Subhash K Jha revisits 2004’s innocent romantic comedy Uuf Kya Jaadoo Mohabbat Hai and also shares a fascinating behind-the-music fact!
This Rajshri production takes us back to the arcadian innocence of puppy love in Raj Kapoor’s Bobby where young people just wanna have fun, and the birds and the bees can go fly a kite…
The Rajshris deserve credit for returning to the theme of innocent love at a time when Hindi cinema candidly addresses adultery, pre-marital sex, and abortion (see the other release Yuva), and where protagonists have healthy sexual appetites. Yash (Sammir Dattani) and Pari (Pooja Kanwal) strike us as cutely conspicuous anachronisms, out of step with the cinematic definition of man-woman relationships.
Love, according to the time-warped Rajshris , is meaningless when fastened to sex. In Uuf Kya Jaadoo Mohabbat Hai, while the young love-birds have fun, another couple(newcomers Mini Tiwari and Aziz) have sex.
Try to figure that equation out, while Yash and Pari take off into the never-never land of endless romantic duets composed by Sandesh Shandilya in keeping with the Rajshris’ reputation of replicating the plot’s romantic overtures in musical terms.
In all fairness, the romantic duets are pleasant to watch, thanks to the young pair who are easy on the eyes, fresh-faced and eager to please but never overt in their desire to make an impact. Also, it’s to story writer and director Manoj J Bhatia’s credit that he keeps the proceedings stark, simple, and straightforward almost to the end.
Boy Meets Girl in a scenic splendour, and for a change, it’s the girl who falls head-over-heels in love with the singing, dancing, desi-romantic Peter Pan….and guess what? The girl’s rich Papa (Sachin Khedekar) has no objection whatsoever to the economically mistmatched alliance.
Some of the film’s warmest moment of cannily conceptualized kitsch concern Papa Khedekar’s smiling nod to the coochiecooing connectivity between the young couple.
For most of the film the debutant director blissfully recreates the idyllic sanitised intimacy of his mentor Sooraj Barjatya ‘s romances. The young couple steals giggly glances, as the extended family plays Housie (remember the antakshari in Maine Pyar Kiya and the pass-the-pillow in Hum Aapke Hain Koun?).
It’s only when the film gets into the mood to morph Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai that you begin to lose patience with the analgesic arcadia of the presentation.
Yash’s dancing partner and childhood buddy, played by newcomer Mini Tiwari is entirely modelled on Karisma Kapoor in Yash Chopra’s film. Even the plot details (for example the girl’s accident which forces the hero to choose the heroine as his dancing partner) are straight from the other film.
No harm in going back to the successful works of pop-art for sustenance and renewal of mainstream traditions in Hindi cinema. Trouble is, Uuf Kya Jadoo… doesn’t go anywhere. It celebrates the status quo with a supreme disdain for changing tastes and mutating definitions of cinematic entertainment. While the lead pair smiles coyly at one another as though they were Salman Khan and Bhagyashree from Maine Pyar Kiya, the supporting cast hobnobs daintily over bowls of aromatic halwa and bon-china cups of tea.
If on one level the film’s ‘innocence’ exasperates on another level it’s also comforting to watch a film that boldly dispenses with sleaze and smut and talks of love as more than just a four-letter word.
The two newcomers are more watchable than most of the more with-it but less watchable wannabes who queue up for stardom. For a debutant Sammir Dattani is remarkably confident in his dancing and courtship sequences. He’d have made as strong an impression as Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan and Sahid Kapoor in their debut film, if the material provided had more meat. Given a less wispy vehicle Dattani could be fill the slot lying long vacant, that of the teenybopper hero.
Alas, the era of innocent love is gone! As a homage to a genre that’s now extinct Uuf Kya Jaadoo Mohabbat Hai is a decent enough excursion into a rose-tinted terrain of designer pleasures and pain.
The film is beautifully styled . The background music (Surinder Sodhi), art design (Samir Chanda) and editing (Shrish Kunder) are comparable with anything we see in any of Yash Chopra’s cinema. But hey, this is no Dil To Pagal Hai! And there lies the crux of the problem.
Legendary French pianist Richard Clayderman had once, and only once, joined hands with an Indian composer for Uuf Kya Jaadoo Mohabbat Hai. Composer Sandesh Shandilya’s title song from Uff…Kya Jadoo Mohabbat Hai not only featured Richard Clayderman, it also featured on Clayderman’s album.
A clarity of expression runs through the title track as Sunidhi Chauhan sings it. And since the redoubtable Richard Clayderman joins her on the piano, Sunidhi has much reason to sing in supreme bliss. Earlier she sang in blithe abandon for composer Sandesh Shandilya in Chameli. The two seem made for each other.
Recalling the experience of working with Clayderman , Sandesh Shandilya spoke exclusively to this writer. “ Uuf Kya Jaadoo Mohabbat Hai was a great experience. I am missing my dear friend and the producer of the film Shri Rajjat Barjatya ji ,specially on this occasion . That was his vision so we could work with Richard. Later on Richard also used the song on his CD, which was released worldwide. That was a complete team effort. Special thanks to music producer Atul Churamaniji, because of him the collaboration happend. We recorded Richard in Paris .The song was written by Mehboobji and Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan. It was arranged by Merlin D’Souza and Ankur Mukherjee. Now when I look back at the experience I am amazed at getting to work with Richard Clayderman. I don’t think any other Indian composer had the privilege.”
