In this bubble-gummy and totally kitschy world, Rikki Thukral (Abhishek Bachchan-comfortable in the part), a crude Indian crook with pretensions to ‘class’ can charm a stuffy Pakistani ‘mem’ Alvira (Preity Zinta — not bad) off her feet, while they wait at the station for their respective partners and chat about how they met.

Rikki supposedly met Pakistani Anaida (Lara Dutta, so hot she is practically steaming) in Paris; Alvira met half-Indian Steve (Bobby Deol-just about okay) at Madame Tussaud’s. Their stories are brightly coloured and extravagantly conceived-with some snappy dance numbers. It doesn’t take great imagination to guess that Rikki and Alvira are made for each other, but how this realisation happens is the twist in the tale. Amitabh Bachchan in strange part pirate-part busker get-up dancing with a bunch of firangs to underline the magic of love and Rikki’s Paki buddy Huffybhai (Piyush Mishra) provides words of wisdom.

A longish segment is set during a desi dance competition, there are nods to other films, most notably Taj Mahal and Sholay and a lot of light bantering dialogues, flashy costumes, pretty locations and pleasant music (though Gulzar’s lyrics are bizarre), that make this film a little more interesting than the garden variety romcom, but still not substantial enough to set any kind of benchmark.

The best that can be said about Jhoom Barabar Jhoom is that it is a lot less toxic than the director’s last Bunty Aur Babli, that glorified criminals.