Since she gave up her career as a dancer to be a housewife, Shikha (Shilpa Shetty) goes and visits her old dance teacher, Shivani (Nafisa Ali) every Saturday. While visiting Shivani gets a letter. She has Shikha read it out loud. It turns out to be from her old lover, Amol (Dharmendra), who says he is coming back and wants to meet her at the spot he left her waiting, the metro. She agrees to meet up with him. When they see it each it is as if nothing has changed and all the old feelings come rushing back. They want to move in with each other but Shivani's son won't let her leave the retirement home she lives in. So like any couple madly in love do, they don't listen. She sneaks out of the home and they start living together.
Shikha takes the same train home after visiting Shivani. It's at this train stop that she meets Akash (Shiney Ahuja), who is a struggling actor. The two have an instant connection but there is only one problem. Shikha is married to Ranjeet (Kay Kay Menon) and together they have a little girl. But after Ranjeet misses their anniversary party she is feeling a bit lonely. So she starts hanging out with Akash and seeing his shows. They end up falling in love, but Shikha feels like a slut so nothing ever happens between them, even after he tells her that he is in love with her.
The reason that Ranjeet missed their anniversary is because he was meeting up with his secret lover, Neha (Kangana Ranaut), at one of his employee's, Rahul (Sharman Joshi), apartment. He enjoys spending time with Neha because she makes him feel young and in love again. He doesn't seem to care about the cheating and continues to do it. Then one day when he is about to leave to go on a business trip, he decides Neha is starting to become clingy and they get into a lover's quarrel.
Rahul works at a call center and let's managers use his apartment to have affairs in order to get recommended for upper management. It starts to spiral out of control and soon he is giving up his apartment ever night of the week and getting judgemental looks from his neighbors (who can hear everything). He has a crush on Neha and buys tickets to a movie (The Namesake) after earning his promotion to celebrate. Unfortunately, he gave his apartment to Ranjeet, so Neha doesn't show up. Ranjeet finds out about their affair after he finds her cellphone in his apartment. Heartbroken, he brings home a random girl only to find Neha passed out in his bathroom. She had attempted to commit suicide. He rushes her to the hospital and she is going to be fine but Ranjeet asks him to watch over her until he can get back. Neha's roommate, Shruti (Konkona Sen Sharma), is his sister-in-law and he doesn't want her finding out about the affair and telling Shikha.
Shruti is desperate to find love. She is 28 and a virgin and has finally figured out that by 28 all the good guys are either married or have a girlfriend. She tries a matchmaking service and they set her up with Monty (Irrfan Khan). He comes off a little weird and creepy and, after being caught looking at her chest, she writes him off. Later, she gets set up with a hunk from work. They start dating and when she decides she should just get it over with and lose her virginity she goes to his house only to find him in bed with another man. Feeling like a fool, she decides to quit her job. When she goes to interview for another job she runs into Monty. He informs her that he is getting married and then helps her get a job. Monty, however, needs help planning and buying things for his upcoming wedding. So he convinces Shruti to help him and they eventually become friends.
So that is just the beginning of everyone's story. The movie itself was a little melodramatic (and that's saying a lot considering almost all Bollywood movies are overacted). It didn't help that the soundtrack was extremely cheesy. Of course with any ensemble piece there are going to be some stories that are better than others while other characters don't have enough story arch or growth and this is definitely true in this movie. Plus the colors were over saturated to the point that they seemed to be glowing. Now, I'm a fan of when movies stop for musical breaks but this one had a weird band that would just randomly show up and start singing about the character's emotional state. I feel like the only time this worked in a movie was in There's Something About Mary and that's because it was just silly. In drama's however it doesn't quite work. Overall, not my favorite Bollywood. But I may be a little bitter that one of the stories is almost an exact copy of The Apartment.
Rating: **
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