Love's labour lost

Priyanka Bhattacharya

In keeping with the current onslaught of star children into Hindi cinema, Akanksha Malhotra, daughter of actor Prem Kishen and granddaughter of Prem Nath and Bina Rai, debuts in Yeh Mohabbat Hai.

Playing her onscreen paramour is Rahul Bhat (Heena), Bollywood's latest recruit from the small screen.

The two newcomers are ably supported by a mob of seasoned actors like Danny Denzongpa, Parikshit Sahni and Rakesh Bedi.

Aman Khan (Danny Denzongpa), a very rich and powerful man, lives in a small Kashmiri village. His only daughter Shaheen (Akanksha) is bethrothed to childhood sweetheart Chand (Rahul Bhat). All seems hunky dory till Chand is invited to Mumbai with his friends to play some amateur cricket.

Enter the devil in the form of Shaukat (Mohinish Behl), Shaheen's cousin. Together with Abdul Jamil (Arbaaz Khan),a noted terrorist he frames Chand for smuggling and murder.

Predictably, all hell breaks loose. Chand's family is banished to the outskirts of the village. And Shaheen pledges to prove Chand's innocence to the world.

Thus begins the long and somewhat crazy task of rescuing her love. Helping her are childhood friend Rohini and her gangster boyfriend (Gulshan Grover), a movies special effects man (Shakti Kapoor) and his wife, and a desperate hotel owner (Nazir) and his servant (Johny Lever).

Nothing, of course, can come in the way of two people in love. So after a lot of melodrama and chaos, things get back on track and the lovers are reunited again.

Among the newcomers, Rahul Bhat is sincere but Akanksha leaves a lot to be desired. To his credit, director Umesh Mehra has a somewhat ingenious story and a fairly talented supporting cast. He also scores on the locations used in the film having fimed at Khiva, Bysun and Tashkent. On the flipside is the excessive melodrama, unnecessary songs and pathetic special effects.

The film is an earnest effort to showcase something different. Alas, the result is quite mediocre.