Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd & Weekend Cocktail

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Honeymoon Travels

The ensemble comedy about five newly-wed couples on a bus trip to Goa for their honeymoon is actually enjoyable and entertaining in a Friday night chill-out kind of a way. The couples are expectedly represented through diverse groups (in more ways than on simple ethnic lines) - stereotypes abound, but I thought were used in a funny way. The Bong stereotyping, with the diminutive Bangali bhadrolok (Kay Kay Menon) along with his waiting to break-free wife (Raima Sen) actually hit home….as did the some of the issues that couple had to go through.  Kay Kay Menon really excels;  Raima Sen is hot, but can actually act a bit as well. Looks like acting genes skip a generation !

Others include a gregarious Delhi girl (Amisha Patel) who speaks plenty for everyone including her strangely reticent husband; an elderly inter-religious couple played by Bomani Irani and Shabana Azmi; the apparently perfect couple, who are in total synchrony and haven’t had a single fight for sixteen years (Minisha Lamba and Abhay Deol) ; finally, there is a recently returned NRI (Vikram Chatwal) with his, what would be called ‘unhibited’ Indian wife (Sandhya Mridul).

 There are several interesting twists and turns through the film (I wont reveal them, but spoilers abound in various reviews you will find on the net) and the director packs in lots of details, surprising for a Hindi film. But it mainly suffers from a lack of meshing the stories together. Also, at times the humor is lame, and scenes involving post-marriage elopement of one of the brides are pretty tacky (unless it was intended that way to spoof the typical running away from home scenes in Hindi films).

I particularly enjoyed the way each couple’s backstory was introduced by the voiceover of a radio jockey reading out letters on a show, followed up with old Hindi movie songs. I have always maintained that Hindi movies underutilize classic songs from the past (Hollywood does a much). Main Hoon Naa is the only film I can remember that made good situational use of old songs. Several of the original songs in the films are worth checking out too - Halke Halke, Sajnaji Vaari Vaari and Pyar Ki Yeh Kahani (in the film it is pictured on a very well executed Salsa-Tango combo dance between the perfect couple).

Eventually, Honeymoon Travels is one of those films you can decide to like or hate depending on the mind set you sit down to watch with. There is plenty that is wrong, but enough scenes that are worth a chuckle.

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Also, the weekend cocktail recommendation: I forget what this cocktail was named originally, I call it ‘The Bitter Rose‘. As you sip the drink, enjoy the sweet taste with a bittery orange finish.

• 3 parts Vodka ( I used Friz)
• 1 part Campari bitter
• 2 parts Cointreau
• 2 parts Freshly squeezed orange juice

Pour ingredients into a shaker with ice; shake and strain. Garnish with a twist of orange. You can change the bitter to sweet ratio by varying the Campari and Cointreau depending on taste.

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