Ishkq In Paris Movie Review

Ishkq In Paris Movie Review

Director: Prem Raj

Cast: Preity Zinta, Rhehan Malliek, Isabelle Adjani, Salman Khan (Special appearance) and Shekhar Kapur (Special appearance)


Boy and girl meet. It becomes inevitable that they’ll fall for each other. More so if it’s on the Eurail (Trans-Europe) train. Even more, if the destination is Paris. There’s an affable quality about love stories based in the city of love. No matter how shallow, they endear you and make you want to believe in love. Only a fool would resist the charm of Paris. Je t'aime – they say in that part of the world. But do patrons of Indian Fridays really care about love at Champ de Mars? There’s a gross disconnect. 

It’s okay when an Indian love story unfolds at the foot of the Swiss Alps. Case in point Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. But then the location is just the exotic narrative fabric. Not the case with Ishkq In Paris. Here Preity Zinta is supposed to be half French, half Indian. Supposedly she’s lived all her life in Paris. Her Indian father’s left her at the age of seven or so. She’s been brought up single handedly by her French mother Marie and she’s never been to India. It’s not shocking, but rather surprising then that she can have dialogue like, “Tum angrezon ki tarah ticket kata ke bhaag rahe the…”. Of course, we’re in the realms of commercial cinema and such facts are best overlooked.

But then Ishkq In Paris doesn’t give you much to distract from such obvious facts. The entire first half is spent in Ishkq (Zinta) meeting Akash (Rhehan Malliek) over a night in Paris. They buy a dice off Chunkey Pandey and keep rolling it to go to a party, have drinks, watch a movie etc. Thing is nothing ever happens except conversations. Malliek keeps staring at the dice and the side which has sex printed on it. But it never rolls to that eventuality. Instead there’s a lot of half-baked dialogue and while it may be engaging for Ishkq and Akash, it does nothing to pique the audience’s attention. Sadly you realise how pat the rest of the film is when Salman Khan makes an appearance in the song Kudiye di kurti. For five minutes, Ishkq In Paris becomes exciting.

The narrative flaws and love story clichés are only too obvious. They do great disservice to the cast. Preity Zinta, Rhehan Malliek and Isabelle Adjani are all beautiful people. Paris, Lyon and Prague are beautiful places. Zinta and Adjani are proven acting talents too. Put together the audience should’ve had at least a visual treat. Manush Nanadan’s cinematography does have its high points but there’s clear not enough good here to hook even the most besotted Zinta fan. Adjani especially is a phenomenal French actress and boy, are her talents wasted in this film.

Writers Prem Raj and Preity Zinta have watched too much of the Before Sunrise, Before Sunset films. But have failed to realise that the concept doesn’t work that well with Indian characters and sensibilities.
Ironically here’s some trivia that’s far more exciting than the film. Rhehan Malliek is popular TV actor Gaurav Chanana rechristened. Not just that, the director / writer of this film Prem Raj is actually Prem Soni, who made the previously forgettable movie Main Aur Mrs Khanna.