one of my absolute favorites!

An absolute waste of money

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Roadside Romeo does indeed start in a very captivating way. I liked the idea and the film does start very strongly with quite a stirring opening scene. But overall, it just didn't do it for me, just too bland and hackneyed. Granted, the animation is pretty good, not outstanding but the backgrounds and sceneries were at least striking. Also Javed Jaffrey is a lot of fun here. However, the writing is sadly awful on the whole, while the story is too hackneyed and predictable. Then there is the music, it was the same with the singing, it got too much and became distracting. Jaffrey aside, the remainder of the voice work is inconsistent, ranging from so-so to barely adequate. I'm sorry to say I didn't really feel anything for the characters, they were dull mostly or annoying. The pacing started off great, almost riveting, but when the story meandered just before the halfway mark the pace dragged until the final result was as limp as a bad hair day. In conclusion, started off promisingly but lost its momentum making it forgettable and altogether very unexceptional film. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Am I the only non-Indian teenage boy who actually enjoyed this film? If not, that's fine with me. That's right, I watched Roadside Romeo (a wordplay on an Indian term for 'flirt') on DVD with English subtitles and liked it. It's probably the 2nd in a full line-up of movies about dogs from October 2008 to February 2009 (Chihuahua, Romeo, Bolt, Marley, Hotel and Vomit). Sure it may be campy at some parts, but hey, this is India's first well-animated film, so I'll cut them some slack. This film is kinda like a CGI Bollywood version of Lady and the Tramp meets All Dogs Go To Heaven, but there's nothing wrong with that. You'll need to watch some Bollywood films in order to understand the film itself. Myself, I haven't even watched any ordinary Bollywood film, but I've watched some clips and heard of Yash Raj's other hits, so I understand.Ever since the giant Hindi studio Yash Raj Films included a clip from 'Cars' in 'Dhoom 2' and used the Disney Store and a song provided by Disney (non-pop) in Ta Ra Rum Pum, Disney had decided to join forces with the studio to create Roadside Romeo. Before the film was developed, Indian animation looked pretty cheesy. But Tata Elxsi, a VFX studio responsible for doing VFX for plenty of Bollywood films and two of Marvel's films, did a pretty impressive job on making it almost Pixar quality. (I've heard in the commentary that someone from Pixar came over to visit the creators and teach them how to do fur)Anyway, the film is about a spoiled, cute-looking, rich dog dude named Romeo (Saif Ali Khan) who gets abandoned on the streets of Mumbai, where he gets bullied and then befriended by a pack of strays with unique personalities. Guru is the leader of the pack. His name speaks everything about him. Hero English is a dog with a funny hairstyle, buckteeth and a bow-tie who wishes to actually speak full English, though a lot of the characters speak broken English and Hindi at the same time. His eyes and his buckteeth might make you think of Sid the Sloth from Ice Age. Interval is a big fan of YRF who copies many lines of the actors who have starred in their films. Mini is, believe it or not, a pretty aggressive alley cat, just about the only one in the movie, who thinks she is a stray dog and refuses to disbelieve it. Oh, and there's also a mouse who is kind of the Jerry type when it comes to enemies.Together, Romeo and the strays start a salon after Romeo shows his haircutting skills just so they can get some business. One night, Romeo falls in love with a pretty female pooch named Laila (Kareena Kapoor) after hearing her sing and watching her dance. The next day, Romeo meets a ferocious, disgusting, big-lipped bulldog with a bit of an accent named Charlie Anna (Jaaved Jaffery), his sidekick Chhainu, who gets beaten up all the time and looks like Wile E. Coyote's long lost father, and his female ninja dogs, Charlie's Angels. Which set of girls do the Angels parody? Well, duh! Romeo and Charlie rival over Laila, much to the dismay of Romeo's friends. Who will win? Everyone knows the answer...I've listened to one of the songs from the film everyday surprisingly. They're just so catchy! My most favourite song has to be "Choo Le Na". The songs are better than the cheap pop songs Disney has to spew out today! ;) A few song sequences in this movie act like Indian music videos. You might see a character appearing in some random place while singing and dancing. The biggest example is in "Cool Cool".The creators acted quite like Pixar when doing this movie. Not only did they do impressive animation/motion capture inspired by that of Ratatouille, they also released teaser trailers without actual footage one year before the film was released. In the film itself, they managed to slip in some in-jokes of the Pixar tradition, including the name "Tata", some posters of other Yash Raj films, photographs of YRF's actors/actresses and some Mickey Mouse references. Heck. they even added some bloopers in the credits! If only Pixar used them more often... Maybe on their DVDs.Though it ain't the best animated film of 2008, Roadside Romeo has plenty of charm and feel, including some tension, beautiful romantic moments (especially , and clever humour. It does have gross-out humour including flatulence, but there's one bit of it that actually made me laugh. At Charlie is the most appropriate victim! My big problem with the film was - did Yash Raj care about the audience of theirs that loves Disney and is not familiar with Bollywood? Still, there are some parts that kids would enjoy (Hindu kids, even), such as the little mouse's moments and the Looney Tunes style gags. But not all of it is kiddy. Poor Romeo gets strangled several times, for instance. Kids might not even be interested, to tell you the truth. :rolleyes: And yes, Indian cinema still has intermissions. I highly recommend this film if you're a freak for animation, Bollywood, dogs or anthropomorphic animals.

