Rating :**
So all right. This isn't your perfect guide to a successful marriage.
But the honeymooning couples here make you wonder if weddings are planned
in places far below heaven.
Reema Kagti's debut film "Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd" has
enough chutzpah to keep you purring at the blend of parody and pathos.
Once you get into the narrative groove of these imperfectly matched
couples riding into a hectic, hilarious honeymoon in Goa, you're in
for a minor treat.
Even if you haven't been on a honeymoon, get a load of these feisty
honeymooners, feasting on the first flush of love, romance, sex and
bickering on a trip that makes us smile for a mile and chuckle for a
brief way too.
What really holds the film together are the players. Everyone from
the commanding Shabana to the sassy Raima are out to have fun. And there're
some picturesque whispers about how a marriage can go wrong at its startling
start.
Watch newly married husbands Vikram Chatkwal and Karan Kapoor getting
attracted to each other while their respective wives scratch their heads
wondering why the bed seems so dead.
Sassy, savvy and sometimes slippery - deftly written scenes and lines
carry the narrative forward with nimble savoir faire. Debutant director
Reema Kagti knows her cinema with a prideful originality.
Whether sensitive (watch
the sequence where Boman and Shabana check out his lost ancestral property
in Goa) or plain wacky (watch Kay Kay lose his marbles to lead the entire
cast in a trance dance on a boat), you can't trace "Honeymoon Travels..."
back to any source.
The performances are all almost uniformly effervescent. Every actor
works within his or her limits to create a portable universe of credible
emotions. Kay Kay and Raima, as the timid husband and bindaas wife are
particularly endearing.
And you simply have to see Abhay and Minissha do the Lambada to know
they are made for each other -- at least in this film. But you wish
Kagti hadn't turned this made-for-each-the pair into Superman and Supergirl.
Shabana and Boman create their own magic. Though considering their
histrionic stature, you wish there was more space for them.
The nimble editing allows no space to miss anything beyond the pace.
Not breathless but brisk, "Honeymoon Travels..." moves on
confident feet. It doesn't purport to make serious statements on the
quality of life and marriage.
Instead it tells you to loosen up about issues that would generally
address large amount of tissues.