Was 'Hum Tum' nothing but 'When Harish met Saloni' !!!

And the answer is NO, it was so much more !!! Read on ... :)

I finally watched 'When Harry Met Sally'. No I was not ignorant or unaware of the film the last 20 years of its existence, I just didn't happen to see it. I'd discovered films, much to the horror of everyone around me, at about the age of 5, which was the year 1989 (god I feel ancient). The year in which one of my favourite films "Maine Pyaar Kiya' had released back home in India. The same year, that 'When Harry Met Sally' released as well. It baffles me to think how different were the levels of maturity with which relationships were discussed in our films compared to the films made by our friends across a few continents. Well...thats a topic relevant even today...but as I say often - Thats a whole other article :)

Coming back to 'When Harry Met Sally', I always wanted to watch the movie and had even rented a copy when I was around 11 and put it in my VCR, but couldn't watch it beyond 15 minutes, because I thought it was boring. Yes...you read that right...Boring !!!

I don't remember WHAT it was about the film that i found boring but I distinctly remember thinking - 'Nah...lemme just watch 'Hum Aapke Hain Kaun' again ( No...this article is not some secret love letter to Mr. Sooraj Barjatya). Now that I think about it, it makes sense that a movie about a man and a woman yapping about relationships wouldn't really appeal to an eleven year old.

Anyway...the reason I finally bought a DVD and sat down to watch the movie was a comment made by a friend who said that Kunal Kohli's 'Hum Tum' (a film that I really adore) was a carbon copy of 'When Harry Met Sally'. And thats when I got thinking... was 'Hum Tum' really nothing but 'When HARISH met SALONI' !!!


Well I just had to find out the truth behind this so I did what any good film buff would (or should) do in such a situation- I watched both the movies back to back. And as I finished watching them, first thing I did was keep the DVD of When Harry Met Sally right next to 'Hum Tum' in my DVD collection and sighed a breath of relief.


Yes...both the movies have two different film makers trying to explore the man-woman relationship and both the movies have two characters meeting each other again and again during different stages of their life and discovering different facets of each other's personality everytime life makes them bump into each other. But thats it !!! It would be naive of me to say that 'Hum Tum' has absolutely nothing to do with 'When Harry Met Sally'. In fact I'd go ahead and admit, had 'When Harry Met Sally' not been made... it would've been quite improbable for 'Hum Tum' to have been conceived. But in no way does that take away from the beautiful experience that Kunal Kohli gave to the film lovers in the form of 'Hum Tum'.

Having seen both the movies I can safely say that both the movies are brilliant in their own right. Enough has been said and written about 'When Harry Met Sally' over the years but 'Hum Tum' never got its due credit just because some self appointed guards of everything sacred in cinema went ahead and shouted out to the world that its nothing but a rip off. Well I don't know what my friends and esteemed colleagues at my film school might have to say about this, but I think 'Hum Tum' was as good as 'When Harry Met Sally' if not better.


Have any doubts about that statement !!! Go ahead and watch the movie and tell me that the title track of 'Hum Tum' (where Rani & Saif's characters, Rhea and Karan come across different couples at different stages of life) isn't one of the most romantic moments in contemporary Indian cinema... or the Paris 'walk to home' sequence (Karan walking Rhea back to her house and not being able to say anything throughout and Rhea thanking him for what he was 'trying to say')...or the incredibly cute midnight sandwich sequence. Well all I am trying to say is that even now when I think about both the movies, where I absolutely adore the both...I'd still pick 'Hum Tum' over 'When Harry Met Sally' - but thats if such a day of final judgement ever comes- till then I am happy loving and respecting both the movies equally :)


p.s..- I'd heard about it..read about it...had people stop me in the middle of conversations and tell me about it, but the 'Fake Orgasm' sequence from 'When Harry Met Sally' totally lived up to all that hype. One brilliant example of the sheer power of performance and I can see why it deserved every word of praise its received in the last 20 years since the film's release.