Sukanya Verma

Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat is the story of three men and a pig-headed girl.

First comes the rich, stubborn, obsessive Yash Sabharwal (Sunil Shetty) for whom life is a business. It's a perfect case of love at first sight for him. Yash proposes. Isha shows him the door.

Our girl Isha is a brilliant medical student who has received sponsorship (from who-do-you-know Yash), to pursue further studies in Scotland. It's another matter that during her angioplasty lectures, Isha is busy daydreaming, dressed in heavy embroidered salwar-kameezes by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, besides sporting long, shapely nails. How does she dissect specimens? There's a thought.

In Scotland, Isha soon discovers a good friend and host in Taj (Aftab Shivdasani), who happens to be the comical son of her family friend and hosts Lord Bharadwaj (an atrociously dressed Dalip Tahil) and his wife (Priya Tendulkar in a hideous wig). Taj, too, goes bonkers over the pretty Indian female.

Meanwhile, Yash hires struggling actor-cum-model with oodles of charm Gaurav (Arjun Rampal) to woo Isha and then dump her, hoping she’ll come running to his arms. Don’t buy it? Doesn’t matter. Isha does just the same.

Evidently, they don't need to be friends or get to know each other. A few lovey-dovey glances and artificial flattery are enough for Isha and Gaurav to paint Scotland and Switzerland red.

There are two other female leads, too. Maya (Monica Bedi) and Rubiana (Isha Koppikar) -- backups waiting for the rejected two to run into their arms.

Who gets Isha is not a question worth asking even!

Rajiv Rai, a personal favourite, who carried off fancy action-thrillers like Tridev and Mohra in style and displayed his skills as a crisp editor in the edge of the seat thriller Gupt, disappoints.

His casting, script (if any) is extremely messy, he seems out of place with a love story.

Pluses are the film’s melodious music and stunning camerawork. P S Vinod beautifully captures the postcard locations of Scotland and the Swiss Alps.

As for the cast, Sunil Shetty has a miniscule role. Despite a confusingly sketched role, Sunil lends it some dignity. One question though. He could have done without the superfluous accent. His "Yeah-ehs" could easily give Irishman Pierce Brosnan a complex.

Aftab Shivdasani is slightly better off, and gets to do a few funny scenes. Hunky model Arjun Rampal finally makes his debut after an inauspicious start. So does he break the models-can't-act mould?

Well, he is no Deepak ‘Pallo’ Malhotra (Lamhe), he does have a screen presence. His dialogue delivery is very good. All he needs now is to ditch the self-consciousious stiffness.

Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat was written with Kajol in mind, said Rajiv Rai in a TV interview once. Suffice to say, Kirti Reddy is no Kajol.

Her performance in PIAM leaves a lot to be desired. So does the heavy makeup.

Surprisingly, Monica Bedi and Isha Koppikar, who barely get any footage, aren’t all that bad.

Wish I could say the same about the film.