Rating : Above average(3.5/5)
Genre : Romantic Drama
Year : 2005
Running Time : 2 hours 37 minutes
Cast : Abhay Deol, Ayesha Takia, Rati Agnihotri, Apoorva Jha, Ayesha Jhulka, Raj Zutshi, Sandhya Mridul, Suresh Oberoi
Running Time : 2 hours, 25 minutes
Director : Imtiaz ali
Music : Sandesh Shandilya

Socha na tha is a cutesy, tenderly told love story, which is above average primarily because of its heroine Ayesha Takia. Some of you may remember her from the music video of D.J.Aqeel’s hit song “Nahin nahin” from the remix album “The Daddy Mix” – she’s the girl in the 2 pigtails riding around in the elevator. She’s also had a couple of films previous to this one. Abhay Deol, scion of the Deol clan, is a non-looker, but does a decent job of acting. What is off-putting about his character in the movie, is that it resembles that of a loser; the kind of guy a girl would normally not “touch”, except maybe with a bargepole.

The story is a little convoluted for a love-story – none of the boy-meets-girl-and-they-face-opposition kind of a thing. Viren Oberoi (Deol) is a rich wastrel, who on coming back from education in America, shows no inclination of joining the family business, but is content spending time with his girlfriend Karen (Karen Jha). His family is unaware about Karen’s presence in Viren’s life, because she is Catholic, and Viren doesn’t have the nerve to tell his strongly Punjabi family that he has been dating a Christian the past three years. The family finally decides that Viren must “settle down” and chooses a girl, Aditi Sahani (Takia) for him. Aditi is the niece of the household, since her aunt and uncle have taken her in after her parents expired.

On the arranged “girl viewing” when Viren meets Aditi, he explains to her (in private) that he is in love with his girlfriend Karen, and has no intention of marrying her (Aditi). They chat and become friends in a short meeting. When Viren conveys his rejection of the girl, there is bad blood between the two families, with insults being traded freely, thus stemmng the public display of Viren and Aditi’s friendship. They do continue meeting by chance however, and the friendship grows secretly.

Meanwhile, Viren proposes to Karen, she accepts, and on persuasion, so does her family. Viren is thinking of ways to persuade his family (by enlisting his bhabhi’s (Ayesha Jhulka) help), when suddenly Karen’s parents come to meet Viren’s. Viren’s dad (Suresh Oberoi) refuses the match basing his decision on the religion factor. Viren, during this time starts to doubt his feelings for Karen, and realises he has stronger feelings for Aditi. He then sneaks into Aditi’s home, and declares his love to her. She apparently loves him too. When he returns home, with plans of breaking it off with Karen, he finds Karen and family at his home amid celebrations – his parents have agreed to the match because of his bhabhi’s persuasion ! Is Viren able to get out of the mess he’s created ? And do he and Aditi find romantic bliss despite stiff opposition from both families ? Watch the movie to find out.

All the actors in ths movie have done a decent job. Direction is proficient. The script although reasonable, does have some improbable scenarios in which the hero acts totally out of character; rather boorishly actually, hence robbing him of some of the audience’s sympathy. This takes away from the charm of the film. Plus, the film is rife with the “boys will be boys” outlook, where rudeness, and weakness of character in the hero, still make him a “nice” boy. A similar weakness on the heroine’s part, had it existed, would have earned her severe retribution in the film.

What actually garners interest however, is the innocence exuded by the romantic pair, earning well-needed brownie points. Ayesha Takia does well in her depiction of an innocent and diffident girl, indebted to her aunt and uncle. She isn’t beautiful, but is pretty in a girl-next-door-kind of a way. Deol supports her ably, although he could definitely work on his diction, and on increasing his visual appeal. Ayesha Jhulka as the bhabhi is good, and so is Rati Agnihotri. Sandhya Mridul has a tiny role as Rati’s daughter. Apoorva Jha as Karen does adequately.

The film scores bigtime on the music. Shandilya proves his mettle yet again, although the quality isn’t as good as of the film “Rules”. Two melodious songs deserve special mention : “Seedhe saadhe dhang se” – sung by K.K., and “Mera tumhara” sung by Shandilya himself.