Genre: Romance
Director: Satish Kaushik
Producer: Bharat Shah
Banner: Karol Bagh Film and Entertainment, Sony Pictures
Music Director: Anu Malik
Lyricist: Sameer
Star Cast: Ruslaan Mumtaz, Sheena Shahabadi, Neena Gupta, Satish Kaushik, Rajat Kapoor, Sushmita Mukherjee
Release Date: 7 August 2009
'Tere Sang' surely owes applause for dealing with a sensitive subject - teenage pregnancy. However, it did not manage to exploit the subject fully. There are a number of good moments in the movie, but there is nothing too exceptional to write home about. Let me clear one thing now - 'Tere Sang' is not Juno, except for the similarity in the basic concept. It is not 'Kya Kehna' (with Preity Zinta, Saif and Chandrachud - in case you forgot) either. Rather, it has a storyline of its own, with completely different performances as well.One of the main problems with 'Tere Sang' is that it fails to delve on 'teenage sex', 'teenage pregnancy' or 'teenage abortion'. These words seem to have been mentioned only in passing, while they should have formed the core of the film. On top of that, Satish has used the clichéd concept of the attention-seeking girl who is longing for love, because her parents do not pay her any attention. We never got to see the other reasons behind the rise in teen pregnancies - experimental teens, early exposure to sex through media, and so on.
Though 'Tere Sang' is lacking in bits and parts, we will not discard it completely. It does have its share of positives as well. For instance, the lack of chemistry between Ruslaan and Sheena make them look quite close to real teens stuck with the responsibility of a child at a stage when they should be worrying about studies and parties. Yet another good aspect is that Satish has refrained from taking any particular stand in context of teen pregnancy - whether for or against it. Rather, the movie inspires youngsters to take responsibility for their mistakes.
In terms of performances, Ruslaan is surely an actor you can look forward to. He is completely at ease on-screen and has great presence. On the other hand, Sheena needs to work a bit on her dialogue delivery, otherwise she did pretty fine. As for the rest of the star cast, Rajat Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Sushmita Mukherjee and Neena Gupta are all good. Anupam Kher, as usual, was impressive, even in a short role. All in all, this is a movie that does make your think, but could have been made more effective, with a little extra effort.
