Product: Salaam | Namaste
Rating: 4.0
Very good, almost great
This film is so good, and it came so close to greatness!The story is developed beautifully, showing how Nick (Saif) and Ambar (Preity) almost fall in love, almost learn to hate each other, then realize what they have nearly lost. The film is beautifully photographed, the music is first-class and the acting is wonderful.So, why only four stars? Someone decided that there should be some "comedy" in the film. I thought the silly, idiot-in-authority role was starting to disappear from the best Hindi films, but here we get not one but three (radio station manager, landlord and doctor). And the last one makes his appearance just at the time when the plot should be winding up and everyone in the theater should be wiping tears of joy from their cheeks.We did not laugh at this, but rather got angry because we had been deceived. The climactic scene was so carefully prepared and the audience so ready, and then in comes this idiot with his slapstick routine and undoes everything the film had worked so hard to accomplish.If the writer and director had resisted this temptation, or at least left it out of the final scenes, I would have called this a truly great film. As it is, it's a good film ruined by a very bad judgement about the end.