Film: Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic

Director: Kunal Kohli

Producers: Aditya Chopra, Kunal Kohli

Banner: Yash Raj Films

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherji, Rishi Kapoor

Rating: 2.5/5

The clouds part, against a crystal blue sky stands a benevolent God and a chirpy fairy who doesn’t know what tears and pain is all about. God smiles knowingly and sends her to earth to help four kids in need of love.

A successful business man, hardened because life has taken away all that he ever held dear, has to take care of four kids whose life he roughened by being the cause of their parents' death. They form the opposite ends of the spectrum that the fairy cycles right through to connect.

The director denies it but the premise is too similar to the Robert Stevenson warm Oscar-winning tale Mary Poppins to be ignored. Thankfully there are millions of elements that turn the little story around and stop it just in time to be a sad copy.

While its easy to dismiss the copy-part, it is not so with the ‘sad’ part of the equation. Not because it evokes the tears it wishes to but because it lets go of a thousand opportunities to endear, enthuse and excite an audience of not only exceedingly intelligent children but expectant adults. The colour, fanfare, creative liberties and technical smoothness please the eye but then the soul keeps surfacing asking for more. Which it doesn’t really except in moments.

Kunal Kohli’s labour of love ‘Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic’ employs every cliche in the telling a story that has been done and redone in various forms across the world. There are movies that are predictable and then there are those that are not. TPTM falls in the former bracket, paving the way for the screenplay to charm its way into the audience’s hearts. Frankly, it does only a so-so job of it.

For example, the tricks the kids play on the unsuspecting Saif. Cute but after the first few ones not energetic enough. The exposition of the kids story is a teaser-style narrative than an engaging introduction. Speak to the camera, always an easy option for lazy writers. Rani’s...