Ishkq in Paris

What do you do if you are on the verge of being a has been actress? You write and produce a film for yourself and try to forcefully bring back the good old days of stardom. Preity Zinta tries to make a comeback to movies after a gap of 4 years. She writes a story which is a boring and bad rehash of before sunrise and chooses a co actor ( Rhehan Malliek) who also makes another attempt to make it in Bollywood. To add to that she ropes in a director ( Prem Soni) who made his debut with a dud called main aur mrs khanna.

Ishkq ( Priety Zinta)and Akash ( Rhehan Malliek) meet on a train headed to Paris. Ishkq is a Parisian and Akash is from London.  They spend a night together in Paris promising to not meet again. A dice bought from Chunky Pandey( one scene act) becomes the tool for the screenplay’s 1^st half. What happens after the one night in paris? Same old pyar mohabbat tales.

Even at a running time of 96 mins this film is a yawn fest. The only way to entertain yourself is to ignore the two leads in the foreground and focus on Paris in the background. Not that Gaurav Chanana renamed Rhehan Malliek and Priety Zinta are bad but a film like this required stars that can carry the film on their shoulders maybe then the amateur and lazy writing would have been forgiven.

This film is a lesson to self obsessed stars that when the time comes to hang up your boots do it in style or switch gears. Hopefully Priety Zinta’s next move would be a well thought one.

Word of mouth - Ishkq in Paris has only Paris worth looking at. The rest of it is best forgotten.

Rating - ** (pretty awful – best avoided)

Ticket meter – not worth a theatre visit

When a fading actor produces a movie and then stars in it I am biased against the movie to begin with.. The tape saying, “Loser, just because no one else will feature you, you have to do it for yourself” won’t stop playing in my head. That’s pretty unfair I know but then life is like that.

It is more unfair because I have always like the peppy, pretty Preity. Well, she still has it all, except that she is a bit older and I don’t think there is anything one can do about that. Fortunately, she doesn’t play some tizzy collegian but probably a late 20s person, which sort of goes down ok.

The strangely named Ishq is the child of a French mother and Indian dad. The father abandoned the mom and kid when she was 7 and Ishq hates commitment and marriage because of this. She meets Akash, another product of a divorce who also hates marriage and they spend one night roaming around Paris. They meet again, fall in love but Ishq wont commit because she wont hurt her mom. Will she, wont she, explanations, epiphanies etc. happen till the end credits roll.

The problem is the story is too thanda. The 2 people have nothing unusual about them and the crises are too tepid to really make you reach for your tissues. You watch steadily as things happen and then go wrong and then turn right without missing a heartbeat or smiling to yourself. A love story has to reach out and grab you. This one merely brushes past and says sorry too.

Isabelle Adjani looks very, very weird in a strange hairstyle that covers her face totally. She looks stranger still in Indian clothes. Given that she has a pretty important role, she looks very lost. Rrehan Malik has a typical yuppie look and mild manner which is appealing in a matrimonial ad but not in a romantic movie.

This love story will leave you feeling pretty cold. Even beautiful Paris doesn’t lift it out its mediocrity. Best avoided.