Watching Chalte Chalte is a traumatic experience, quite akin to, one would imagine, having one’s teeth pulled out, slowly and meticulously.

One wonders what inspired Aziz Mirza to attempt and execute such a clumsy apology of a film! Ridden with clichés as old as time itself, the film falters in the very first frame, where we are introduced to a bunch of friends, irritating, vacuous and obliviously lacking any trace of intelligence. Their attempt to introduce us to the main protagonists is uninteresting and unoriginal.

The story, about the trials and travails of married life, is simplistic and unadulterated Bull!.( Pardon my French, as you can see I am running out of adjectives here!) Shah Rukh Khan plays an impulsive, middle class bloke who gets hitched to a sophisticated dress designer Rani Mukherjee, they fight, make up, fight again, make up and YAWN, fight again. By then, most viewers are beyond caring and will yearn for the torture to end. It goes on and on though, and mercifully ends, but on a totally ridiculous clichéd note!

SRK is nightmarish, his dimpling twinkling and eyebrow twitching as he hams his way through the flick is agonizing to watch. The man has no concept or understanding of subtlety and goes by the axiom that more is better, and more than that is even better.

My heart skipped a beat at the scene at the airport, where SRK trips and falls: I hoped he would not get up and wobble pathetically towards the heroine. But wobble and waddle he does and there is not a dry eye at the airport, so intense is SRK's over-the-top emoting and so irritating.

Rani is ok, not terribly exciting but I would give her full points for putting up with SRK and his mannerisms. Jas Arora is eye candy; his suits (Versace, we are reminded shrilly and constantly by Shah Rukh) hang well on him.

Lillette Dubey, Satish Shah and the supporting cast of everyday heroes, postmen, policemen etc are pathetic and totally unlike any character you would encounter outside of a Hindi film.

The film is doing well at the Box Office, which speaks volumes about the intelligence and tolerance level of the average Hindi film viewer. (This statement alone should fetch me some vitriol, bring it on!)

Final Verdict – Give this one a miss!

This review is sponsored by Raja and Rana of Burlington, MA.

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