Kudos to Reema Katgi on her directorial debut Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd and three cheers for Excel Entertainment’s Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar for supporting a medium budget film like this, which doesn’t boast of the traditional huge star cast!

The movie is about six newly married couples from various walks of life, who are off to their honeymoon in Goa. Zooming off in a Tata Starbus, intrigue is built in the story from the beginning itself with the leather jacket and helmet clad motor biker, who is shown following the bus.

In her debut film, Katgi has managed well to intersperse the stories of these six couples without confusing the audience or even boring them (unlike Salaam-e-Ishq). The first half of the movie goes in establishing the character traits of the 12 people and their relationship with each other. It’s in the second half where the movie picks up pace. Sans a single dull moment, the dialogues by Anurag Kashyap too keep the momentum going for Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd.

The plot revolves around the couples and how differences between them start cropping up during the honeymoon itself.

Narration forms an important part of the movie and helps the audience understand each character’s background. It’s been done in an interesting manner involving a radio jockey as the voice over, who takes the audience into the characters’ lives and then plays a Hindi movie song, which aptly suits the situation.

Confusion is built in the mind of the audiences’ in the beginning of the film with Shilpa’s (Dia Mirza) character, who is reluctant to go on her honeymoon and is weeping copiuosly. Once in Goa, she is so disinterested in her husband that she locks herself in the bathroom and refuses to budge even when her atypical Gujju husband Hitesh (Ranvir Shorey) desperately needs to answer nature’s call. His Gujju diction is just perfect (Silpa instead of Shilpa!). However, he seems to have been wasted since he disappears very early into the movie.

The suspense of the mystery biker is also unveiled way too early in the movie.

The infallible Boman Irani (Oscar Fernandez) is coupled with Shabana Azmi (Nahid), who come together in holy matrimony after the demise of their respective spouses. The acting of these two actors is flawless and Boman yet again proves his mettle in carrying off any kind of role. The scene where Boman grabs Shabana for a quick kiss on the lips leaves you with a smile and has been well captured.

However, the track involving his estranged daughter could have been worked upon more.

The other couple – Vicky (Karan Khanna) and his girlfriend-turned-wife Pinky (Amisha Patel) are poles apart from each other. Initially one fails to understand why Vicky is not showering love and attention on his wife. After all, they are on their honeymoon! Amisha’s hysterical acting may have stood out like a soar thumb in some of her previous movies, but here the same helps her to glide effortlessly into her character of an oh-so-talkative Punjabi girl. She is seen endlessly fussing over her husband and is a hardcore romantic.

Katgi handles the subject of gayism showing confusion, irritation, surprise and longing at the same time in the mind of a man (Vicky) who realizes for the first time that he is attracted to men. Therein steps in Madhu (Sandhya Mridul) and her NRI husband Bunty (Vikram Chatwal), whom she met via the Internet. Sandhya, as we’ve seen her in Page 3, shows her acting prowess yet again. Her character is that of a girl who’s been duped in love once, which completely changes her attitude to life. However, all is not hunky dory after marriage too, when she finds out that her husband is gay.

While Vicky and Bunty realize that they are attracted to each other, their track is not developed further than that.

The casting of the Bengali couple Partho (Kay Kay Menon) and Milly (Raima Sen) is yet again apposite. Raima looks beautiful as ever and Kay Kay in his restrained character is worth applauding. The latter’s dialogue ‘Goa mein aa ke mera wife hippy ban gaya,” has you smiling all the way. The scene where he lets his hair down (courtesy alcohol) and openly showers affection on his wife, followed by the song and dance number is brilliant. Raima steps into the role of a Bengali wife naturally and is a riot to watch in the paragliding sequence.

Last but not the least, Aspi (Abhay Deol) and Zara (Minissha Lamba) are the perfect couple who NEVER fight. Katgi has managed to bring out a good performance from Abhay Deol as the goody-Parsi boy. Adorable moments are well captured between the two; especially worth mention is the ‘bow wow’ and ‘meow meow’ scene in the bedroom. However, their synchronized movements do tend to irritate after a bit. What’s more, in this film full of real life characters, the revelation that these two are superhero and supergirl, just doesn’t go down the throat. Totally avoidable!

The songs Sajnaji Vari Vari and Pyaar Ki Yeh Kahani are worth mentioning. Choreography for the latter is brilliant and showcases the dancing skills of Abhay and Minissha. This tango number sure leaves you with a happy feeling, however it could have been shot better.