Namastey London *****Warning - Contains Spoilers*****

I went to see the Bollywood Movie "Namastey London". It's an ok movie, with some funny bits and some valid points about the next generation of Brit Asians.

The Story revolves around Jazz (short for Jasmeet Malhotra, played by Katrina Kaif) who is brought up in London, and is very modern. She is in love with her english boyfriend Charlie Brown (yeah, i know, what a great name). Charlie is rich, spoilt, and also has an eye for the ladies (he's been married 3 times already). Charlie proposes to Jazz, but before she can respond her father Mannu(Rishi Kapoor) plans to take her to India and get her married to some panjabi bloke.

They arrive in India, and Jazz is shown all the touristy places before being taken to her fathers village in Panjab. There she meets Arjun Singh (Akshay Kumar), who just happens to be the son of Mannu's childhood friend. Mannu arranges Arjun and Jazz's wedding. Jazz is not happy, she tries to run away and contacts her mate Imran (Upen Patel). Imran himself is in love with a 'gori' - Jenny, and is living with her, a move which has angered his taxi driver father Parvez (Javed Shaikh). So obviously he's not the best person to ask advice in these matters!!! Anyhow he tells Jazz not to run away, but to do a bit of acting and go along with proceedings. He tells her to put down a condition to the marriage - that she will only have her nupital night in London, and also they will leave India straight after the wedding. Arjun agrees to this condition and the wedding takes place.

Once they arrive in London, Mannu is busy looking for a venue for the wedding reception. At this point Jazz reveals that it was all an act, and neither she nor the UK law recognised the wedding that took place in inia as there was no registration. Bechara Arjun, came to London for his nupital night... and this happens.

Anyway what ensues is his attempt to win back his wife from Charlie Brown. He is aided by his father in law. He even beats the brits at a game of rugby, aswell as telling them that india is not just a nation of snake charmers, chicken tandoori, and call centres, which is what Charlie knows.

Imran is contemplating changing his religion on the aksing of Jenny's parents. Arjun also manages to persuade Imran into rejecting this notion. Imran eventually moves back home to his parents with Jenny.

Jazz is still adamant on marrying Charlie, but Arjun has left a mark on her, and she begins to fall for him. On the wedding day Arjun escorts Jazz to the church, then he shocks everyone by speaking perfect English and wishing them the best, and walks away. Jazz then rejects the marriage vows with Charlie and runs after Arjun.

And they live happily ever after back in India...

I'll be honest i expected it to be a xerox copy of Purab aur Pachim. It wasn't, although you could say that it was inspired by Manoj Kumar's movie. Akshay plays the role of a Panjabi well, and katrina is suited to the role of a brit asian.I think Upen Patel is useless as an actor, is ersiously do not know who would ant to sign him for a film. The film does try to portray a message to the youth - 'don't forget your roots' kind of thing. The soundtrack is typical of Himesh Reshammiya - full of energy, but lacks any depth really. All his tunes sound the same. I've no doubt that overseas the audiences will be able to relate to this story.

Update 31/03/07 - adding a video from Purab Aur Paschim (Manoj Kumar) for Sony, as i can't post a video in a reply post for some reason!!!