Pyar Ishq Aur Mohabbat (2001) is a flop movie which I had seen in theatre with my wife (in the Aakash cinema of Kota) on 05.08.2001. It is by no means any great movie but I liked it. This movie struck a chord in my heart with its romantic and emotional appeal and despite flaws, I found it quite entertaining.
Pyar Ishq Aur Mohabbat are the three words containing the same meaning, i.e., love. It's a love story of a different nature in which a girl is loved by three different males. That girl is Isha (Kirti Reddy) who gets scholarship to go to Scotland for higher education in the line of medicine but the businessman sponsoring that scholarship is smitten by her charms and gets willing to marry her. He is Yash Sabbarwal (Sunil Shetty). Isha refuses his proposal. However she accepts the scholarship and moves to Scotland to live with her father's friend – Lord Inder Bhardwaaj (Dalip Tahil), his wife (Priya Tendulkar) and their son – Taaj (Aftaab Shivdaasaani) who is a bank officer. There she happens to meet Dr. Aalam (Raza Muraad) and his daughter – Rubeena (Isha Koppikar) becomes her friend. Taaj also becomes Isha's good friend and starts loving her in his heart.
Here in India, Yash stumbles upon a smart and ambitious youth – Gaurav Saxena (Arjun Raampaal) who is a part time model. Yash makes him agree to work for him for a generous fees with the assignment being to make a path from Isha's heart to Yash's heart. Gaurav also moves to Scotland paying no attention to the advice of his sincere friend and well-wisher – Maaya (Monica Bedi). Gaurav wins Isha's heart very shortly (and quite smoothly) and then for the sake of Yash, breaks it as well. However in between, he is also won over by the innocent love of Isha. With the chain of events moving swiftly, Maaya also happens to be there when after coming to know of the real game-plan of Yash and Gaurav, Isha gets ready to marry Taaj. Coming to know of Gaurav's love for Isha, she alongwith Rubeena, sets everything right for Gaurav and Isha. And the director of this movie rewards her in the form of her marriage with Taaj.
This unusual and intricate love story which actually is a cluster of many love stories has been made by Rajeev Rai who was then better known for his action-thrillers like Tridev, Vishwaatma and Mohra. He could not make a memorable movie but this movie is not bad either. Perhaps the public was expecting something else (and much better) from him and due to the letting down of the public, it flopped on the box office. Else, the movie is quite interesting and there is little boredom except in the ending reels.
The thing that I liked most is the romance exasperated in the movie between the characters of Gaurav and Isha. This romance alongwith the tricks and mannerisms of Gaurav to woo Isha is pretty impressive. The scene in which Gaurav poses as a flower-seller and explains to her as to which particular rose is to be given to whom and for what purpose, is one of the best scenes. Different twists in the narrative are aptly placed though most of them are hackneyed. Still I feel that the script-writers deserves a pat on their back because they have really taxed their minds especially for the events taking place in the first half.
The dialogues are one more plus point of this movie. 'Zyaada Change Rakhne Se Aadmi Change Ho Jaata Hai' (a person may change if he keeps excessive change, i.e., coins) is an example. In a very impressive scene of Gaurav and Taaj in Taaj's bank where Gaurav comes to open an account and deposit the cheque given by Yash, Taaj asks Gaurav what he has sold to get this much money and Gaurav replies – 'Aatma' (the soul). This is another example.
Cinematography is brilliant and production value is quite high, proportionate to the repute of the banner of Rajeev Rai's father – Gulshan Rai. The scenes of Scotland are a treat to watch. The length of the movie is on the higher side.
Performances are good. However Kirti Reddy is no Helen of Troy to evoke rivalries in males for the sake of her beauty. Hence she appears to be miscast. The best performer is undoubtedly debutante Arjun Raampaal. This model-turned-actor has done exceedingly well and he is the USP of this movie. He is able to leave his mark in his entry scene itself which contains the song – Apni Yaadon Ko Chhod Na Jaana. And thereafter his character only remains the heart and soul of the movie with himself giving his best shot in every frame of it. This is the first released movie of Isha Koppikar also and she has also done admirably as the naughty and talkative Rubeena. Sunil Shetty, Aftaab Shivdaasaani, Dalip Tahil, Priya Tendulkar, Raza Muraad and Harish Patel (as Hansu Bhai, the Gujju P.A. of Yash Sabbarwal) are perfect in their respective roles.
Viju Shah's music has two good songs – the title track and Apni Yaadon Ko Chhod Na Jaana. However the absence of chartbuster songs is one thing that seems to have gone against this movie.
Pyar Ishq Aur Mohabbat badly flopped on the box office. However I recommend it because it appealed to me. May be because I am highly romantic. All the same, I feel that if watched with low expectation, this movie won't disappoint a first time watcher and will entertain him for two and a half hours.
