Ishkq in Paris

Ishkq in Paris
Theatrical Poster
Directed by	Prem Raj
Produced by	Preity Zinta Neelu Zinta
Written by	Prem Raj Preity Zinta
Starring	Preity Zinta Rhehan Malliek Isabelle Adjani
Music by	Sajid-Wajid
Cinematography	Manush Nanadan
Studio	T-Series
Distributed by	PZNZ Media
Release dates	24 May 2013 (2013-05-24)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi French English
Budget	₹120-150 million (estimated)
Box office	₹21.3 million (worldwide)[1][2][3]

Ishkq in Paris is a primarily Hindi-language Indian film starring Preity Zinta, Rhehan Malliek and French actress Isabelle Adjani, directed by Prem Raj,^[4] produced by Preity Zinta and co-written by Raj and Zinta. After being initially set for 21 September 2012, the film was postponed multiple times before finally being released on 24 May 2013^[5] in India, the United Kingdom and the United States.^[2] Koi Moi deemed it a box office bomb three days after its release.^[6]

Cast

• Preity Zinta
• Rhehan Malliek
• Isabelle Adjani
• Mala Sinha
• Shekhar Kapur
• Chunky Pandey

Production

The film marks a comeback for Preity Zinta, once one of Bollywood's most sought after actresses, who hadn't appeared on the big screen since a cameo in 2009's Main Aurr Mrs Khanna and whose last lead role in a mainstream Bollywood film was 2007's Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.

Filming

The film was shot mainly across France, in Paris and Lyon, with some scenes shot in Prague as well as India.^{[citation needed]}

Soundtrack

Music director duo Sajid-Wajid composed the songs for Ishkq in Paris. The soundtrack release date was announced on 15 September via Zinta's Twitter account. The songs are penned by Jalees Sherwani, Prasoon Joshi, Kumaar, Kausar Munir, Sophie Choudry and Priya Panchal.

Critical reception

The soundtrack received average reviews. Musicperk.com rated the album 7/10, calling it a "back to the basics attempt".^[7] Music Aloud called it a "thoroughly dated score from Sajid Wajid".^[8] Suhail Mir of Gomolo gave the album 3 stars out of 5 saying, "Ishkq in Paris is yet another habitual effort from Sajid-Wajid where one or two tracks are brilliant and rest are average. All songs are good but lacks blockbuster quality."^[9]

Reception

Box office performance

The film had a disastrous first day, collecting 4.2 million Rupees with an occupancy of "just 5 to 10 percent in multiplexes across the country"^[10] such that shows had to be cancelled and it had been preemptively called "the biggest disaster of 2013".^[11] Comparatively, the new release that took the top place, Fast & Furious 6, collected 60 million Rupees on its first day.^[12] Despite being its opening weekend's second highest-grossing Hindi film, and third highest-grossing overall^[1] according to the International Business Times, the film "opened on such a bad note that it would require some miracle to come out with a decent number during the weekend",^[13] and in fact Ishkq in Paris only managed to collect a little over 10 million Rupees over the three day period, and has been labeled a disaster.

Internationally, the film was released simultaneously on 15 screens in the United Kingdom and 8 screens in the United States where it also received a tepid response, garnering merely £11,057 and $6,732 respectively during the opening weekend, far less than the lower-profile Punjabi-language film Jatts In Golmaal, which opened on the same day.^[2] All-in-all, in its first week, Ishkq in Paris barely crossed the 20 million Rupee mark worldwide.^[3]

Critical response

Professional reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
IANS
Sify Movies
Movie Talkies
Filmfare
ThatFaisalSaif
Has2BFilmy
iNextLive
The Times of India
India Today
The Asian Age
Bollywood Hungama
MoviezAdda
The Indian Express
Hindustan Times
Mumbai Mirror
Deccan Chronicle
Mid Day
Daily News and Analysis
in.com
Koimoi
Now Running
Business of Cinema
Glam Sham
India Glitz
India TV News
CNN-IBN
Book My Show
Outlook
The Friday Times
Rediff.com
Daily Bhaskar
indicates that the given rating is an average rating of all reviews provided by the source

