U Me Aur Hum

<p>Ajay tells his son that he should admit his feelings to a girl he likes. His son replies that if Ajay can woo a woman he likes, he will follow his advice. Ajay approaches an older woman, and begins telling her a story. Those around them begin listening, and a flashback begins. A younger Ajay is on a cruise with four friends: Nikhil and Reena (an unhappily-married couple) and Vicky and Natasha, who are happily unmarried. Ajay meets Piya, a waitress, at the ship’s bar and falls in love with her. Tipsy, he buys drinks for everyone at the bar and blacks out. In the morning, Piya delivers the bill and Ajay says that he is still in love with her; she does not reciprocate his feelings. Ajay looks in her diary, where she wrote about her love of dancing. He learns the dance, and Piya becomes interested in him. When she learns that Ajay had looked in her diary and she becomes angry. He leaves, giving Piya a paper with his phone number if she changes her mind. At their new home, Ajay invites his friends to his house. He has tried to win Piya back by giving her whatever she wants, including a dog. His friends learn when they arrive that Piya and Ajay have gotten married, and are surprised and delighted. The newly married couple begins a wish list, which they write on their bedroom wall; the first entry is to go on a cruise on their 25th anniversary. Several months after they marry, Piya forgets everything (including where she lives) when she goes shopping. Diagnosed with , she is also pregnant. Ajay must keep Piya from hurting the baby; her condition worsens, and he is forced to institutionalise her. However, his friends persuade him to bring her back home. Ajay says that the best thing he has ever done was to bring Piya back home; it is a special day when she can remember things, and an extra-special day when she remembers him. The older woman turns out to be Piya, who is still enduring the symptoms and she and Ajay are celebrating their 25th anniversary on a cruise with their son. The cast is listed below: In May 2007, the entertainment portal reported that Ajay Devgn would make his directorial debut in a project which was later entitled . Wanting to be a director since childhood, Devgn described directing as a passion that came to him “naturally”. Addressing the issue of Alzheimer’s disease, he had conceived the film three years before its release. Devgn produced the film under , in addition to writing the story and starring in it. The screenplay was written by , Sutanu Gupta, and , and polished the dialogue. When Devgn told his wife Kajol about , she immediately said that she wanted to star in it. It was their seventh collaboration, following the action films (1995), (1995), and (2000), the romantic comedies (1997) and (1998), and the drama (1999). Kajol played Piya, a waitress who develops Alzheimer’s disease several months after her marriage to Ajay. She described her rapport with Devgn, saying that working with him was always a “new experience” because of his unpredictable behaviour. Devgn believed her involvement in the film made his work as director “much easier”, describing the opportunity to collaborate once again with the actress. Model-turned-actor Aman Mehra makes a cameo appearance as their son. was completed by Aseem Bajaj and began at the Manoranjan Studio in , with Sameer Chandra as the production designer. The costumes were designed by except for Kajol’s, which was by . Singh gave Devgn bright, sun-coloured clothes for the cruise scenes, and suits when he was a doctor at the hospital. and were the choreographers, and Jay Sinagh Nijjar was the action director. Shooting moved to from 5 to 25 May 2007, and the cruise scenes were filmed there. Editing and sound design were by Dharmendra Sharma and Rakesh Ranjan, respectively, after filming ended. composed the background score. The soundtrack was composed by , with lyrics by Munna Dhiman. , , and performed the vocals. The album was released by on 13 February 2008. In a Bollywood Hungama review, Joginder Tuteja wrote that the singers had made their best effort and said about the title song: “It’s a beautiful track that is as melodious as it gets and flows in a direction …” Meghna Menon of wrote that Bhardwaj had “once again hit the jackpot” with the film’s soundtrack and commending Dhiman’s unconventional lyrics. described it as an “innocent … romantic and real, moody and modest” album. A reviewer for said that the Latino feel of “Jee Le” made the song “racy”. was one of 2008’s most-anticipated Indian films; trade analysts hoped that it would be a commercial success, since all of Devgn and Kajol’s collaborations had under-performed commercially, with the exception of , which was a hit at the box office. A special screening was given by virtuoso and composer for critic-turned-politician on 6 April 2008 in the