U, Me aur Hum marks Ajay Devgan’s debut as a director. It is also the first film starring both Ajay and Kajol Devgan, husband and wife, as the lead actors since their marriage eight years ago.

I’ve always felt that Ajay Devgan and Kaajol were quality actors, and so, despite the boring name and even more boring trailer, I decided to give U, Me aur Hum the benefit of the doubt and go to see it.

Although having performed in endless comedies, Ajay Devgan has built up a reputation for versatility over the years, and has played a number of serious roles very well. It was interesting therefore to see what he’d try and do with his debut. The result is interesting.

Clearly, Ajay Devgan wanted to keep the glitzy style typical of Hindi films, not wanting to depart too much from the norm in his debut (and risk an ambitious flop). But at the same time the film certainly does manage to set itself apart from the pack in dealing with a unique subject.

U, Me aur Hum is, as the name would suggest, a love story. It starts of with a funny scene where a youngish lad sees a girl he likes at a breakfast buffet, and starts to act stupid in trying to impress her. He then goes back to his table where his dad (Ajay Devgan) is seated. The dad, noticing his son’s antics challenges the boy to go and speak to the girl, while he himself goes and tries speaking to a lady of his son’s choice. His son points to Kajol, who is sitting somewhere else in the breakfast hall. So Ajay Devgan goes up to her and starts talking. After his somewhat pathetic advances are knocked back, he offers to tell the bewildered lady a story, which become the subject of the film.

The story is about Ajay (Ajay Davgan), a flamboyant psychiatrist, who is on a holiday boat cruise with some friends. He falls in love with Piya (Kajol) who is a barmaid on the boat cruise. It’s a bit tacky, but manages to entertain with a few laughs here and there. The second half, on the other hand, is almost like another film.

The story turns instantly tragic and emotional. The plot charts new territory, dealing with a serious mental health problem which leads to the estrangement of the couple. Both lead actors put on touching performances, which are well supplemented by the supporting roles played by Karan Khanna, Isha Sharvani and Sumeet Raghavan.. The story turns increasingly sad and gradually merges back into the present, and as it turns out… (well I won’t give that away).

The side stories involving friends of the main couple add a dimension to the film, being at times comical and at times touching, particularly the unhappily married couple who divorce and get back together again after several years. The music too is quite good, and generally well timed.

The only criticism (except for the name and trailer, which I have mentioned earlier) is that parts of the film could have been trimmed and the transition from the light love story to tragedy was too abrupt and somewhat unnatural. However, these are relatively lesser points, and one can only hope that Ajay Devgan’s future films continue to build on this promising start.