Waqt - The Race Against Time [2005] (NTSC) [DVD]

I loved this film, it was easy to watch and for once the comedy was spot on. A feel good family movie that you will want watch again.

This movie is about a father who is a now-wealthy self-made man (Amitabh Bachchan) with only one child (Akshay Kumar)- a son whose every whim he has indulged. Son marries on the sly to daughter (Priyanka Chopra) of one of Dad's friends who Dad has a comic relationship with of constant one-upmanship. There is also a loyal servant who is so simple minded that its hard to see how he manages to do all the household tasks as he apparently does.
The new wife gets pregnant early and son is showing no sign of growing up (wanting to keep spending his fathers money on fun, and having dreams of being a celebrity rather than going into Dad's business). Son doesn't know father is dying and mother finally persuades father to stop the money flow so son can grow up and be ready for fatherhood. Son is cast out of the house and is angry (not knowing that dad is dying). The race is for the son to make some money but more than this: a race in what remains of Dads time alive.
This movie looks good and has some major actors but I didn't connect with it. Akshay's character was almost too superficial and princely and one asks whether just being given things spoils someone. If he has 2 parents of good character why didn't he collect some of their attitudes. Of course Dad overreacts in the end as well as not giving son the full story, and the son digs in stubbornly (to the father they had him adoring right up to this point). This undermined the drama for me.
In addition to this they kept putting comic bits in and were playing it as a comedy earlier then we have the dying stuff come in and it didn't read as melodrama with the lighter bits through it.
Priyanka wasn't really used much and has a lot more to her than seen here. Akshay also has more depth and perhaps that's why I found it hard to accept him in this role. Amitabh was playing fun-loving genial father as required for the part and was fine enough. The father-son relationship was also played warmly by both Amitabh and Akshay. Boman Irani and Rajpal Yadav play for comedy.
They put effort into the musical numbers but they didn't remain with me (and I suspect the dance steps were a bit limited by Amitabh's dancing range.)
Now while my reaction was a bit lukewarm to this, elsewhere on the Net it tends to average a bit above average (e.g. 7 out of 10). However people seem to polarise as well: quite a few loving it with full marks and others hating it and giving it very low figures.

The first half of this film is excellent - great songs, fun storyline, good interplay between the cast, Amitabh bringing his usual gravitas to every role successfully - and of course, Priyanka Chopra looking breathtakingly beautiful as always.

The second half of the film doesn't quite work so well. Amitabh looks far too healthy for someone dying of lung cancer (not in terribly good taste for a plotline anyway) and all the plotlines have been used up in the first half with nothing else left. The final ten minutes also drift over the line between sentimentality and sentimentalism without even Amitabh being able to rescue it.