Opening with love quotes from diverse sources like Albert Einstein, Emily Dickson, Leo Tolstoy and David Levesque, we meet Ajay (Ajay Devgan) a senior citizen. He narrates the story of Ajay (Devgan, again) and Piya (Kajol), two twenty-somethings who meet aboard the ‘Super Star Libra’, a cruise ship which is travelling from an unspecified location to Mumbai.
From the beginning, movie speaks more about achieving love in all the scenario. It talks about romance, music and fun. In midst of all this mess Ajay meets Piya (Kajol) and is entralled by her. He falls in love with her at first sight (predictably); meets resistance from her immediately (again predictably); uses a few lies and couple of songs to make her reciprocate his love (yawn..predictably). But even though the broad outline of the courting seems to be run-of-the-mill stuff, it’s elevated to a different level due to some neat touches by Ajay Devgan. The explanation of Piya’s background through her book; the conversations between Ajay and Piya run in the background while we see the two enjoying each others company; the sequence of Ajay attempting at learning Salsa overnight – all these result in making the courtship a bit more enjoyable.
“Let’s party and get tight, cause its love at first sight!” the younger Ajay declares. By the time the journey ends, they are predictably in love. In true romcom fashion, a misunderstanding ensues but they are reconciled and get married.
“I think your story is going to be too long,” the elder Piya remarks when her husband decides to narrate their earlier days of clichéd happiness. Everything seems to be going Ajay’s way and he seems to be leading an enviable life, when suddenly he discover that Piya is suffering from Alzhimer’s disease. From here, the movie takes a serious note as Ajay tries to grapple with Piya’s disorder and tries to bring some sense of order in his life.
This is a story about Ajay and his love. He can go to any extend to achieve his love, he can play hard to stand still on the path of love and to protect his love. He teaches us the fact of life when he speaks about the psychological behavior "Defense Mechanism" in human. Where at some level tries to save her child when both are sinking in water and then a moment comes when she climb over her own child to survive from the water. There is nothing wrong in it when she does that. Even she loves her child but its the fact of life. Its a survival of the fittest. Ajay find himself in same situation when he send Priya in Mental Care for the better being of his son and himself. He thinks that he is the one who should be suffered because he broke his promise of never go away from Piya. What if Piya is suffering from Alzheimer? Doesn't she love him? Isn't she the one whom Ajay loved?. Love must survive in all circumstances, this is what U Me Aur Hum teaches us.
The sequences showing Kajol’s gradual tendency to lose her memory is catalogued quite subtly. There’s an instance when Ajay tells Piya to come to meet her at a certain time and Piya turns up an hour late insisting that he got the timing wrong; Piya has a tendency from childhood days to keep post-its in her mirror so that she may not forget much. These scenes seem to be inconsequential at first but as we understand her condition, we also realise the importance of those scenes.
The movie focuses quite a lot on Ajay Devgan’s character and he delivers a commendable performance. His character goes through a lot of distress emotionally and he emotes quite well in those. Kajol delivers an excellent performance. She is pretty restrained in her performance when Alzhimer’s takes over her. Any actor of a lesser calibre could have gone over the top. Thanks to Kajol it does not become U Me aur Ham! Both the lead actors lift the movie up a few notches. The viewer feels very convinced of Ajay’s dilema and is sympathetic towards the choices that he’s forced to make. Ajay’s friends Vicky (Karan Khanna),Natasha (Isha Sharwani), Nikhil (Sumeet Raghavan) and Reena (Divya Dutta) spoil the mood with their histrionics. Except for the title track rendered by Vishal Bharadwaj, the songs are strictly ok. In fact a couple of songs (specially the wedding song), could have been chopped off.
Ajay Devgan the director handles the emotional scenes like a veteran. It’s the light-hearted scenes that are a big let-down. Of course that could be due to the low quality of writing. But he doesn’t seem to maintain a certain level of consistency. For instance, there’s a wonderful digital imagery where we are introduced to Kajol’s thoughts and aspirations; the very next sequence though there is a loud scene with Pichwade Pe Kutte Kate playing in the background. This puts off the viewer’s mood immediately. The romantic track between Ajay and Piya is marred by such inconsistencies. Ajay Devgan does have in him to be a good director, he just has to ensure that consistency is maintained. As Piya’s condition worsens in the later stages, there are a few shocking scenes which are handled very well by him. The story written by Ajay Devgan is good, but I thought the story was a bit incomplete. There could have been more meat in the story towards the end.
Overall, the second half saves the day for the movie. The emotional portions overwhelms you and you’re willing to overlook the blemishes in the first half. If you are looking for a light hearted romantic comedy, then this movie isn’t for you. It’s a movie that tackles the subject of relationships at a serious level.
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