Indya.com Rating: 3.5/5
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherji, Ameesha Patel, Akshat Chopra, Shriya Sharma, Rachit Sadana and Ayushi Burman.
Director: Kunal Kohli

Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (TPTM) begins with young Ranbir Talwar (Saif Ali Khan) who goes through the trauma of losing everyone that he loves and is close to – his best friend, his mother and his professor at boarding school. This makes him the hard businessman that he is today – rich, ruthless and emotionless. The film begins with Ranbir meeting with an accident on his way back from yet another awards ceremony and deep in thought, his BMW rams into a Maruti instantly killing the occupants of the car – Mr. and Mrs. Walia. Fast forward one year and Ranbir's case has finally reached judgment day. Arriving with girlfriend Mallaika (Ameesha Patel), Ranbir waits for the judgment that could positively land him in jail.

However, for the first time in even the make believe judiciary of Bollywood, the judge passes a new style of punishment. The four orphaned kids of Mr. and Mrs. Walia will be placed under Ranbir's care and he can't go anywhere without them. The judge will be personally looking into that. (Yes, you are probably going yes, right but c'mon this is Bollywood!)

And so in walk Vashisht (Akshat Chopra), Aditi (Shriya Sharma), Iqbal (Rachit Sadana) and Avantika (Ayushi Burman). The four children themselves have been waiting for this day – the day that they can exact revenge from the man who has taken away their parents from them. From occupying all the loos in the house to creating a ruckus as he tries to close business deals, the kids do everything in their plan to make his life impossible. One night things reach a whole new level and the kids and Saif exchange words that they shouldn't resulting in a whole lot of tears and fervent prayers to God to help them out.

In walks God (Rishi Kapoor) who is having his meeting with his angels to answer prayers of the people below on Earth. Seeing the discord in the Talwar household, he sends his angel Geeta (Rani Mukherji) to help them out on the condition that as soon as she manages to get Ranbir and the kids together she must return back to Heaven. And that's how angel Geeta arrives as the nanny to the kids.

Obviously the kids are in no mood to make things easy for her and so they set up an elaborate plan to get rid of her only to fail every step of the way. Slowly and steadily she wins over each of the kids and then helps each of them bond with Ranbir. And now with her work done, its time for her to return back to Heaven and God. But with love blossoming between Ranbir and Geeta, she doesn't want to go back but spend time on Earth as a common man. Will that happen is what you need to watch the film for?

Credit needs to be given to director Kunal Kohli for extracting brilliant performances from the four children as well as the actors alike. In fact Rani and Saif's role although central to the film would probably fall in the supporting cast role, because the film has been woven so well around the four kids. Little sardar Iqbal is a treat and you almost want to pick him off the screen and take him home!

Saif's interaction with the kids comes across as totally natural – from his anxiousness at the start to the anger to the tender love and care are all in the right mix. Finally we come to Rani – she has done a great job as an angel but it would have been nicer to see her have some more fun with the kids as she tried to win them over.

Lastly the special effects which have been spoken endlessly do deserve a mention but there are certain scenes like where Rani is shown walking through the four seasons or the part where Rani drives Saif's car on the top of a tunnel could have been done slightly better.

TPTM is a wonderful feel good film which has the perfect mix of love, emotions, comedy and also the larger than life part of Bollywood!