Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic

A reasonably nice kiddie flick, but fails to reach out to adults. Essentially like a cartoon film, utterly simplistic in every aspect—characters, plot or narration.

A PROBE Report

Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukerji, Ameesha
Directed by Kunal Kohli

Watching Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic with a five-year-old, I encountered a stark disparity between the perspectives of a child and an adult towards the same film. The five-year-old still hasn’t graduated to becoming a Harry Potter or Hollywood junkie, she doesn’t look for logic but loves predictability and certainly can’t comprehend what Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Nanny McPhee or Mr India are all about and how they could have influenced Kunal Kohli. No wonder she enjoyed the film thoroughly. It’s because TPTM is essentially like a cartoon film, utterly simplistic in every aspect—characters, plot or narration. It may have a potentially morbid theme but plays it out as a happily-ever-after fantasy. Moreover, it has four believable, not terribly filmy and cute, kids who the children can empathise with—whether they are praying (with their dog) to God for help or playing potty pranks.
TPTM is a reasonably nice kiddie flick. But the best of children’s films also have a way of reaching out to the adults which this one certainly doesn’t. There’s the sullen Saif who is responsible for the death of the parents of four kids in a road accident. Rather than being sent to jail, he’s ordered to take care of the kids till they are 18. He also gets divine help from a fairy-turned-nanny Rani (looking automated) to help him build bonds with them, even as his girlfriend (Ameesha) irritates with her passion for Prada bags. I would have wanted more of the warm moments as Saif tries to reach out to the kids. In that aspect, the film could well have taken a look at the Aamir-Juhi starrer of yore, Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, similar but far more rounded in its story-telling and emotional graph. Also, a potentially interesting character like the butler gets to do just about nothing here.
I liked the fact that the film helped me teach a kid the basics of socialism and socio-economic parity (thanks to Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics in the museum song). It also helped her understand the need to be intelligent unlike “Barbie aunty” (Ameesha). One question: why is it that our children’s films have the most sensual of songs? In Mr India, it was Sridevi’s iconic “Kaate nahin kat te...”; here it’s Ameesha baring just about all in “Lazy lamhe”.