Yeh Hai Jalwa - A Silly Patch-up    

          A patch-up screenplay, formula treatment and indifferent editing, that too from an editor, is Yeh Hai Jalwa. The title has nothing to do with the story for there is no 'jalwa' in the film; it is just a title and a catchy one.

         Among the cast are two comebacks - Rishi Kapoor and Rati Agnihotri, playing his wife Smita. Salman Khan and Amisha Patel make for the love pair. The most shameful part is the use of Sanjay Dutt as an 'item anchor'. He is asked to make just two or three appearances and his is not a character linked to the storyline at all. If David Dhawan thought Sanjay's presence would make a difference to the box-office, he was mistaken. The item sequences assigned to him hadly matter and are pathetically unamusing.

          Since David can't think of a film without Kader Khan, he is very much there trying in vain to act like an elderly NRI. Kader Khan can only be Kader Khan and none else whatever the character he may be doing.

         Rishi does manage to behave and conduct himself as a London-based Indian tycoon. The role has a lot of possibilities and he has handled all the facets of the character with maturity and restraint.

         Salman has failed to grasp the scope of the role he is given. Some of the flaws he exhibits cannot be blamed upon him. It's the director's lack of imagination. Take the example of a big businessman landing in London and

walking all the way to a mansion in search of his long lost father (Rishi Kapoor). As he walks the crowded streets, he keeps singing something abnout he being his father's computer copy. There are more such silly songs without the situation calling for them.

           A disappointing movie from a director who has lost form.

-by A Film Critic
JULY 31, 2002