Jhoom Barabar Jhoom

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom begins with Amitabh Bachchan singing the title track in a Jack Sparrowish getup with lots of firang extras. What follows in the movie is a series of some more songs, picturized in London, France and surprisingly also in India. In between there is this boy-meets-girl story. Rikki Thukral (Abhishek Bachchan) and Alvira Khan (Preity Zinta) have a few hours to kill at the Waterloo Station so they start narrating to each other how they met their respective fiances - Anaida (Lara Dutta) and Steve Singh (Bobby Deol). While they tell their tales, you start thinking there could be more than what meets the eyes. And I leave that for you to see for yourself.
Shaad Ali, in his third directorial venture after Saathiya and Bunty Aur Babli, follows the formula mastered by Manmohan Desai and David Dhawan; no-brainer story full of insane but lovable characters and incidents. He has tried to make a laugh riot with that distinctive style having all emotions thrown into the wind. And somewhat good news is that he has been moderately successful at that.
The ever growing confidence as an actor is shown on screen in Abhishek Bachchan's terrific performance - be it his comic flair or inhibited dancing. He's right when he says "I've got class". He has got into the skin of the character perfectly. His scenes both with Preity Zinta and Lara Dutta are funny. But I wish he had more scenes with Bobby Deol. There could be a rocking chemistry between these two as seen in whatever little scenes they had together - mostly in the "Jhankar" dance competition and that "Ye Dosti Hum Nahin Todenge" redux.
Bobby Deol provides good support. He does not have much to do in the first half but gets some hilarious scenes in the second half, which he carries off well except for "I hate you" part which I think went overboard. The ladies look gorgeous. That is anyway expected of any Yash Raj movie. Preity Zinta and Lara Dutta both have done their part quite convincingly. While Lara oozes more oomph, Preity gets the better one liners. Good deal! Amitabh Bachchan makes a special appearance here and there with his double-necked guitar singing Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. His last scene where he tries to explain the obvious is unwanted though. Piyush Mishra is fantastic as Abhishek's partner in crime.
Music of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom captures the flavour of the film - the madness, the attitude and the flamboyance. Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy and Gulzar have provided music full of energy. Songs fall in the narration well except for the "Bol Na Halke Halke" track. It slows down the proceedings. Moreover, what was Aki Narula (costumes) thinking in designing those larger than life extra colorful gaudy dresses for this otherwise soulful number. But he has at least been successful in giving Lara Dutta a very sexy look. She is one surprise package.
Overall, I would say, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom works in bits and pieces. It has good music, spectacular choreography (Vaibhavi Merchant), eye candy locales (Ayananka Bose), some funny moments and good performances. If that is your idea of entertainment, go for it. Don't have high hopes on the screenplay and storyline as they are disappointing. It's a core masala movie, never pretending to be an intelligent one in the first place. Gets my two and a half stars.