Chalte Chalte
Saw Chalte Chalte on the first day of its release. Hey, Shahrukh normally makes tolerable movies, and I love movies directed by Aziz Mirza. Seems like I was proved wrong.

Synopsis
Chalte Chalte is a story about two people with very different backgrounds falling in love with each other (Oh my!!! How very original!). Raj Mathur (Shahrukh Khan in his umpteenth film as a character named Raj. Hey guy, the films which clicked with SRK as Raj had nothing to do with the character's name!) owns a transport company, and loves to drive a truck at a moment's notice. Priya (Rani Mukherji looking absolutely gorgeous throughout. This coming from a non-fan like me really means something.) is a fashion designer from Greece. They meet on the highway on an acrimonious note. SRK falls head over heels in love with her, and tries to convince her of how he would be the best life partner for her.
Enter Sameer Arora, (Jas Arora, after a long hiatus post Danger; looking good.) a childhood friend of Rani's; wearing Versace suits and moving in the right circles; who is supposed to get married to her. SRK follows Rani to Athens, and she falls in love on the way. After convincing her father Kishore (Rajiv Verma with no dialogues to boast of, and a funny moustache), Rani marries SRK.
They start living together, and get to notice their differences over minor tiffs. Her aunt Anna Mausi (Lillete Dubey doing a Bindu kinda role) tries to show Rani how she has made a mistake by marrying SRK. Things get to a head on when Rani takes the help of Jas Arora to get SRK out of a financial mess.
The last half an hour is about how they reconcile.
Manubhai (Satish Shah) and his wife (Jayshree T) are neighbours who come in to help. Nandu (Johny Lever in a role with depth less than the one given to his dog Moti, whose real name I unfortunately don't know. This dog has acted really well compared to Johny Lever.) is a drunkard in the neighbourhood who is pining over lost love.
The Lillete Dubey Rajiv Verma relationship seems a bit shady, as they go about everything like husband and wife.

Analysis
One of the first movies aping Saathiya is out. Keep waiting for a dozen more to follow.
SRK is in his element, acting both funny, and intense with amazing skills. Rani is looking great throughout the movie; unlike Saathiya, in which she looked good in a few scenes and plain ordinary in the rest. She certainly is the surprise package.
Lillete Dubey, Rajiv Verma and Johny Lever, Satish Shah and Jayshree T have inconsequential roles. The songs come in at normal intervals in the first half of the movie, and do not irritate the viewer.

Technique
Aziz Mirza is a veteran, with great movies to his credit. Even though his movies like Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, Yes Boss or Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani were not very big hits (the last two were certified flops in many territories), they were certainly appreciated for being about ordinary people doing extraordinary things under extraordinary conditions. He clearly disappoints in this movie, which has a wafer thin story, probably written on the back of a paper napkin after a couple of beers (Aziz Mirza and Robin Bhatt). Dialogues by Ashish Kariya, Pramod Sharma and Rumi Jafri (David Dhawan fame) are good in the first half. Lyrics by Javed Akhtar, music by Jatin Lalit and Aadesh Srivastava and choreography by Farah Khan are run of the mill.
Ashok Mehta as the director of photography, is as usual great.
The editor Amitabh Shukla was certainly sleeping on his job, as the last half of the movie would certainly have been better if it was pruned by about 15 minutes.
Overall, the first half of the movie impresses by its breezy atmosphere and light banter modelled after DDLJ. Half an hour post interval (Saathiya) is engaging. The goings get heavy after 2 hours (Raja Hindustani), and that's the time when it gets really boring.

Verdict
Would I recommend this movie to someone?
Hmmm... Are you an SRK fan? If yes, certainly worth a look.
Are you the kind who can get out of a movie when you start getting bored? Then you should certainly go for the engaging first half, and leave half an hour after the intermission.
Are you the kind who can entertain yourself as well as others when the movie gets to be boring? Then certainly go for it. Hemant, a friend who accompanied me to the movie, aptly summed up my emotions when he said: "Now the onus of entertaining the people is not on SRK or Rani, but on us!" :) .