auditorium in , also attended by a cast member and . Advani gave the film a standing ovation, and said he was impressed by it; Swaraj appreciated Kajol’s performance. Distributed by , was released theatrically on 11 April 2008 with Jaideep Sen’s comedy thriller . The film was released on on 26 May as a single-disc pack in widescreen format. Since 30 November 2016, it has been available for streaming on and . Despite great expectations, commercial performance was poor. It was released on 450 screens (150 of which were on digital platforms), and grossed (US$260,000) on its opening day. The film earned (US$900,000) by the end of its first weekend, and (US$1.4 million) after one week. It earned a total of (US$3.4 million) in India. proved to be more successful among overseas audiences, earning (US$830,000) after one week. The film grossed (US$1.3 million), the year’s seventh-highest-grossing Indian film. Totaling its total worldwide gross, the film-trade website estimated that it earned (equivalent to 1.1 billion or US$13 million in 2023) against a (equivalent to 610 million or US$7.3 million in 2023) budget. had a mixed critical reception. Devgn’s direction and the film’s exposition were generally criticised, and its performances (particularly those of Devgn and Kajol), plot, and cinematography were universally praised. The film has a rating of 60 percent on the website based on five reviews, with an average rating of 5.7 out of 10. of Bollywood Hungama wrote about the actors, ” is like a medal that glimmers on Ajay Devgan’s body of work. He’s exceptional! Kajol, well, what can you say of an actress who has proved herself time and again? That she’s undoubtedly the best has been proved yet again.” Adarsh described the film as “a well-made, absorbing love story that’s high on the emotional quotient”, noting that the screenplay was an Indian version of the 2004 American film . Jaspreet Pandohar of the called the film “a worthy but mushy watch”; found its first half “dumb” and its second half “classic”. A reviewer gave stars, saying that Devgn had delivered a “fantastic” work by telling a “powerful” story without “resorting to that most traditional and painful of cop-out methods, the flash-cuts”. According to , “Well, to some extent, it’s the leads whose credible performances outshine the shoddy script. Ajay Devgan oozes sincerity as the conflicted husband, but it’s Kajol who is really the emotional anchor of the film, dazzling you with her spontaneity, pumping life and blood into her character, making Piya a portrait of internalized pain, something even the script fails to do.” For , Rajiv Vijayakar called Devgn and Kajol’s performances “stupendous” and “terrific”; the film’s direction and screenplay, however, were its “undoing”. In his three-star review, Vijayakar said that the supporting cast (particularly Sumeet Raghavan and Divya Dutta) were “great” and “admirably restrained”. said that the film “is an emotionally affecting tragedy wonderfully acted by Western standards”. noted Kajol’s physical appearance as a young and old woman in . He praised the latter (“sipping her coffee, her luminous eyes exuding rare brilliance”), and felt that Devgn’s performance was overshadowed by hers. of agreed, saying that “Kajol revels in her role with an unforgettably electrifying performance”. Questioning the film’s originality, Kamath nonetheless praised Devgn: “As an actor, he’s brilliant. As a filmmaker, even better. A fine example unfolds (again in the second half) when the doctor hands him his newborn and adds that he’s not sure if the mother would even recognise the baby.” Gaurav Malini, who gave three stars, commended both actors for playing to “perfection” and the film “raises much above the candyfloss or campus romance regularly churned out” in Bollywood. About Devgn’s direction, Malini said that he “also succeeds in extracting authentic performances” from the rest of the cast. of was ambivalent about the acting, criticising Kajol for being “terribly contained” and Devgn’s “dreadful” effort to play a rakish, cool man, and said that only Raghavan and Dutta remained as a “good performer” in the film. In the , wrote: “For its tear-drawing emotional content, a splendid performance by Kajol and Devgan’s fluid makeover from an actor of steel to a director of tenderness, you ultimately take home with you. Worth a cherish.” of wrote that Kajol’s role “mirrors the vulnerability and the insecurity of a woman who lives life on the edge, threatening to fall off any day”, and noted her “vacant” expression in her scenes as an old woman. In her review, Sonia Chopra called Devgn’s character “sketchy and not particularly likeable”. She described the film as “Devgn’s confident debut”, adding, “… hopefully next time round, he’ll choose to appease the audience’s mind as well, and not just aim for the heart.”</p>