Producer: K. Sera Sera and Sohail Khan
Director: David Dhawan
Starring: Salman Khan, Govinda, Katrina Kaif, Lara Dutta
Music: Sajid-Wajid
Lyrics: Sanjay Chhel, Shabbir Ahmed and Jalees Sherwani

What do you get when you put together muscle man Salman Khan and the not so muscular Govinda? On first thought it seems to be a disastrous combi! Even I thought so as I trudged along to the theatre, along with a bunch of friends who were only too keen to see the movie. But I must say the very first 15mins were worth the cost of the ticket!!

To begin with, Govinda does what he does best – Act like a jerk. Salman does what he does best – taking his shirt off every now n then!! Katrina and Lara too kick in with the former not having to say anything as people gaze at her right until the very end (as always) with Lara matching up to her levels.

Professional love Guru Salman Khan ‘partners’ Govinda to help the latter impress Katrina Kaif (Yup, I said latter). The rest is a complete laugh riot with quite a few crazy one-liners. You are sure to come out with aching jaws and stomachs!

+ves:

• Salman-Govinda duo rocks!
• Katrina looks gorgeous!(need I say this??)
• Supporting cast pitch in well!

-ves:

• Really bad on the music front.
• Many song tracks seem unnecessary and irrelevant!

My score: 3 / 5

We tend to take life for granted. We keep chasing elusive goals set by others for us! Paulo Coelho’s VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE reminds us to really LIVE life each day as opposed to just existing.The story kicks-off when Veronika, well, decides to die! Veronika, a 24-yr old has all that a 24-yr old desires, decides to die because she thinks she has spent her life to the full extent and carrying on will only lead to miseries. She takes the cleanest way out-An overdose of Sleeping pills. A failed attempt lands her in Villete, a lunatic asylum where she is told that she has damaged her heart to such an extent that she has only a week to live!In these last few days, Veronika notices the privileges of being mad, of not needing to be true on others expectations, of doing one’s own things without people pointing fingers at you because afterall you are mad! Veronika learns learns life was monotonous because that’s the way she wanted it to be. She never tried out anything new. She should have been a little mad. Afterall her family would still have loved her!Paulo’s Veronika decides to die plucks a string somewhere deep down our hearts. It gives us the message that every moment in our lives is worth living. “Live each day as if it were a miracle”, he tells us. And Veronika does just that. In her last few days she indulges herself in all that she had deprived herself of, like playing the piano in the dead of the night, openly voicing hurt, anger, frustration, love, her most intimate desires that were bottled inside her for the last 24 years coz she was ‘sane’ then.

Veronika sheds her inhibitions, negativities, complexes and feels a by now futile wish to live again. Futile because she has just a weeks time after which she’s gonna die, or is she?