Though a few reviews have been highly positive, most of them range from the average to the highly negative. Common positive points include the chemistry between the leads, the gorgeous visuals and Preity Zinta's performance, while common negatives include the weak screenplay, the film's first half and Preity Zinta's performance. Indeed while several reviewers were happy to see Zinta back on the big screen after a four year absence and felt would make audiences "fall in love" with the actress all over again, others thought that the material was beneath her and/or that the 38 year-old looked "desperate" to recapture her glory days as a leading actress, that she was too old for the role and was at best going through the motions, at worst awful in the title role. Many reviewers also pointed out the obvious plastic surgery Zinta had undertaken since last being on screen, either applauding or lamenting the results. Negative reviews often compared the film unfavorably to the Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.

On the positive side, Subhash K Jha of IANS gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, calling the film "fresh, frothy feel good and, yes, look good, and with a solid undercurrent of emotional frisson"^[14] while Faisal Saif gave it three stars, praising the actors, the cinematography, the script and the directing, only finding fault with the editing and the music.^[15] Writing for Sify Movies, Sonia Chopra gave the film an extremely positive review, praising the entirety of the cast, the cinematography and the dialogues and labelling it "great" and "irresistible, despite its flaws",^[16] while Jaidev Hemmady gave it the same 3.5/5 stars rating in Movie Talkies, praising the performances, particularly Preity Zinta's, and calling the film a "visual delight" though he did concede that the story was "somewhat predictable".^[17] Darshan Shah from Has2BFilmy has rated this film 3/5 stars mentioning "Ishkq in Paris will surely define love as celebration of life",^[18] the same rating given by iNextLive.^[19]

In the average reviews, Rachit Gupta of Filmfare gave the film 3/5 stars but did not have many positive things to say, calling the film a "flaky and uninteresting love story".^[20] Divya Solgama gave the film 2.25/5 stars on MoviezAdda, calling the film decent "overall", praising Preity Zinta's performance and criticizing the weak, dull screenplay. Similarly, in The Times of India, Meena Iyer gave 2.5/5 stars, stating "the actress is good but there ends the show",^[21] while Gaurav Malani called the film not "bad", but "boring", which to him was worse.^[22] In Bollywood Hungama, Taran Adarsh gave it the same rating, praising the chemistry between the two leads as well as the visuals, but criticizing the screenplay, concluding that Ishkq In Paris was "decent fare".^[23] Writing for India Today, Vinayak Chakravorty found that despite similarities with other films, it managed to find some originality and that Isabelle Adjani's performance was impressive, but was disappointed by the direction, the lack of chemistry between the leads, Rhehan Malliek's lack of screen presence, the fact that Preity Zinta's performance is similar to many other roles she's done before and deemed the script "bad".^[24]while similarly in Mint, Nandini Ramnath concluded that "if the movie works at all", it was because of the short runtime and Preity Zinta's "contagious joy at being the cynosure of attention".^[25] In The Asian Age, Suparna Sharma commended Zinta for producing the film herself and appreciated the short runtime but also found the story to be "wispy thin", Malliek to have "no personality" and Adjani to be "wasted"^[26] and in Total Filmy, Padmapreetham deemed that while the first half was "bearable and breezy", the second half had "too much of melodrama" and the climax was "predictable", conceding however that some dialogues were "enjoyable and entertaining".^[27] Writing for the Free Press Journal, Johnson Thomas claims that director Prem Raj "almost resurrects his flailing career" with the film that "shows off the city at it’s romantic best" but would have preferred if he had devised "more drama, passion and intensity between his lead characters", labeling the film "pointless".^[28]

