Review - thoda pyaar thoda magic: Adults not allowed

thoda pyaar thoda magic is a crash course in moral science for second graders and below. And I'm pretty sure this target audience is going to thoroughly enjoy the lesson because it has song and dance, cartoons and naughtiness. So, parents can sit happy, because kids are taught animal rights, civic sense, love over war, forgiveness, importance of bonding over blood relations, being both a graceful winner and loser, religious tolerance all in a little over two hours. And I'm pretty sure there must be a couple I missed out on.

You know what this means for the adults, right? One hell of a sappy movie! Over-idealistic to the hilt, and indigestibly sweet. I doubt even songs with underwater shots of a bikini-clad Ameesha Patel can compensate for that. In fact, that's a very high price to pay for tolerating the shrill character she plays. I know-I know, that's what the character demands, yada, yada.

But, it hurts to watch the same excuse being used for Saif Ali Khan. He wears one sullen look throughout the movie despite being capable of very varied range of expressions. True, his character is very somber. But, the man just couldn't cry or make me feel for him in emotional scenes. Of course, blame is equally apportioned between his talent and the way the character develops. The transformation from aloofness to bonding, from long silences to talking his heart out is a little too quick.

Is it just me or does Rani Mukherjee really look and feel almost the same in most of her movies? It’s not like she isn't trying out different roles. Yet, somehow today while watching the movie I got this feeling of "been there, seen that". Maybe it has something to do with that extra layer of make-up they find necessary to apply to make her look fairer. Anyhow, something was amiss and everyone involved just felt like they were going through the motions.

Also, while watching the movie today, I suddenly realized how my kids idolize RV and Shona, the characters Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee play in Ta Ra Rum Pum. I can so visualize them now idolizing Ranbir and Geeta after watching this one.

Does that mean when they grow up they are going to say, "we grew up watching Saif or Rani who were in movies for kids like us" just like we say today, "we grew up watching Al Pacino or Amitabh Bachchan who made us wanna be like them." Scary, eh? If that's the onus they carry, they have to get better than this, because they are so capable of doing it.

I digress. Coming back to the movie at hand, the dialogues and situations are pretty plain given that it's supposed to be about four really naughty kids. And the children enacting these roles are not super-adorable either. In a way it's nice to see regular kids playing regular kids. And it's better to have them do nothing compared to having them do the same old tricks that kids pull to harass adults. But that also means nothing really exciting is happening. Although some of the tributes given to various movies from yesteryears are cute.

Also, the usual melodious and lively number from Kunal Kohli movies is missing here. Although I loved the way all of them were visualized. The choreography was bare minimum and the overall effect used was charming.

The main problem though is we are in touch with a lot more cinema - Indian and foreign - compared to the generations before us ever were. So, obviously after this kind of exposure, it would be really difficult to spot something 'new' in terms of animation and special effects. The onus then completely lies in creatively utilizing these effects. And that the thoda pyaar thoda magic team manages to put together well. Yeah, things can appear and disappear, and inanimate stuff can dance, but how and when they do it is what counts, and that works pretty well here.

The question remains - why don't we have movies that kids and adults can enjoy together?