by Subhash K Jha

Starring Bobby Deol, Amisha Patel, Arjun Rampal
Directed by Bunty Soorma/ Vikram Bhatt
Rating: *

So oldfashioned and so hackneyed you could watch it blindfolded and still know the next move.... The love triangle in Humko Tumse Pyar Hai seems to be more a homage to the cinema of Suneel Darshan than the cult of triangular dilemmas spearheaded by Meehboob Khan in Andaz and epitomized by Raj Kapoor's Sangam.

The film's raison d'etre is Amisha Patel . Playing a blind girl who recovers her eyesight in time to lose her love(Arjun Rampal) in Jaipur and regain a sympathetic shoulder(Bobby Deol) in Switzerland, Amisha is presented in an un-ending series of trendy backless ghagra-cholis in the first half and chic chiffon saris in the second half.

Makes you wonder if blind people actually have access to such a long line of haute couture picked up from the trendiest boutiques that money can afford.

The idea is to present Patel as the archetypal heroine...Nattily groomed even during her worst phases of distress, she goes through all the paces in the pedestrian plot, from sheer blind innocence to tragic maturity.

It's the kind of role Sridevi did with rhythmic relish in Yash Chopra's Chandni. Amisha tries hard, but fails to kindle any remarkable emotions in the burnt-out plot.

The narration is replete with engagement and wedding songs that look like leftovers from Karan Johar's and Yash Chopra's cinema. The dramatic force in the storytelling is managed almost completely by outdated narrative manoeuvres including dollops of coincidences that leave us flabbergasted with their puerilty.

The presentation is at best a hark-back to the melodramatic plots of the 1970s. It seems strange that a film of this mood and tempo should be released at a time when Hindi cinema seems to be undergoing a period of extreme flux and change. Of the three main players Amisha tries hard, Arjun tries a bit and Sunny Deol doesn't try at all. Clever chap.