Akele Hum Akele Tum (1995)

Director:

Mansoor Khan

Writers:

Nasir Hussain (dialogue)
Mansoor Khan (written by)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Rohit Kumar (Aamir Khan) is an aspirant playback singer while Kiran (Manisha Koirala) is a classical singer-in-training...

Plot Keywords:

Remake

Awards:

7 nominations

Cast

Aamir Khan	...	Rohit Kumar
Manisha Koirala	...	Kiran Kumar
Master Adil	...	Sunil Kumar 'Sonu'
Deven Verma	...	Kanhaiya
Anjan Srivastav	...	Ram Dayal (as Anjan Srivastava)
Rohini Hattangadi	...	Mrs. Dayal (as Rohini Hatangadi)
Tanvi Azmi	...	Farida (as Tanvi Aazmi)
Paresh Rawal	...	Advocate Bhujbal
Rakesh Roshan	...	Paresh Kapoor (Film Director)
Shafi Inamdar	...	Kaushikji
Satish Shah	...	Gulbadan Kumar
Harish Patel	...	Amarji
Navneet Nishan	...	Sunita (Kiran's Friend)
Neeraj Vora	...	Moolchand (Grocer)
Mushtaq Khan	...	Mr. Bhatija (Rohit's Lawyer)

Runtime:

Australia:160 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Famous Cine Studios, Tardeo, India

Company:

United Seven Combines

Trivia:

As part of its strategy to promote the music of this film, Venus put up giant hoardings throughout Mumbai city, which read: "What are Aamir Khan and Manisha Koirala doing at Hotel Centaur [Juhu] on 29th July 1995? It's a big surprise." Young and old alike flocked in large numbers to have a look at the stars and have the audio cassettes of the film autographed by them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Bade Dilwala (1999)

Abhimaan meets Kramer vs. Kramer, and somehow succeeds!

Akele Hum Akele Tum is a very entertaining and charming film. The film seems to be inspired by two films, Abhimaan and Kramer vs. Karmer. Abhimaan showed the rise of one spouse in the music industry to another's fall, and Kramer vs. Kramer showed two separated parents fighting over their child's custody. The film has bits of both films, though it's much more similar to the latter. There are several sequences of frame-to-frame copying from it. It is a bit annoying, though I did like the fact that it was like an expansion/update of the Kramer vs. Kramer plot. It's like showing the motives of Meryl Streep's character to leave her husband, giving a larger view of what happened in the middle, and ending it up with a more complete ending, so this remake looks quite appropriate.

Mansoor Khan's great direction is aided by a very memorable soundtrack and superb casting. Anu Malik's music is exceptional and every song stands out. "Raja Ko Rani Se" is very melodious and romantic, "Aisa Zakham Diya" is youthful and catchy, "Akele Hum Akele Tum" is a great song showing the loving relationship of a father and his son (and the fact that it's actually sung by Udit Narayan and his real-life son Aditya makes it even more convincing), "Dil Mera Churaya Kyon" is beautifully melancholic, and "Dil Kehta Hai" is another amazingly exciting and romantic gem. All the songs are extremely well pictured in the film.

Aamir Khan and Manisha Koirala have a fantastic chemistry (I also loved their collaboration in the 1999 film Mann). This is one of Khan's best performances - very mature, very natural, at times restrained and at times temperamental. Koirala is both beautiful and convincing. She is first a young dreamy girl who wants to become a singer, then a married woman, then an angry mother/homemaker whose inferiority complex and dissatisfaction from her life and marriage cause her to try to find a new life, then a reigning singer, then a suffering mother whose determination to get her son back looks almost selfish. She is credible in every shade her character goes through. Tanvi Azmi also gives a very fine performance.

Overall, Akele Hum Akele Tum is a very enjoyable family drama. It has bits of everything and is well made, although it does tend to be a bit melodramatic at some sequences. It did bother that some scenes were copied frame-by-frame, but as a whole, it is a decently Indianised film and as already said, it updates and expands the Kramer vs. Kramer screenplay quite effectively. It is one of those films which show the magic of Bollywood's 1990s, which may not have had the great technical advances of today, but was much more simple, naive and alluring thanks to its very profound Hindi film style, extremely melodious songs and great human and family values.