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MAHI, GSTAAD, 1996. Fun scene with Haseena Number 1. Ultra romantic Mahi (Minissha Lamba), a huge fan of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, goes on a Eurail trip hoping to meet a man just like the hero in the film.

Bachna Ae Haseeno

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone etc

Music: Vishal-Shekhar

Writer & Producer: Aditya Chopra

Director: Siddharth Anand

When she bumps into Raj (Ranbir Kapoor) talk veers around to his reel life namesake in DDLJ but the real life fella doesn't have a clue.

Who played the role, enquires our ignorant casanova, straightaway going down in the record books as the only urban Indian who does not know.

Radhika, Mumbai, 2002. Fun scene with Haseena Number 2. Our man Raj has just moved into a new flat and there's loud music blaring next door.

An irritated Raj storms across only to turn into a drooling mess when wannabe actress Radhika (Bipasha Basu) opens the door. He stutters out his name, occupation, height, the works, all in the same breath.

Gayatri, Sydney, 2007. Fun scene with Haseena Number 3. At a supermarket, Raj empties half a shelf of condoms into his trolley. Gayatri (Deepika Padukone), the girl at the check-out counter, is unruffled but Raj is mortified.

He begins to babble that he has bought other things as well, milk, pasta, whatever. The fiercely independent Gayatri, incidentally, might look like a supermodel but she actually drives a cab (no kidding) when she isn't working at the supermarket and also goes to business school.

Ironically, most of the entertaining moments are in the first half when the hero is going around breaking hearts. Alas, things turn predictable, languid and even maudlin post interval when it's his turn to get his heart broken.

The dialogues veer from spirited to cheesy (especially in the DDLJ inspired segment), and the ending is too pat, almost as if the film has been wound up in a hurry.

Undoubtedly, the best scenes are those that feature Bipasha Basu, and the commitment-phobic hero's attempts to shake off marriage-insistent Radhika are a riot.

Hiten Paintal's inputs (he plays Kapoor's best friend and colleague) add to the exuberance.

The film opens with the title track (as everyone knows the film is named after a song picturised on Ranbir's papa Rishi) and praise be, it's a refreshing change not to have the best track dumped with the closing credits when everyone's rushing home.

It's Ranbir Kapoor all the way and, quite unusual for one so new, he holds it all together with supreme ease. He's unaffected and utterly likeable, most definitely oodles of promise here.

Bipasha Basu, bolstered by the meatiest role among the girls, belts out the best performance of her career. She plays diva to the hilt, and is equally adept in the emotional scenes. Who would have thought?

The other two beauties pale in comparison. While Deepika Padukone looks like a zillion bucks, she needs to loosen up but to be fair it's early days yet. And it doesn't help that her role (in fact, the entire Raj-Gayatri portion) is the least convincing part of the film.

Minissha Lamba looks lovely too but is overly earnest with the result that she comes off as rather dull. Kunal Kapoor, in a special appearance, provides some interesting moments.

Ranbir Kapoor actually carries off a bathrobe over jeans while Bipasha will probably go down in the Limca Book of Records for wearing the tiniest shorts on the Indian screen.

Glam girls, breezy romance, lively verbal duels, scenic Swiss locales (Italian and Australian too for good luck), catchy music and enough gloss dripping off the screen, yes, it's Yash Raj all right. If director Siddharth Anand made your dil go mmm with Salaam Namaste, chances are you'll like this one.