Partner, Bollywood Movie Review

‘Do u wanna Partner O Partner..’ with the song in the top 10 of theIndian charts, the trailer being shown every 5 minutes on Desi TV andthe combination of my son’s request, the song has been playingconstantly around me for the last few months.
I have to admit, the song numbers are very catchy and you can’t resist tapping your toes and drumming your fingers. The trailers looked funny enough to stir mycuriosity and as a (used-to-be) Salman Khan fan….all this was enoughto drag me to the theater to watch the movie, giving up the rights ofcontrolling the movie with a remote in my hand. The one thing that Iwas trying to ignore thru all this was that Govinda is a part of thisdeal. The critic reviews were pretty much all bad so off I wentequipped with that information and zero expectations.
PartnerDirector - David Dhawan,Starring - Salman Khan as Prem, Govinda as Bhaskar, Lara Dutta as Naina & Katrina Kaif as Priya.
Well, it is a David Dhawan movie and knowing that you just leave yourbrains at home and go watch the movie. A very smart move on mypart! The movie was a ‘come back’ for Govinda, who plays aclumsy, ignorant, silly (very) guy (Bhaskar) who seeks the help of Prem(Salman Khan) to help win over his boss Naina (Katrina Kaif). And wheredoes Naina (Lara Dutta) figure in all this…well, she was just therefor the sake of being there. Katrina and Lara both looked goodbut were lacking in the acting department (but I really don’t thinkDavid Dhawan put them in the movie to act). Salman Khan was his usualself…taking off his shirt at the drop of a hat and I am glad he did,given a choice I’d rather see Salman without a shirt than Govinda! Sothe bottom line is that Salman, the Love Guru helps Govinda win hisLady love, Katrina. At this point, you are probably thinking…hmmm, thestory sounds familiar - no prizes for guessing, it is a copy of‘Hitch’!….so Hitch with a desi angle. And for some reason, most DesiDirectors can just never get the ending right…they invariably mess upand make the whole thing look cheesy. I wasn’t kidding when I mentionedearlier, I did leave my brains at home and thank God for that.
Over all, songs were better than average, Govinda’s comic timing - hestill ‘has’ it (so I heard people say), Salman was OK and that everyoneelse in the movie was there because they had to stretch the movie to 3 hours. Saveyour money and see the movie once it comes out on DVD (even if you area BIG Govinda fan). It is watchable once BUT with the remote in yourhand. So, remember, brains outside, remote in hand, brains outside, remote in hand, brains……:-)