hyped garbage

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I am so glad there are many other posters who feel the same way as I do about this movie. Mr.Ghai portrays Americans and American born Indians in a very poor light while making Indians all saintly and virtuous. Don't people smoke in India? Or drink? Or lust women? Patriotism is a nice thing. But it is cruel to falsely depict other cultures under the pretext of patriotism. Unfortunately, the only way many Indians know anything about Americans is through movies. Movies like this spoil it for Americans and NRIs, because people just jump into conclusion without ever having met an American. And opinions formed from movies like this is why I have to continually argue with friends who try to tell me what a horrible idea it was for me to marry a white American! In all honesty, I think he has way more "family values" than some Indians I had considered as potential candidates to marry. (I still hold my Indian citizenship and don't plan to renounce it and love visiting India and Indian culture - in case any of you are wondering if I fit into the India-hating category. No, I don't hate India at all!).

Subhash Ghai always shows NRIs in bad light and Indians as too goodHis carricatured NRIs in PARDES, TAAL are e.g.s of thoseThe film is just that, The NRIs are shown as bad, while our Indians are shown as pure Ganga typeThe film is typical, there are some good situations but the story isn't different nor is the treatment In fact surprisingly SRK played the role of getting a girl for someone else a lot in 1997, be it KOYLA, PARDES Direction by Subhash Ghai is ordinary Music is goodIn this film SRK is a pleasure, here he doesn't ham thankfully as he always does Here he is well directed and gives a restrained performance Mahima is decent, she looks gorgeous but sadly her career didn't' go ahead Apoorva is too awkward Amongst rest Amrish Puri excels as usual Alok Nath is stereotypical rest are okay

Pardes was a Hit movie from great director Subash Ghai. It tells the story of a girl from India, who has a arranged marriage with a guy from America. She gets engaged to him and travel to USA, and realises her fiancé is not a nice person. This is more of a woman's point of view based movie that stars Superstar Shahrukh Khan. He doesn't give a great performance as he usually does. This is mainly because the movie is more based on Mahima's life. Mahima looks very sexy and gives a fairly good performance. Her character is a little immature, which doesn't impress me. There is a scene where she is asked to sing a song in front of many people including her fiancé and in laws, but she see's Shahrukh, leaves the stage and runs toward him. She is suppose to be a village girl so it is acceptable. I'm sure not all village girls are this immature, not to understand, its bad manners and disrespectful to do this. Apoorva plays the Fiancé in a pathetic performance. His character has no realism, there is a scene where he starts a fight in the club with a American person. He starts talking to him in Hindi in a dreadful looking scene. Poor music and the movie does get a little slow at time. The ending looks rushed and unprofessional. Overall not such a bad film.

Briefly, the story goes like this. Kishorilal (Amrish Puri) is an NRI whose heart belongs to his homeland, India (or so he says). On a trip back home, he meets his old friend, Alok Nath (forget his name). Kishorilal is impressed with the traditional values his friend has instilled in his daughter, Ganga (Mahima Chawdhry). So he requests Ganga's hand in marriage for his westernized son, Rajiv (Apoorva Agnihotri) who he hopes will become more Indian with Ganga in his life. To prepare Ganga and her family for Rajiv's visit to India, comes Arjun (Shahrukh Khan), adopted son of Kishorilal. Arjun is a struggling musician who even though has lived in America for a few years is completely Indian at heart. After Rajiv's visit, Ganga is sent off to America to experience and understand the life there before she gets married. There she is entrusted to Rajiv who exposes her to the so called American culture. She is shocked and runs to Arjun for comfort. She begins to get closer to Arjun who is already in love with her. The elders misinterpret their friendship and with the help of Rajiv's skewed mind label Arjun as the enemy. A highly melodramatic climax leads to an obvious ending. So whats the problem with Pardes? Why has it raked up so much controversy you ask. Well the answer lies in the director/storyteller of this enterprise, Mr. Subhash Ghai. His portrayal of Americans and Indians living in America is completely one-sided. He shows them as drunk, sexually obsessed individuals with no values or principles. Mr. Ghai did have a message to send to his audience but somewhere on the way it got lost in all the melodrama. His message was to be careful that we don't let foreign influences ruin what is India's most valuable entity: traditional family values and principles. What he fails to do is show all sides of the coin. There exist people in America, UK and other such countries who hold onto their values, following them to a fault. Also, he should have taken a closer look at India. There are some aspects of Indian culture that are utterly ridiculous, and we might do well to take some advice from outside and NRI's are our link to such changes. The world is not black and white, there's a lot more gray than Mr. Ghai seems to want to acknowledge. Patriotism is a wonderful thing until you begin to stop using your brain because your blinded by it. Everything else in the movie is average and sometimes below average. Nadeem-Shravan's music is hummable at points and loud at others. Mahima Chawdhry, the new find is pretty and decent for a newcomer but is guilty of overacting at points. Apoorva Agnihotri, although a good-looker is below average. His dialogue delivery is his downfall. Amrish Puri and Alok Nath are also guilty of overacting. I'm guessing this overdose of melodrama has to do more with the director than the actors. So they are forgiven. Shahrukh Khan is the saving grace of this film. Coming up with one of his most subtle performances of his career, he is simply outstanding. His silence and subtlety have so much more effect than the rest of the cast's yelling and preaching. He is the only reason I own the DVD of this film. Watch Pardes, if only for the King Khan.