…. in today’s time of internet romances, chat-room love sessions and generation with increasing dis-beleif in arranged marraiges (and marraiges, in general) comes “Vivah”, a movie which does a complete turn-around and tries to re-build our beleif in the sanctity of marraiges all over again. Sooraj-ji is back, and how!

Vivah is a very simple yet gripping, emotionally-packed, seeped-in-romance tale without being drawn long (2 hours 45 minutes) and without un-necessary songs and high melodrama. Infact the movie is so low on melodrama that one wonders how the master story-teller has managed to tug the strings of our heart without weepy background score or high volume rona-dhona for that matter and un-reliastic situations.

The movie walks us through the lives of main characters Prem (Shahid) and Poonam (Amrita). The time spans from their enagagement to the marraige, the golden period in their lives. The story is interspersed with other characters, mainly family members of both the sides. Without getting into further details, the story tells us about the up-n-downs in couple’s life till their marraige and shows us how everything comes a complete circle with strong belief of couple in love for each other.

The first half of the movie en-compasses the arranged meeting of Prem and Poonam, their initial shy conversations to the family outing and building of the strong romance. It is so light and fun-filled with everyday situations and some really well spaced songs that one does not even realize how quick, its the time for intermission. Second half mainly conentrates on emotions and the last half of the movie is the best part of the movie. It is very emotionally strong and touches hearts of each and everyone.

Music which did not impress earlier comes out really well-meshed with story. All the songs are conversational kinds and gel very very well with the narravtive. The best though are Mujhe Haq Hain and Do Anjaane Ajnabee. Ravindra Jain has really fitted the bill here. Dialogues by Aash Karan Atal are really awesome and the simplest of lines make such a hammer-strong emotional impact. Cinematography is as per the need of the movie. No gloss, No glitter here. Other departments like sets, etc everything are of average quality keeping with the bugdet of the movie.

Shahid Kapoor suits the role to the T. He looks charming and surprises us with his performance. Never has he been gives so much scope. He gets a chance and he makes the best use of it. Praiseworthy! Amrita Rao has under-played her character and does awesome in the emotional scenes specially towards the end of the movie. One wonders how perfect these actors look together. Nice Jodi, indeed! Really, cannot imagine any other lead actors for this movie in today’s times. Alok Nath the usual Rajshri movie father role, in which he has now gained specialy expertise. He is very nice. Anupam Kher in another well-etched role does something exactly similar to his role in HAHK. Except for there he was from girls side. Seema Bisawa is another actor that impresses. She does the jealous aunt, loving mom and caring Saas everything with elan and shows wide range of emotions perfectly. Sameer Soni and Lata Sabharwal comes as very loving bhaiyya-bhabhi couple. There scenes keep the light moments alive in the first half. Amrita Prakash as the ugly sister does show a lot of confidence after a good role in Tum Bin. Master Ameya Pandya is adorable. Manoj Joshi needs to go easy on his expressions. He is over-the-top. Mohnish Behl is restrained and does the doctor role with lots of dignity.

The REAL HERO of this movie is the master story-teller Sooraj-ji. He is in complete control this time. His direction, narrative and above all the simplicity in everything in the movie will blow your mind, specially since you would wonder why other people in the industry need to spend crores and crores of rupees to do the same thing in other movies. In one word, FANTABULOUS!

This movie comes close to being a classic (who knows only time will tell, it has good chances of becoming one). It will be loved by family audiences, old-people and kids. Youngsters will also love this movie specially because its so relevant to them. At box-office a long run for this movie is ensured as it will get repeat audience and a VERY STRONG word of mouth publicity. A long race horse! A big winner indeed, this…..

Anurag Udasi