Date:10/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/10/stories/2007061015000200.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

A wonderful peek into teenage angst

Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar (Hindi)

Cast: Ruslan, Hazel

Director: Robby Grewal

TWO CHEERS. No, two cheers and a quarter to Robby Grewal for a film that is a breeze. Almost like a soothing walk in the park. No melodrama, no elaborate dances. Not much that is larger than life either. Just a nice, little peek into teenage angst, that first crush, that indefinable something extra which sweeps you off your feet. Yes, something called love, pehla, pehla pyar, that arrives unannounced, never ever departs.

It is a usual love story, the kind any college-going kid will be able to pen. Boy meets girl in school, their eyes meet and there is electric energy all around. Books fall, boy and girl stoop to pick them up, finger touch... yes, it has that familiarity about it: the kind of familiarity that years later breeds offspring.

Where Robby scores is in the nice momentum he imparts to the proceedings, and also in resisting all temptation to add a dash of the hyperbole. His lead pair of Ruslan and Hazel is delectably young. Music is soothing, cinematography an able tool. In short, a film you would enjoy. As much as pehla, pehla pyar?

Well, not quite: It is a shade too simplistic, lacks novelty too.

For those on the wrong side of 30 and more, it is not a bad bout of nostalgia.

Zia Us Salam