubt, but I am amused nevertheless. Hopefully, they will tickle you too.
  • Uh…Ranbir was writing notes with pen and paper from something on his computer!
  • Why is God the only male in heaven, no men-angels? No men reach heaven? ;)

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There are currently 5 responses to “thoda pyaar thoda magic - Notepad”

Why not let us know what you think by adding your own comment! Your opinion is as valid as anyone elses, so come on... let us know what you think.

  1. 1 On July 1st, 2008, chavanni said:

    meetu,
    i wonder how you scribe your notepad during watching a film..,
    http://www.chavannichap.blogspot.com/

  2. 2 On July 3rd, 2008, meetu said:

    Aah, cyclops. Didn’t know that! Pretty cool.

    vimal, why would you dare not? More people voicing that opinion, over the years might lead to the film makers thinking about these things, many many many many years down the line, that is.

    chavanni, well its hardly legible, but I manage ;)

  3. 3 On August 2nd, 2008, dontpanic said:

    To answer just a couple of things from your “what didn’t” section:

    1. The shower was running to mask the sound of her crying. She didnt want the other kids to hear her cry.
    2. Ranbir’s monitor didn’t conk off. Obviously when you named this section ‘notepad’, you really meant the pen-&-paper variety, since technology seems to zipped past you. The computer he was using was an Apple iMac, where the hard drive is built into the back of the monitor. So his entire hard drive was fried.

  4. 4 On August 4th, 2008, meetu said:

    Thanks, dontpanic!
    1. Yeah and she left it on when she got out of the bathroom too.
    2. Yeah, dontpanic, cyclops told me about the iMacs too. You are right, I do find it difficult to keep myself updated about all the technological advances.

  5. 5 On September 9th, 2008, silvano dsouza said:

    i had a problem with the entire film
    many actually
    firstly as u said the court decision
    amisha’s character seemed out of place
    rani’s character was an irritant
    and so was rishi as god

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