On the other hand, Raja Sen for Rediff.com has given 1/5 stars and says Ishkq In Paris is a bad film brought furthur down by a bunch of Bollywood cliches and a fading Preity Zinta,^[29] which is the same rating given by Mayank Shekhar in the Daily Bhaskar, who goes on to call the lead characters "uninteresting" and lament the state of Preity Zinta's career. Strangely enough, Shekhar incorrectly claims that Zinta plays two roles in the film, that of Ishkq and Ishkq's mother.^[30] in.com gave the film a poor review too, criticizing the weak screenplay and Preity's performance.^[31] In a special "Twitter review" for IBN, Shomini Sen deemed that though "Preity Zinta tries hard [...], except for some amazing shots of Paris [the film] has nothing much to offer.",^[32] while in another, more traditional review, Rajeev Masand called the film "misguided" and "overwrought", in addition to finding Rhehan Malliek "as expressive as a slab of granite".^[33] In Koimoi, Mohar Basu gave the film 2/5 stars, praising the editing but criticizing the screenplay and the lack of chemistry between the leads.^[34] Writing for Now Running, Mansha Rastogi commended Preity Zinta's performance, claiming that she "soothes most of the sore points of the film", but ends up stating that the film's "a melodramatic saga which can bore you easily", granting it 2/5 stars,^[35] the same rating given by Vishal Verma inIndia Glitz, who also praised Preity Zinta's performance as well as the visuals but felt that while the film has its moments, the story telling is "tedious", the chemistry between the leads is "ice cold" and the music "adds to boredom",^[36] while India TV News felt that Preity Zinta's screen presence is the only reason to watch the film despite the "decent" cinematography and "crisp" editing, as Rhehan Malliek is "unconvincing" and the music "unmemorable".^[37] Teena Elizabeth Chacko, writing in Book My Show, found the cinematography "excellent" as well as the narration by Isabelle Adjani, deemed the performances by Zinta and Malliek to be decent and the music average, but found fault with the multitude of clichés, the cheesy dialogues and the numerous illogical moments, giving the film 1.5/5 stars and stating stating that one could "definitely afford to miss it",^[38] while in The Indian Express, Shubhra Gupta gave it 2/5 stars, lamenting that it was filled with "all the clichés that you can think of".^[39] Glam Sham's Enkayaar criticized the screenplay,^[40] as did Shubha Shetty-Saha in Mid Day, who went on to call Adjani "wasted", Malliek "flat" and felt that Preity Zinta looked desperate to recapture her lost success, deeming the film "disappointing".^[41] In the Hindustan Times, Sarit Ray thought the film felt dated though he did enjoy the cinematography^[42] and in The Hindu, Sudhish Kamath gave the film one of its worst reviews, calling the writing "weak" and the actors "awful", warning potential viewers that going to see the film might leave them "feeling suicidal".^[43] For the Mumbai Mirror, Karan Anshuman thought the movie was "without heart", the actors had no chemistry and felt sorry for the state of Preity Zinta's career, encouraging her to "be bold" and "change the act",^[44] similarly in Daily News and Analysis, Tushar Joshi felt that the actress seemed "in a constant need for approval", advising only her die-hard fans to go watch the film.^[45] Komal Nahta praised Prem Raj's direction but criticized his script and wished Preity Zinta had been replaced by a younger actress, despite the fact that he enjoyed her performance^[46] and in the Deccan Herald, Shilpa Jamkhandikar called the film "mediocre", a "farce of a film" and Preity Zinta "a shadow of her past [self]",^[47] while Khalid Mohamed wrote in the Deccan Chronicle that the screenplay was "thinner than crepe".^[48] For First Post, Deepanjana Pal deemed the film completely illogical,^[49] in Business of Cinema, Udita Jhunjhunwala claimed that despite its short runtime "Ishkq in Paris feels like a nine-hour flight, with jet lag"^[50] and Box Office India thought the cinematography was "outstanding", Zinta's performance was "noteworthy" and the background music "superb", but concluded that director Prem Raj "impresses a little but disappoints a lot", predicting a flop.^[51] For The New Indian Express, Nandini Krishnan called Preity Zinta "irritating" and the film "an insult to cinema, Paris, love and Isabelle Adjani"^[52] and in the Pakistani The Friday Times, Nandini Krishnan was "appalled" by the film, calling it "disastrous" and making fun of "the almost 40-year-old Zinta [...] trying to pass off as the still-beautiful Adjani's daughter", saying it "gave [her her] first laugh of the film".^[53] Similarly in Outlook, Namrata Joshi was saddened by Zinta's plastic surgery-altered looks, thought she lacked chemistry with her co-star and called the narration tedious.^[54]

References

External links

• Ishkq in Paris at the Internet Movie Database
• Ishkq In Paris at Bollywoodhungama.com
• Ishkq In Paris at MovieReviews.ae