Jayantilal Gada, Reliance Entertainment and Blockbuster Movie Entertainers’ Namaste England (UA) is a love story.
Param Singh (Arjun Kapoor) and Jasmeet (Parineeti Chopra) live in Punjab. They fall in love and get married. While Jasmeet is ambitious and wants to pursue jewellery designing as a profession, her guardians (grandfather and brother) don’t want her to work. They actually tell Param’s father that she should not be asked to work after marriage too. Jasmeet is saddened but she has faith in Param. On the day of the wedding, Param gets into an ugly fight with his well-connected friend, Gurpreet (Anjum Batra), who, therefore, vows to make it impossible for him to travel abroad. As months pass, Jasmeet expresses a desire to settle in London which, she feels, would be the ideal place for her work.
One day, Param meets travel agent Gurnaam (Satish Kaushik) who sends people abroad by unfair means. Gurnaam suggests that Param ‘marry’ a resident of London, shift there with the ‘wife’, get citizenship there, divorce her, and then call Jasmeet over to London. Although Param views this idea with the disdain it deserves, Jasmeet is quite excited. But she knows, Param would never approve of the illegal way of going to London. She also knows, Param’s friend-turned-foe Gurpreet would never let it become possible for them to travel abroad.
Then one day, Jasmeet gets lucky when she gets a chance to go to London. Param somehow convinces her family and ensures that she goes to London. The couple is excited that Jasmeet’s dream was finally going to be realised. However, before departing, Jasmeet tells Param something that shocks him.
Soon, Param realises that Jasmeet is not likely to return to India. He sets out to bring her back. Since he can’t go to London through the legal route, Param reaches the city illegally. He sees Jasmeet being so enamoured of London that he is convinced, she may not be willing to return to India. He now tries in his own way to bring her back to India. What does he do? Does he succeed? Or does Jasmeet convince Param to stay back? Or do the two go their separate ways?
Suresh Nair and Ritesh Shah have written a shockingly hopeless script. As scene by scene unfolds, what comes out loud and clear is the complete lack of conviction. The story is sketchy and one of convenience. Neither are the characters well-established nor are the incidents in the drama. The duo’s screenplay is so poor that it’s a wonder, someone could make a film based on such a half-baked screenplay. How Param and Jasmeet fall in love is simply not shown. What the couple does before Jasmeet goes to London is also not explained. It, therefore, almost appears that the only thing Param and Jasmeet do is day-dream and sleep and dream. Again, the ploy Param uses to take back Jasmeet to India seems ludicrous, given the circumstances. His philosophy of where one lives not being important as compared to with whom one lives and how loving that companion is, suddenly crops up in London, making the audience wonder why he did not explain this philosophy to Jasmeet while they were in India and while she kept pestering him to take her to London. Again, the track of Param interpreting Jasmeet’s insistence on going to London as childishness which had now turned to mad obsession is just too convenient. The viewers are clueless how Param thought, it was childishness, because they (viewers) all along interpreted it as mad obsessiveness. All in all, Suresh Nair and Ritesh Shah have penned a shoddy screenplay which fails miserably to convince the audience. Many things are sought to be established through dialogues – and this is another major minus point of the screenplay.
It is because of the glaring drawbacks of the screenplay that the audiences feel no empathy for the two despite the fact that Param and Jasmeet love each other a lot. In other words, they don’t root for Param and Jasmeet to come together in London. The viewers’ attitude is one of couldn’t care less! Resultantly, the audiences don’t cry when the couple does so. All in all, the emotional part of the drama does not succeed in engaging the viewers. The comedy and humour almost completely fall flat on their face. The romance, or whatever there is of it, is far from heart-warming. Even the climax is tame and dull.
Suresh Nair and Ritesh Shah’s dialogues are routine, save for a handful of them. One good dialogue is when a weeping Jasmeet asks Param to stop saying what he is saying lest she end up crying, and, immediately thereafter, a weeping Param tells Jasmeet to stop saying what she is saying lest he start crying. But impressive dialogues like the above are few and far between.
Arjun Kapoor delivers a performance which almost makes it appear that he is either not interested or he is not at all convinced about the script. Yes, he is fairly nice in emotional scenes but that’s about all. Arjun seriously needs to work – and work hard – on his weight and physique. Parineeti Chopra does not look fresh at all and her acting is also mediocre. She definitely does well in the emotional scenes but that’s not saying much for the talented actress. Aditya Seal lends able support as Sam. Alankrita Sahai looks good and acts ably as Alisha. Anjum Batra has his moments as Gurpreet. Satish Kaushik (as Gurnaam) is fair, his comedy making the audience smile a bit. Shivendra Mahal (as Jasmeet’s grandfather), Kuljinder Singh (as Jasmeet’s brother), and Hobby Dhaliwal (as Param’s father) lend average support. Paras Oberoi (as Ricky), Shivendar Sharma (as Timmy), Jashandeep (as Kuljeet), Shreya Mehta (as Mitthi), Katie Iqbal (as Santo), Deepali (as Simmy), Nishu Bhatt (as Rinky), Jaswant Damania (as Chaiji), Susheel Kumar Batra (as Lalaji), Damanpreet Kaur (as Param’s bua), Sunny Gill (as Param’s uncle), Aman Bhogal (as Param’s aunt), Mallika Dua (as Harpreet), Robin Singh (as Gurnaam’s sidekick), Vinod Nagpal (as Sam’s grandfather), Pratik Dixit (as KG), Zahra Sheikh (as KG’s bride) and the rest are alright.
Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s direction is dull. Like the writers, the director also seems to be lacking conviction. His handling of even sensitive scenes is weak. Mannan Shah’s music is good. A couple of his songs are popular. Javed Akhtar’s lyrics are of a good standard and ably bring out the mood of the moment. Ganesh Acharya’s choreography (one song choreographed by Tushar Kalia; montage song by Akansha Mantri) is okay. Prasad Sashte’s background music is ordinary. Yiannis Manolopoulos’ cinematography is very good. Sriram Kannan Iyengar and Sujeet Sawant’s production designing is appropriate. Amitabh Shukla’s editing is okay but lacks the sharp edge.
On the whole, Namaste England is a flop fare. The producers may have broken even before release, by selling the satellite and digital rights for a fantastic price, audio rights for a good price, Overseas and India territorial rights (while retaining some territorial rights) but losses to the distributors are inevitable because the dull film will almost face rejection.
Released on 18-10-’18 at Regal (daily 1 show; in daily 2 shows from 19-10-’18) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Phantom Films Pvt. Ltd. Publicity: dull, qualitatively; quite nice, quantitatively. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere in spite of Dassera holiday on 18th at some places.