Producer: Ashok Ghai 
Director: Subhash Ghai 
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Jackie Shroff
Music: Anu Malik

Ever tried having Pepsi from a coke can. Try Subhash Ghai’s Yaadein and you would feel close to having tried just that.
Promised to be packed with excitement and surprises, the film falls short on that promise though it has all the ingredients required to make it a hit which is a pity.

I did not want to like this movie. Not that I have not liked the other stuff churned out by Subhash Ghai at regular intervals, rather I have loved some of them. It was the total commercialization of the art form that kept setting a rebellion in me to refute this movie. In fact as I write this I am looking for excuses to snub this big screen wonder from the one who is considered to have Midas touch. Maybe it has to do with this instinct to side the underdog while somebody else basks under the sun of success.
However, to be loyal to my job and frank with my view; I liked the movie the way I should not have, credit for this very unfortunately goes to Subhash Ghai and Hrithik Roshan.

The story revolves around Raj Singh Puri (Jackie Shroff), who lost his beloved wife (Rati Agnihotri) in an unfortunate accident. The film starts with Raj coming to India after 25 years on his wife's birthday. Thereafter, it goes into a flashback, showing how the widower Raj, father of three young daughters, has to bring them up on the advice of his wife: Treat your children as your friends.

Isha, Raj's youngest daughter is the apple of Raj’s eyes and probably shares the kind of relationship her mother wanted them to have. However Raj’s other daughters don’t share the same kind of chemistry with their papa.
Then you have Ronit (Hrithik Roshan), an Internet person, running sites on marriage, love and sundry. He also happens to be Raj's neighbour in London. Ronit has high regards for Raj, and will never say "no" to him. Whenever Ronit's parents have a tough time controlling their son, Raj is their refuge. Ronit's uncle (Amrish Puri) is knee-deep into the stock market. He keeps switching his loyalties to different Gods and wants his affluency to grow further. Alas, it doesn't work!

Ronit performs the heroic act of saving Isha from crocs and the couple become an item. But, wait! Uncle Amrish Puri realises that to further strengthen his hold in the trade market, he would rather get Ronit married to the daughter of a rich business family, and merge the two businesses together. Raj is given the task of convincing Ronit.
Ronit reluctantly agrees, but Raj realises his daughter loves Ronit. The class difference is huge though, and Isha is advised to forget Raj. But Ronit knows she loves him, and takes the issue to his family.
Suddenly, the two families are at loggerheads, and the love story culminates in a happy ending in an interestingly different, very corporate climax.

Did I say that I liked it? Yeah I did! But like champagne gone flat, Yaadein tantalises in the beginning and loses its fizz. So am I justified in snubbing it now, after having given the praise it deserved.
The script does not focus on the basic story which we presume is about a father bringing up his three daughters, hence the title Yaadein. The film could have been a master piece had it handled this relationship issue sensitively instead of drooling into mishmash family affair and tacky love story. Subhash should leave this to the Barjatya’s and Chopra’s.

A father bringing up three young dautheres would have touted as the backbone of film, but it's been treated quite shoddily. And, might one say it, quite superficially. It would have been a winner had it been handled more maturely and sensitively. Take for instance the time when Raj's second daughter, Sanya, comes home one night after a drinking binge. The father and daughter have an argument, at the end of which, the daughter threatens to call the police if her father slaps her. Ghai fails to bring across the pain of being a single parent having to face such a confrontation from an off spring, especially a daughter.

Performance wise Jackie's role in Yaadein is his best ever and it had more room to perform but for the ill developed script. His role in Yaadein will be counted among his best but not the role of his lifetime.

It’s a Hrithik film all the way. As Ronit, Hrithik is brilliant. Despite a poorly etched character, he carries off his part with conviction. Whether it is pleading with Isha to acknowledge her love for him or the scene where he lashes out at his mother for neglecting his interests, Hrithik is the showstopper. He emotes beautifully, dances like a dream and is every woman's dream come true on screen.

Kareena, while brilliant in parts, still has a long way to go. She hams her way through many of the scenes and seems quite self-conscious. Though, unarguably, she sizzles on screen.
Ghai, who is known to extract amazing performances from his artistes, falters this time with the rest of the cast. Everyone from Hrithik's parents to Jackie's daughters ham outrageously through the film.
For all its flaws Ghai manages to keep the audience glued to his film, Yaadein is not the disaster that it could have become. What works for the film is the chemistry between the leading pair. The music from Anu Malik and well picturised sequences.
What could have been avoided was the tacky computer effects. Similarly the scripting of the film drastically needed a re-working. The emotional scenes are underdeveloped and the continuity poor.

The film clearly plays to the NRI gallery with its yuppie look and British accent-laced dialogues.
Yaadein has got a fabulous initial already and chances are that the film will be a hit. Which is a pity because it shows that all it takes to sucker the audience to watch a film is gloss, glamour and good music, even if they are in the wrong proportion.