MOVIE REVIEW: ROADSIDE ROMEO
RATING: * * 1/2

Roadside Romeo takes the genre of animation films in India to a new level. From what was earlier a solely mythological initiative is made something more spunky and cool with Romeo.

But what is its success is also its failing. While the movie takes animation a notch up, it fails to breakaway from the clutches of Bollywood's obsession with the beaten to death theme of love, envy and villany. To add to the trite theme are typical Yash Raj dialogues and DDLJ moments that one is quite tired of watching.

However, the quality of animation and consistency cannot be negated or overlooked.

The movie revolves around a well bred canine Romeo (Saif Ali Khan), who lives in the lap of luxury, drives around in swank cars and parties hard. But when the family he lives moves to another part, Romeo finds himself abandoned to the streets of Mumbai. Not only, will Romeo have to fend for himself, something he has never done earlier, but will also find himself hopelessly in love with Laila (Kareena Kapoor), a club dancer and threatened by Charlie Anna (Javed Jaffery) who also has amorous interests in Laila.

But all's well that ends well and this typical masala hindi films is no exception. It culminates with ushering in the regular happy ever afters with the hero getting the heroine and the villain biting the dust.

As for the voice overs, Saif does a good job with his cool dude character of Romeo. Kareena is svelt as Laila but tends to go overboard on a few occasions. Javed jaffery is absolutely marvellous as Charlie Anna.

Jugal Hansraj definitely deserves credit for creating something different and giving Bollywood a new genre to dabble with. The movie may not be a patch on the Nemo, Ice Age and Wall E of the west but is definitely a step forward.