Director: Nachiket Samant
Cast: Huma Qureshi, Sunny Singh and Shreyas Talpade, Kanwaljit Singh
Where: In theatres
Rating: 2.5 stars
The film starts off with Sikandar Khan (Shreyas Talpade), who, despite his broken English, takes the audience on a nostalgic journey as he bags 'Entrepreneur of the year’ award in London. His story starts with him falling in love at the very first sight of Salma Rizvi (Huma Qureshi). Just as when they gear up to get engaged, Salma gets an offer to go to London for office training.
Not the one to act as a villain in his would-be wife’s career’s progress, like a thorough gentleman, Sikandar allows his would-be wife to go to London. There are times one sees Sikandar slipping into Shah Rukh Khan’s selfless character Surinder Sahni's mode from the hit film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi!
During the training session in London, sparks fly between Salma and Meet Singh Sahni (Sunny Singh) - a London based cool dude who believes in open relationships. And by the time Salma gets to scan his nature thoroughly, the inevitable thing happens. Meet lands up falling in love with Salma! So much so that he follows her back to Lucknow and wants to get married to her!
The film starts off with Sikandar Khan (Shreyas Talpade), who, despite his broken English, takes the audience on a nostalgic journey as he bags 'Entrepreneur of the year’ award in London. His story starts with him falling in love at the very first sight of Salma Rizvi (Huma Qureshi). Just as when they gear up to get engaged, Salma gets an offer to go to London for office training.
Not the one to act as a villain in his would-be wife’s career’s progress, like a thorough gentleman, Sikandar allows his would-be wife to go to London. There are times one sees Sikandar slipping into Shah Rukh Khan’s selfless character Surinder Sahni's mode from the hit film Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi!
During the training session in London, sparks fly between Salma and Meet Singh Sahni (Sunny Singh) - a London based cool dude who believes in open relationships. And by the time Salma gets to scan his nature thoroughly, the inevitable thing happens. Meet lands up falling in love with Salma! So much so that he follows her back to Lucknow and wants to get married to her!
The situation becomes volatile when Sikandar’s baaraat and Meet’s baaraat come face to face… both for the same ‘dulhan’ - Salma! Who does she ultimately choose between Sikandar and Meet or is there a third angle in the story is what that forms the rest of the film.
Single Salma Review: Actors' performance
Even though Huma Qureshi gets to play an author-backed role still, one feels that there's much more to this talented lady, which still remains grossly underutilised. One of the major reasons for this, is the half baked characterization of her character. The same can be said for Shreyas Talpade as well. There is much, much more to him and his talent. Sadly, only a bit of the same can be seen in the film. And, as for Sunny Singh, it's about time he needs to do more challenging roles, rather than playing within one’s comfort zone. As for rest of the actors, there’s the veteran actor Kanvaljeet Singh and others who try and shoulder the film as much as possible.
The film has been directed by Nachiket Samant, who really has to sharpen and fine tune the art of directing before doing his next film. Even though one can find honesty and sincerity in his craft, sadly, the film also needs other aspects for it to shine at the box office. There are many places where the film goes astray. Had those places been taken care of, it would have given the entire film a brand new outlook! But, sadly though, that is just not the case! Nachiket’s rushing from one thing to another acts as yet another challenge in the already challenged film’s narrative. Even the film’s punchlines and one-liners are very limited.
As for the film’s music (Sohail Sen, Jassi Sidhu), except for the title track, there is hardly any hum-worthy track. Even the film’s background music fails to lift up the film or its characters. Amid all this, the film’s cinematography (Andrew Boulter) gets to earn brownie points.
The film’s editing (Ashish Tripathi, Abhishek Anand) could have been more on-point and watertight. Trimming a bunch of scenes from the film just could have helped the film… in a big way.
Single Salma Review: FPJ Verdict
Given the fact that the film ‘Single Salma’ does not have an extremely strong narrative or chartbuster music, it will find it tough to sustain itself at the box-office. Even the word of mouth is seemingly difficult. Added to that, the film’s promotions have been very lowkey and limited, which also add to the roadblocks in making the film roar at the box office!
