leela: a smattering of ideas

There's something about Leela that puts it just beyond being yet another ABCD/young-guy-falling-for-an-older-woman/let-us-be-progressive-in-our-ideas-of-marriage flick. There's a nice soundtrack (courtesy lyrics from Gulzar and Jagjit Singh's rich voice). There are some interestingly written moments. And performances that are mostly honest. The characters, however, don't transcend the superficiality of their clichéd prototypes. The filmmakers describe it as a Hollywood film with the soul of Bollywood. The truth of the statement might just be the undoing of the film. Still, it's better than paying $$$ to go into a cinema hall just to find an empty section of wall to bang your head while Suniel Shetty (or some similarly talentless cardophagus) embarks on another voyage into inane absurdity (aka "acting").