Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999)

Rohan Khanna leaves India hoping for a better life in America.

Director:

Rishi Kapoor

Writers:

Sachin Bhowmick (screenplay), Rumi Jaffery (dialogue),

Stars:

Rajesh Khanna, Akshaye Khanna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rajesh Khanna	...	Balraaj Khanna
Akshaye Khanna	...	Rohan Khanna
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan	...	Pooja Walia (as Aishwarya Rai)
Suman Ranganathan	...	Loveleen
Navin Nischol	...	Ashwin
Kader Khan	...	Sader
Paresh Rawal	...	PC Jack Patel
Satish Kaushik	...	Chaurasia
Jaspal Bhatti	...	Iqbal
Vivek Vaswani	...	Vaswani
Himani Shivpuri	...	Niki
Alok Nath	...	Rohan's Grandfather
Moushumi Chatterjee	...	Rohan's Mother (as Moushmi Chatterjee)
Jatin Sial	...	Ranjit
Aditya Hitkari	...	Samir

Storyline

Rohan is a jobless graduate living in the Delhi-based Khanna family with his widowed mother and grandfather. His father Balraj was killed in an accident many years ago. Rohan leaves Delhi for USA at the request of his friend to improve his life. Upon arrival in New York he finds shelter with Iqbal and Sardar. Rohan becomes a taxi-driver. One of his rides is a young woman named Pooja who has no one to call her own. He brings her to his home, and Pooja falls in love with Rohan but Rohan wants to make money and hence wants to marry a richer girl like Loveleen a spoiled rich girl, whom Rohan decides marry. When his friends oppose his decision, Rohan leaves their home, decides to live with Pooja - and a life full of uncertainties.

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Plot Keywords:

usa | accident | nri | taxi driver | television set | 

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Taglines:

with love..Rishi Kapoor

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Genres:

Musical | Romance | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi English

Release Date:

22 January 1999 (USA)

Filming Locations:

India

Company Credits

Production Co:

R.K. Films Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

177 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Rishi Kapoor's directorial debut.

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Soundtracks

"Yehi Hai Pyar"
Lyrics by Sameer
Music by Nadeem Shravan
Performed by Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik, Jaspinder Narula and Chorus

User Reviews

Other than Aishwarya, so what?

I watched this as an Aishwarya fan. I think it's her 4th movie, so it's interesting for me to see her when she was "younger"--although that's only a few years ago! She looked really skinny--too skinny! In a couple of the songs, she does not even dance--what was the director thinking? That we don't want to see Aishwarya?? This was probably the worst Indian film I have seen in terms of the subtitles. First, they were in white letters, so they were hard to read. Second, they were often very stilted English--quite often humorous without intending to be. Third, sometimes they repeated the subtitles, sometimes they put on a long subtitle for .1 of a second. Fourth, sometimes they were just nonsense--A great example is when they go to the "Grapp Family Lodge" towards the end of the movie. Of course it's really the "Trapp Family Lodge" in New Hampshire, and yes, it's the lodge owned by the Trapp Family who were the subject of "The Sound of Music." I have a feeling all that was lost on the director--it would have been a great opportunity to have a song set in the hills above Salzburg, where Julie Andrews sang. It would have added a nice touch of humor. But no. Oh well, a great opportunity lost. Why not get a native Engish speaker to proofread the subtitles? Leaving the stereotypes aside, which the other reviewers have mentioned, I was more upset at the heavy-handed "lessons" in the movie. Yes, I have seen this in other Indian movies too, but not as many and not as awkwardly done. There was the "Pakistanis are really good Indians too" lesson, the "family is more important than money" lesson, the "women are more than tokens in the marriage market" lesson, the "forgive those as you wish to be forgiven" lesson, etc. etc.--every five minutes, and no subtlety at all. A movie can have a message, but when you have 35 different messages...well, it doesn't work. By the way, how about a lesson on illegal immigrants working on a tourist visa? To Indians sitting in India thinking they can just get off the plane on a tourist visa and start driving a cab or work at Dunkin' Donuts, forget it. You can't.

Reality checks: New Jersey boardwalk as an exotic, fun location? Please. Are there no hotels/rooms in New York? --why did Akshay and Aishwarya have no choice but to move in with the taxi drivers? Is India that disorganized that a millionaire would find it impossible to find the wife he left behind? And of course all the coincidences would make Dickens blush.

So, as a movie, pretty bad. As a showcase for a young (26?) Aishwarya, OK.