Movie review: Ishkq In Paris

Ishkq In Paris

Cast: Preity Zinta, Rhehan Malliek, Isabelle Adjani, Salman Khan (cameo)

Direction: Prem Raj

Rating:

I loved it when Preity Zinta announced to the world she was turning film producer. In male-dominated Bollywood, that takes guts (but then Preity is a lady who has testified against the mafia, so what's producing a film).

I was less convinced about guts translating into practical filmmaking sense the moment the promos started airing. As Salman Khan did his item cameo, Preity's Ishkq In Paris shouted out a jaded look. It was almost as if she had made the film in her heydays - the last decade - and brought it out of cold storage only now.

Ishkq (Preity) meets Akash (Rhehan Malliek) on a train and the two share an evening in Paris. Ishkq, though, insists on a no-baggage pact - that they should not carry any emotional residue from the encounter.

So Ishkq moves on but Akash has fallen in love with her. What follows is what you might have guessed. They will meet again - in Paris, of course - and most of what follows is about whether Akash will finally manage to win over Ishkq.

In fits, the film brings back faint shades of Hum Tum or London Paris New York, though by and large it manages taking an original line. Director Prem Raj, returning after the Salman Khan dud Main Aurr Mrs Khanna, seems out of loop in blending romance with melodrama. The lead duo's chemistry suffers.

Preity is feisty as ever but she isn't doing anything she might not have already done in a zillion films before. Rhehan could do with some screen presence and you marvel at Isabelle Adjani's assured grace in a cameo. None of the cast - superstar item boy Salman included - can save a bad script from sinking, though.