THE CHARACTERS
Shah Rukh Khan - Dev Saran
Preity Zinta - Rhea Saran
Abhishek Bachchan - Rishi Talwar
Rani Mukherjee - Maya Talwar
Amitabh Bachchan - Samarjit Singh Talwar aka Sam
Kiron Kher - Kamaljit Saran (also lovingly called Chandigarh or Kamlu by Sam)
THE STORY
As all of KJ's movies, this movie too deals with relationships.
This story is about Dev Saran and Rhea Saran who have been married for some years and have a cute child, Arjun Saran and also with them is Kamaljit Saran, Dev's mother. Dev is a football coach and Rhea is a fashion magazine editor. Dev is a little complicated, if that is the right word, he is either not happy about his failure or unhappy about his wife's success, no one knows. Rhea on the other hand is a very ambitious, career minded woman and who draws more pay than her husband. Kamaljit, though she is Dev's mother, she doesn't hesitate to tell him when he is wrong and support the daughter in law when she is right, coz she believes that she is a woman first and then a mother.
This story is about Rishi Talwar and Maya Talwar who are a married couple and with them is Samarjit Singh Talwar aka Sam, Rishi's father. Rishi owns a PR firm and Rhea is a teacher whereas Sam is a skirt-chaser ;) Rishi is a very happening kinda guy who loves parties and being out there. Maya on the other hand prefers staying at home, cleaning her house and loves her teaching job and loves those kids since she can't have any of her own. Sam is cool dude even for his age. He basically hits on anything that moves. He is a casanova kinda man who remembers his gals by the day and not their name.
The story starts of with a soccer match on one side and a guy getting up late on his own wedding day and actually forgets that he is to be married on that day. On this same day Rhea gets a new job that demands too much of her time. And it is also Dev and Rhea's wedding anniversary.
Rhea goes off to pick her son and Dev heads off to pick his mum from a wedding ceremony, the marriage of Rishi and Maya. This is when Dev and Maya cross paths for the very first time. Maya is standing outside of her wedding venue and is in two minds and this is when she meets Dev and they start talking. Dev convinces her to go in and marry and as she leaves, she says, 'goodbye' and Dev tells her, never to say goodbye coz it kills the hope of meeting again.
Next, Dev and Maya meet again due to some misunderstanding. There is news of some kidnapper in town, Black Beast, and Dev suspects Maya (he doesnt realize that she is Maya) is Black Beast when he sees her dragging his son away. This incident leeds to meeting of Rishi and Rhea. And all four become friends.
Rishi invites Rhea to his dad's party. Rhea takes her whole family and this is where the Rock N Roll Soniye song comes in. Sam tries to hit on Kamaljit and stuff like that.
One day, Maya and Dev realized that their marriage isn't working and they can help each other to improve and make their marriage work. Maya teaches Dev how to behave and talk to women and Dev teaches Maya how to seduce her husband and what she should concentrate on doing apart from being a cleanliness freak.
Maya and Dev plan something special for their respective wedding anniversaries which happens to fall on the same day. Then comes the Mitwa song. Everything goes as planned and is going smooth and suddenly they are back to square one. They end up fighting with their respective spouses.
Dev and Maya happen to meet the same night and they talk their hearts content. Maya asks questions that Dev cannot answer. Both are not talking to their spouses. This is when Sam and Kamaljit step in. They think of a plan to introduce Rhea and Rishi, so that when they become friends, they can advice each other and make their marriages work. Plans goes as expected and quite successful as well. This is the same time when Maya and Dev get involved.
Then comes Where's the Party Tonight. Sam and Kamaljit are already friends and so he invites her to his house for dinner as it is her birthday. Cut to next scene, Sam is in hospital and he tells Maya to leave Rishi as he knows that she doesn't love him. And both Maya and Dev decide to tell their respective spouses about their affair, their involvement. Final song, title song.
I feel that if Maya would have tried to work on her marriage instead of befriending Dev, perhaps the affair would not have happened. I feel she is the main cause of the affair. Though Dev is equally to be blamed. But Dev’s wife kind of neglected him and though that does not justify why he has an affair, but he had his reasons. Whereas what reason Maya had? Rishi was always wanting to work the marriage out, no?
Anyway, I like the movie coz it deals with something that is so rampant these days. It is time we all face reality and realize this actually happens in the real world.
OVERALL MOVIE
KJ has proven once again that handling relationship is his forte. He does a good job in showing what happens when one falls in love after marriage. He brings out the best from his cast and though this movie is about looking love outside marriage, about getting involve with someone despite being married, it was not cheap...it was not based on sexual need...its based on love, feelings, the works, and KJ deserves full credit for making a movie with such a theme that mostly ends up being trashy if made by others.
Songs are placed beautifully and it doesn't ruin the flow of the movie. It flows with the movie, I guess. (because my copy had no song and I know the song placement from the script)
Costumes are just so lovely! Especially those saree lovers, you gonna love Rani's sarees and the modern ones will love Preity's look.
Camerawork is awesome and so are the locales.
MY FAVE SCENES
1) All those scenes between Sam and Kamaljit where he tries to flirt with her.
2) The dinner treat by Sam to Kamal for her birthday and everyone is present.
3) The hospital scene where Sam is admitted and those lines...mohabbat aur maut...dono bin bulaye mehmaan hote hai.....
4) The scene where Dev and Maya help each other out in rediscovering their marriage
5) The scene where Sam tells to everyone why he holds that particular party every year
6) The scene where both Dev and Maya break the news to their respective spouses
7) The scene where Dev and Maya meet for the first time...argue n then talk calmly...n perhaps frens...
8) and many more...