Roadside Romeo I loved the movie and Charlie Anna rocks in the movie. More so, as he says in the movie, "easta, westa, Charlie Anna besta". Javed Jafrey being such a versatile actor, completes himself by giving voice to animated character, specially as a voice over artist. He was down right hilarious from his semi-abusive baskets to giving the autograph. His style of calling Rom-e-aoo (Romeo) Romeo has a gang of three plus one Guru voiced by Vrajesh Hirjee whose always ready to give advice like the Munna bhai style. Mini (Tannaz Irani) who is actually a cat and thinks and wants to be a dog. Interval (Suresh Menon) who has all the Yash Raj Films and other films lines enacted in their dialogues. Hero English who has the best lines where he is actually translates the Hindi lines into English like Bal bal Bache (hair hair saved). Hilarious!! Sanjai Mishra as Chhainu's character who is the right hand man and the most beaten character in the movie.Of course, there was Saif Ali khan playing Romeo and Kareena playing Laila. I was so excited to hear and see Javed Jaffrey doing his antics and mimicking Shatrugan Sinha or just being Charlie Anna or introducing the Angels that as Charlie's Angels that was so cool, Romeo was overshadowed. Laila as Kareena Kapoor didn't have much to speak just look pretty even in the animation, not much to talk about her, other than her fluttering her eyes and specially looking at Romeo with dreamy eyes.Animation and the story of the movie actually reminded of The Lady and Tramp and All dogs go to heaven. Both the movies again are Walt Disney. Surely, will try and watch these movies again. The best about this animation was that it was too the detail unlike the Hanuman and My friend Ganesha types from the Indian Animation companies, it was as good as Finding Nemo, Cars.Coming Back to Charlie Anna, where he is being introduced and there is the dog licking his paw that clearly reminds you of Godfather, plus you have DDLJ rip off scene in the movie. As an Indian you actually feel connected in the movie because, you can see Maruti 800, Yellow Black Taxis, torn old movie posters on the wall - in the movie most evident one being Dhoom and you have Yash Raj being mentioned in throughout the movie, talk about Brand placement. Tata Motors logo being flashed with the municipality van (dog catcher's) , that's OK since Tata Elxsi was part creation team to create the movie.Even sat till the last credits that were flowing where they actually make the animated characters goof up, that was pretty nice, only thought Jackie Chan movies would that. The shooting of the voice over where all the actors were being highlighted making some or the other different noises also flowed with the credits.

Just stepped out of this movie,my 50 cents:Strong Points:Charlie Anna by Javed Jaffrey. Released on the Festival Diwali.Weak Points: Weak/No - Story Line,Dialogs,Character Study Dialogs copied from Yashraj Movies Should have had a better voice than Saif for the Character Romeo (He Lacks the Variation in his Voice),so at least the main characters could hold the audience in the theater!Conclusion: Walt Disney, please live up to the expectations that have been set by Legends like WALL.E