Patiala House - Preview

Akshay Kumar - My system is now trained to bring a flow of reflex actions at the mention of the name - that of a grimace, which turns into a cringe and ends in a shudder. And that's sad because we have seen glimpses of the actor in him in Aankhen and if I remember right, Khakee. I know that's too few and way too far between considering the colossal blunders that he has made since then. But the 'never say die' spirit in me still looks for those glimpses, after all I go there to watch a good film.

So after neutralizing the Akshay-Kumar effect, I set out to watch the trailer.

This one completely leaves me with mixed feelings. The themes it seems to be touching upon interest me a lot - racism; the confusion that the second generation of Indians abroad faces; the disparity in the thinking process of generations. And at the same time, I'm so worried that the fight against discrimination very quickly turns into jingoism; talk about generation gap transforms into glorifying family values beyond what they are and so on.

Fortunately there are enough decent dialogues in there, to even out this skepticism. So the fingers are crossed. Only not too tightly, because director Nikhil Advani has also given us Chandni Chowk to China and no one can be forgiven for such a thing. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed most of Salaam-e-ishq. I can only imagine how wary the people who hated that one too must be, if they care enough in the first place that is.

Oh yeah, and how can we forget Ms. Anoushka Sharma who just might tilt the balance in the film's favor.

Anyhow, the songs are a mixed bag too. The pacy ones are not too inspiring and can't imagine them motivating anyone to go to the theaters. But the softer songs are playing on a loop right now.

Music reviews:

milliblog - "gains a lot from its elegant melodies!"

music aloud - "8.25/10"

Apun Ka Choice - "3/5"

Bollyspice - "1.5/5"

Bollywood Hungama - "4/5"

HappySing - "Overall, Patiala House may not be among the best of Shankar Ehsaan Loy, but like most of their albums, the album has some freshness, and some good ol’ things."

IANS - "neither bad nor brilliant"

Rediff - "3.5/5"

Glamsham - "4/5"