Salaam e Ishq: A Tribute to Love

Story 1: Rahul and Kamna

Born in Dehra Dun, temperamental and ambitious Kamna changes her name to Kamini Ranawat (Priyanka Chopra), hires Babu (Tinnu Anand) as her manager, and becomes one of the most sought-after heroines in Bollywood. As a publicity stunt to change her image from item queen and to get the attention of filmmaker Karan Johar she says she is in love with a man named Rahul. In London a man saying he is Rahul Khanna (Salman Khan) poses as her childhood sweetheart and future husband. Kamna has to play along or she will not get the film deal she was looking for with Karan Johar. This results in a dilemma for her as Rahul reveals he loved her back when she was Kamna and she has to choose between her career and Rahul.

Story 2: Gia and Shiven

Gia Bakshi (Ayesha Takia) lives with her dad, Col. Bakshi (Prem Chopra), and is in love with Shiven Dungarpur (Akshaye Khanna). Both are to get married shortly, but Shiven starts to get cold feet thanks to a few misleading words about marriage from his friend Juggy (Vishal Malhotra). He decides to disappear from her life, leaving Col. Bakshi no alternative but to arrange Gia's marriage with Rohit Chhada (Kushal Punjabi).

Story 3: Seema, Vinay, and Anjali

Gia's sister, Seema (Juhi Chawla), who lives in Britain, has been married to Vinay Malhotra (Anil Kapoor) for 15 years, and they have two children. Vinay sees his life as boring and dull, until a woman named Anjali (Anjana Sukhani) comes into his life. The two start to meet and begin an affair, but while preparing to travel to India for Gia's marriage, Seema finds out about Vinay's affair – leaving her heartbroken.

Story 4: Ashutosh and Tehzeeb

Ashutosh Raina (John Abraham) is a Hindu but falls in love and gets married to Tehzeeb Hussain (Vidya Balan), who is Muslim, much to the chagrin of his father (Anang Desai) who will not have anything to do with him. Tehzeeb is a TV news reporter; while travelling on an inaugural train route, the train derails. Tehzeeb survives but loses her memory, and is unable to recall who Ashutosh is – and may end up leaving him and returning to her parents' home. Ashutosh takes Tehzeeb to his parent's house where they first met so that Tehzeeb can restore her memories but Ashutosh must deal with his father in order to help her.

Story 5: Raju and Stephanie

Raju (Govinda) is a taxi driver who comes to the assistance of a white woman, Stephanie (Shannon Esra), who is frantically trying to hunt down her lover, Rohit Chhada (Kushal Punjabi). While Raju drives her around all of Northern India searching for Rohit he falls in love with her and finally drops her off to the venue where Rohit is getting ready to marry Gia. However, it turns out that Rohit doesn't want to marry Stephanie because he wants to marry an Indian girl and tells her to get lost. Raju slaps Rohit across the face and confesses his love for Stephanie.

Story 6: Ramdayal and Phoolwati

Ramdayal (Sohail Khan) weds attractive Phoolwati (Isha Koppikar) and would like to spend some intimate moments with her, but comical circumstances prevent him from doing so. On the day they get married, Ram accidentally sets the room on fire ruining his and Phoolwati's first night. At a brothel, Ram gets kicked out when 5 kids see him kissing Phoolwati. Ram and Phoolwati hid in the car but they got injured when the car comes crashing into a house.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music of the film was released on 2 December 2006 at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai by T-Series. It has seven songs composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with lyrics by Sameer. This is the second film of Nikhil Advani together with the musical trio. Their first venture Kal Ho Naa Ho had earned Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy the National Film Award for Best Music Direction. This soundtrack consisted of seven tracks. The track "Babuji" from Aar Paar was remastered and used for the album.

Actor Akshaye Khanna who plays Shiven in the film commented on the music, saying, "Salaam-E-Ishq has the best music I have heard in the last 10 years. The album is outstanding. It is definitely Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's best work till today. It has very unique sounds, and Sameer's lyrics are also fabulous. It is not the type which will become obsolete after a point of time. You will want to pull out its CD even after fifteen years and listen to the music." Anil Kapoor too, echoed the same sentiments, saying the album was best to come out of Bollywood in a long time.

Reception

The album was met with positive responses and good commercial success. Sukanya Verma of Rediff in her four-and-a-half star review, remarked, "Salaam-e-Ishq is a well-designed, wholesome soundtrack with emphasis on melody, beat and innovation. Featuring seven individual tracks, no sad versions or technically damaged retakes. It is seven out of seven! The musical trio succeed in getting the perfect score." Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama too gave the album a positive review, stating, "Each of the songs of Salaam-E-Ishq boasts of high quality music. There are some new sounds interspersed with the kind of music that goes well with the Bollywood scheme of things and the final result is something that is going to stay with you for many more months to come." The Glamsham review read, "The musical trio has infused different musical beats, style and concepts with élan in tracks in 'Dil Kya Kare' and 'Saiyan Re' and has entertained with title track. Hear it for different musical flavors and you will feel the versatility of this high profile album and the musical flamboyance of musical trio."

According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 16,50,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fourth highest-selling. Rediff.com called it a "delightful soundtrack helmed by the efficient troika of Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy",

Film reception

The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. Film critic Taran Adarsh cited "a disjointed script, abstract style of narrating the story and excessive length" as the film's main deficiencies. Rediff.com's Sukanya Verma called it "an ode to mediocrity, not love or cinema". However, Poonam Joshi of Channel 4 praised the film for its "clever storytelling, parody and brazen wit". The film received a 1.5-star rating from IndiaFM and a 4-star rating from Channel 4. The film was declared a disaster by Box Office India.