
Awww,
aren't they cute? That's Raj, Pooja, and Tina. They're childhood
friends, who are about to be parted as Raj's dad travels to London to
find fortune in a dot com enterprise. Raj wants to write Tina, who is
Just Not That Into Him. Pooja is all
sorts
of into Raj, but for him she's just a conduit to his relationship with
Tina. Pooja volunteers her computer so Tina can e-mail him. Sure enough,
Raj e-mails Tina... And she's too busy to reply, so Pooja writes back.
However, she signs her name "Tina" to ensure he'll reply, and it works.
The two continue writing till his return, fifteen years later, for a
two-week visit.

Tina
barely remembers Raj, but Pooja begs her to pretend to be the girl who
wrote the letters for the past decade and a half. Raj (Hrithik) promises
"Tina" he'll recognize her the instant he sees her, and since it's this
movie's conceit that grown-up Pooja (Rani) is way less attractive than
grown-up Tina (Kareena), he instantly heads straight for the real Tina
instead of the girl he's been corresponding with all this time. Pooja's
heartbroken, but accepts it with a smile and gives nothing away.

Raj
is totally in love with the Tina from the e-mails, and since people see
what they expect to see he doesn't really put together the clues
Real-Tina gives him about her differences from his dream girl. He spends
the entirety of the two week visit flirting with her like a maniac and
confessing his feelings at every opportunity. This would be difficult
for any girl to resist, and Tina's not disposed to do so anyway. If she
were less self-absorbed, she would know that her dearest friend is in
love with this guy, but she's not, so she doesn't and so they're
practically engaged by the time he heads home for a little while. Before
he leaves, there are a few brief interactions with Pooja that give him
pause:

But
again, Pooja says nothing to endanger her friend's relationship with
the guy; after all, if Tina's what he wants then Pooja can't be it
anyway. She heads out to London to visit some universities she's applied
to, and while she's there she hangs out with Raj. On a visit to church,
she gives away one too many things she knows about him... And finally,
he figures it out. After an ecstatic interlude, they head back to India
to confess all. Once there, though, they discover that Tina's father has
died and she's alone in the world, her bond to Raj her only comfort.
Pooja's not about to take that away from her; despite Raj's emphatic
protests, she insists that he follow up on his promise to marry Tina.
And he is PISSED.

I
enjoyed this movie so, so much. It's really not all that different from
dozens of others, but I am such a total sucker for the love triangle
that as long as there isn't anything too egregious I'll be happy as a
pig in mud. I'm even willing to overlook the three (3!) freeze frames
that litter the first half's song picturizations. Hrithik does the usual
Hindi Hyper Hero thing in the first half, but the second half is all
about longing and pining and fury and all those things he does so well
so I was okay with it. Kareena plays a proto-Geet (even turning up in
her Depression Mode in a couple of scenes) with flair, and Rani turns in
the most natural performance of the trio. The three's parents are
wonderful, too (I love Happy Filmi Families!), so that delighted this
viewer.
There was, of course, the obligatory Yash Raj callback to
EVERY HIT SONG, EVER from their canon, from "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le
Jayenge" to, oh, that mehndi song from the
movie DDLJ, to
Kaho Naa... Pyar Hai's
title track, which made me burst into disbelieving laughter since 1)
Hrithik was its star, too, as most of you know and 2) dudes, it only
came out two years before MDK! I forgave everything about sixty seconds
later, though, when of all things, Raj sings
"Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" to Pooja and we get this moment:


OMG.
"Kuch kuch hota hai..."
The wedding guests behind them are all "double you tee efffff, man?"
but I was simultaneously swooning and sobbing, as much of a slave to
blatant emotional manipulation as ever. I'm not too proud to beg for
pouring-rain-obscure-declarations-of-LOVE.
There's also a special appearance:

And he's looking pretty good, actually. This was before
he joined Twitter and I was obliged to avoid him at all costs.
Bonus: strong female friendship untouched by jealousy or pettiness.

I
wish I could say something about the soundtrack, but it really made no
impression on me one way or the other. I know the movie only got
fair-to-middling reviews, and besides
Beth the reaction of the blogosphere has been a resounding "meh" from what I can tell, but to me,
Mujhse Dosti Karoge? is worth every penny (that thanks to
Nae I didn't have to pay).