Ekk Main aur Ekk Tu: the film fitting of flat adjectives.

Passable, serviceable, bland. These are just some of the words that passed through my mind when watching the Imran Khan-Kareena Kapoor starrer, Ek Main aur Ekk Tu. Not all of these words have negative connotations - to be passable is perfectly fine in many ways. If you want to take the "glass half full" approach to life, you could say being a serviceable film actually sets a film ahead of the majority of forgettable, plain bad feature films that are out there.

So let's focus on the positives for a while: I was not once bored, nor did I find the storytelling or pacing awkward. The film chugs along at a nice pace, event after event, and though almost every turn is predictable, there's no fast-forwarding or scene-skipping that needs be done. The songs are overall quite nice as well, the leads both do fine, and the characterisations are consistent and mostly believable. The film tackles some age-old subjects, like identity of young people, parental expectations, knowing what you want in life - and then trying to get it. It doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it never claims to try, so that's fine.

The problem? Well, it's like Ramsu's review put it: the film does absolutely nothing right or wrong. It's just flat, and bland and rather tasteless, with no sharp edges or points of exuberance or irritation. It doesn't annoy nor does it inspire. It just is. Like that. You know precisely who the characters are, and there are no significant flaws in the way that they are written; Kareena's Riana is spontaneous and free-spirited where Imran's Rahul is uptight and conformist. But you just don't find yourself caring too much about their happiness or unhappiness. Charisma, chemistry or any kind of spark seems to be missing.

It's hard to say, with films like these, where the blame lies, and then - being that I am such a forgiving person - even harder to say whether one should even really blame the makers. The blandness of the film makes sure that you walk away from it, not even feeling all that annoyed that the film didn't rock your world. I spent less than two hours with it, and didn't hate the experience - it's just that it wasn't even that much of an experience.

Surely films are made to make us feel something, whatever that something may be?