I have seen Issaq twice. Issaq is a fine follow up to Manish Tiwary's college drama Dil Dosti ETC. I am a big fan of that film. I greatly enjoyed this follow up which takes a regular story and treats it completely differently from any other love stories you will ever seen from Bollywood. The lovers are not doe-eyed. The villains are not without their shades of grey. The mileu is bang on and the scale is huge. The film could easily have revolved around two lovers but the film is full of colourful characters played by important actors of the film industry which raises the bar by several notches. The lead pair Amyra Dastur and Prateik give their all, even if they are ill-placed in a couple of UP scenes. It is clear they do not belong to the place. But that is made up by characters who are around them by dozen. There are friends, Murari and Bihata played superbly by Vineet Kumar and Amit Sial, who bring plateful of humour and male bonding. There is Evelyin Sharma who brings another definition of love before our hero falls in true love.And there are half a dozen villains from macho Teeta Singh, played by Ravi Kissen, his love, Rajeshwari, the naxal leader, Prashant Narayanan and a new actor who is from the UP police force. The most colourful is Baba played with super liveliness by Makrand Despande.

What I loved the most was the humor in the film. Humor not only in humoros scenes but in what are serious scenes. There is always more than meets the eye. You appreciate these elements more in your second viewing as I did. I don't know how good the film is as an adaptation but read that Issaq is the best adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in any language.

I believe it whole-heartedly.