For eons, man has questioned himself over and over again as to the very existence of The Supreme Power, God to no avail. There have been many theories propounded and fallacies noticed in all Holy Books and there is still a general confusion prevailing in the earnest minds of today’s youngsters. Director Kunal Kohli has directed a movie that will put all these conundrums to rest, and with ease. Rest assured, you will be thanking The Lord Almighty when The End flashes on the screen. As the name suggests, you need Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic to get through the foolishness the movie is, Thoda Pyaar toward the Director and Thoda Magic to make the various things that you yearn to throw at the screen disappear.

The movie starts well enough, with us getting past Saif Ali Khan’s trophy-earning successful student years in a jiffy, when in a moment of straight-faced-emotionless mood, he drives his Mercedes through a Maruti 800 killing a couple. The courtroom scene beckons the evergreen beauty, named so because of her amazing powers to turn anyone green, Ameesha Patel walks in looking painted; her clothes stick to her body so. All her outfits in the movie laid back to back on the ground will cover about 1 square meter, with space left for us to sit comfortably and admire each one of those singular pieces minutely. A sentence is awarded and the children of the late couple are entrusted to his care till they turn 18. The 4 kids are hell bent upon getting out of the house and play a few tricks to get on Saif’s nerve. They more than succeed and the audience is suddenly participant to the whole drama on screen, as they start relating to the whole nerve-treading sequences that follow.

Pathos, when portrayed to perfection, brings tears to ones eyes and as the Director starts to show how much each kid misses their parents, we begin to slowly let go of the stray popcorn in our hand and pay full attention to the scene, when one kid raises his head and shouts out loud ‘Bhagwan, hamein madad karo please!’ and the camera shoots up straight to heaven. Yes, read it a thousand times, the word is heaven and I definitely don’t mean chocolate truffle dipped in chocolate sauce with vanilla ice cream served on the side and nuts sprayed over or the scent of the damp earth when it rains. Neither do I mean orgasm. Heaven, where God resides and presides over the world. The popcorn bag in your hand goes astray and as the popcorn begins popping all over your thigh, Rishi Kapoor enters as God, with 7 beautiful maidens by his side. In what could be a perfect setting for an item number, the Director disappoints us by introducing us to a gadget which shows ‘God’ all the things happening down here. He is appalled by the scene in the sylvan house below, and immediately orders one of his bimbos, Rani Mukherjee to go to the kids’ rescue. With a song accompanying her, the lady descends from the heavens riding on a rainbow in a ridiculous looking bicycle.

Rani tries acting the Kareena in Jab We Met, as pointed out rightly by someone and fails miserably, which would be an understatement. She wins over the hearts of all the children, obviously. Just when you settle back in your seats yearning to think of this embarrassment of a movie as a children’s movie and think of getting a toddler to a movie, the birthday bash of Ameesha sets in, where firang females with absolutely no dress sense arrive on the scene to do a Naach. Oh wait, did I say dress sense? I meant dress. The biology teacher can teach his eager students the anatomy of the female body from this song with resounding effect.

And so the movie goes, with Rani slowly getting past all hurdles and introducing Saif to love and the importance of paying attention to kids. As the kids are to stay with him wherever he goes, he lugs them along to LA to a business deal, where one of the kids, with some poison left within him, tries to avenge his parents’ death by playing another ‘prank’. The ideals of forgiveness and love are ingrained into our man as he restrains every nerve from shooting out and tells them it’s not their fault and that he’s sorry. Just when you heave a sigh of relief that it’s almost a happy ending, the ubiquitous love story crops up, between the mortal and the immortal. Rishi tries his best as ‘God’ to restrain Rani to the heavens, but as she starts to display human-like and ungodly emotions, He vanishes into thin air, leaving nature to take its course, which is indeed a sigh of relief for us.

Exceptional performances from the cast: The Golden Retriver, Luchcha Singh, the butler Pappu who could give Jeeves a run for his money and Rishi Kapoor, a splendid appearance as God that often elicited Oh My Gawd!! from the audience. The movie is worth its money if you go along with a few friends who don’t mind jumping in the seats laughing out and pointing out the absolute frivolities in each scene.

Ps: Picture Courtesy: Vidya.