Namastey London: An eminently watchable movie

Quite Refreshing: Namastey London

After the debacle of Indian cricket team in the world cup, people needed a change, a change that could refresh their minds.Movies like Nishabd, Hatrick(a movie about cricket) came but none was able to make a mark.So people were desperately in a need of a good refreshment.
Namastey London proved to be a good entertrainer, masala movie having a good blend of all emotions nicely put together. It's a 2 hrs 30 min movie. The story revolves around the new
generation of South Asians (both Hindus and Muslims) in Britain who are essentially non South Asians. They are well integrated into British society and are cut off from their parents who still live the culture of the sub-continent. However, from time to time they are reminded that they are still 'browns'. Katrina's father is uncomfortable with her lifestyle but is unable to do anything much. He tries to change her by planning a trip to India and getting her married off, something he feels he has been successful in. When they get back to London with the new groom (Akshay), she denies anything to do with the marriage. In fact, from the beginning she has always wanted to marry her three time divorced white friend. The rest of the movie is about Akshay trying to impress her with his love and persistence. Songs are hummable and I really liked the song Chakhna-Chakhna, good picturization.
Katrina was dubbing for the first time in her own voice and because in the movie she was British, born and brought up in London, her accent matched her personality and of course she looked beautiful. Salman Khan must be really proud of her. For her, this was an important role given that she has had few chances to be the single female lead, particularly one around whom the movie revolved. I must say she seems to have grabbed this chance with both hands and legs (of which she has shown a lot in the movie). The controversial Ajmer scene hardly got noticed.
Akshay Kumar is supposed to give hits with multi-starrer casts, he needed to prove his ability as a solo hero in an emotional role and I should say he has done a very good role as a Jat from Punjab but he looked old at some places. This was a role that required him to show lots of emotion and I think he did a fairly good job at this. As regards nostalgia for his earlier action roles, the only place you could see this was in a 5 min rugby match role. And of course, he looked smart and impressive in the first scene of the movie when he was dressed in a smart dapper suit.
This was a good comeback for Rishi Kapoor and the role of a worried father of Katrina Kaif
suited him.
Overall, movie conveys the theme of "Once an Indian always an Indian". Personally, the concept of dragging a child to India to get married against their will is not very pleasant.