Movie Review: Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya

This one is an unusual love story. What sets the curiosity meter ticking is whether the now married couple’s on-screen chemistry works. It does. This movie was shot while Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D’Souza (now Deshmukh) were courting, or rather when they had made it known that they were actually in love and not ‘just good friends’ as all were led to believe these past many years.

What you see on screen are two actors completely in sync with each other. The real life romance spills onto their screen characters which makes Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya all the more endearing. In short, the two have a blast.

The movie is set in Chandigarh. Riteish (Viren) is a rickshaw driver. At the crack of dawn, without fail, he takes his auto for his daily run. He has big dreams of starting a fleet taxi service of his own. Unfortunately for him, he tells this plan of his to Bhatti (Tinu Anand) who owns a fleet of autos one of which is rented out to Viren. One morning, when Viren goes for his usual round, he finds the autos missing and instead there are four Toyota Innovas. His idea has been robbed. All the autos have been sold. The idea being robbed is of no concern to Viren. What he is crestfallen about is the fact that his entire savings have gone with the auto. He had saved Rs 60,000 under the driver’s seat!

This sets up Riteish’s role. Mini (Genelia) is driven up the wall by her father (Tinu Anand) who wants her to get married. Mini has a Green Card and this is a ticket for any boy from Bhatinda to kannada (Canada). Upset with the loss of his money, and now punch drunk, Viren visits Bhatti’s home during Mini’s engagement. Before you know it, a tottering Viren has a gun in hand and the mischievous Mini sees this as an opportunity to flee from the ceremony. She forces Viren to kidnap her!

This comical twist sets up the movie to a nicety and by the time a ransom demand is made, Viren and Mini are on the run as he is now on the ‘wanted list’ and there is a prize for anyone who captures him. Before long, the two are actually kidnapped when they are set up by Mini’s stingy father who sends fake notes.

Riteish is quite a natural in this act. He is getting to be in his own with each passing role. Genelia fits the fun-loving, easy-going character to the ‘T’.

Director Mandeep Kumar sets up believable situations, which keeps the film constantly moving. In the process, he extracts some fine performances from the two lead actors as well as the supporting cast. Navin Prabhakar as the politician is used sparingly and intelligently, ditto Chitrasi Rawat. Smita Jaykar and Om Puri too pitch in with some good performances. Where Mandeep falls short, however, is in the length of the film. A good 20 minutes chopped off would have given the film that gilt-edge.

TNLHG could have been a good Valentine’s Day release. Also, coming soon after the Riteish Geneila marriage, it would have added as a curiosity factor. All the same, this is a fun film worth a one-time watch.

Rating: 2.5/5

Martin D’Souza

This first appeared on glamsham.com on February 24, 2012