Ball & Chain(2004)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

While at a pre-marriage dinner with their parents and friends, Ameet (Sunil Malhotra) and Saima (Lisa Ray) execute a new plan to get their arranged marriage called off that sees Ameet announcing to everyone that he – with Saima’s blessing – is quitting his job to pursue his “dream” of becoming a dancer, then following it up by ripping off his formal wear to reveal an indecent outfit underneath it and then performing a wild dance routine on the spot, which Saima eventually joins in on. The plan works; Saima’s father (Asrani) puts a stop to the performance and declares that the marriage cannot happen. However, by this point, real romantic feelings have already developed between Ameet and Saima, and while they are out celebrating their “breakup” the following day, they share their first kiss.

Unfortunately for Saima, her father starts to screen other potential husbands for her, and he thinks that he has found an ideal one when he meets Ashol (Ismail Bashey). However, he is unaware that Ashol is a sleazy playboy who had both tried to hit on Saima and insulted Ameet while they were on a double date with their friends Bobby (Kal Penn) and Ruby (Purva Bedi) some time ago. While Saima is having dinner with Ashol at a restaurant one night, she notices that he still has a wandering eye, and when she tells him that she will never love him, he physically threatens her and also makes it clear to her that he will be a controlling husband. She soon sneaks out of the restaurant and takes a taxi to Ameet’s house, where she finds him outside playing basketball, and she embraces him and tells him that Ashol is an absolutely awful person. Moments later, Ashol pulls up in his car, having figured that Saima would come here, and he beats up Ameet before forcing Saima into his car and driving off. Ameet pays Bobby and Ruby a visit after this to get some solace from them, but Bobby soon informs him that Saima’s parents have decided to move up her and Ashol’s wedding to tomorrow because, even though Ameet and Saima’s wedding – which was supposed to happen tomorrow – got cancelled, they still kept their banquet hall reservation for that date. After Bobby tells him that he will be helping with the Internet broadcast of the wedding to Saima’s relatives in India, Ameet feels like Bobby has betrayed him and angrily leaves, and he spends all night and into the morning walking around in sadness, thinking that he has lost Saima forever.

That same morning, as Bobby and Ruby are getting ready for the wedding, Bobby separately runs both Saima’s and Ashol’s names through a search engine on his computer to see if the Internet telecast of the wedding is listed under each of their names. When he punches in Ashol’s name, he finds an odd-looking link and clicks on it, and though what comes up on his screen is left unseen to the viewer, it shocks both him and Ruby. He tells Ruby to call Ameet right away, but all she gets is a busy signal. Meanwhile, Ameet returns home and is greeted by his father (Subash Kundanmal), and his father soon asks him if he loves Saima. When he replies that he does, his father encourages him to go do something about it. Before Ameet gets in his car to drive to the wedding ceremony, his father tosses him his cell phone and tells him to call Bobby because he wanted to tell him something. However, when he tries to do so, Bobby is unable to answer due to being too busy with getting his stuff together for the nuptials. Then, as Ameet is making his way towards the wedding, his car runs out of gas, but he soon gets an idea on how he can get the rest of the way there. He thus runs to the nearby zoo, where his friend, Monty (Johnny Kastl), works as one of the zookeepers, and with Monty’s help, he gets on the back of the zoo’s elephant and rides it all the way to the wedding (more than likely inspired by his dream of riding into his wedding on an elephant like the Indian princes of old).

Just after the ceremony begins, Saima tells her parents that she can’t go through with this and that she loves Ameet. Ameet then arrives on the elephant, and after getting down from it, he pours his heart out to Saima, telling her all about how deeply he has come to love her. Angered by his intrusion, Ashol walks up to him planning to whup his butt again, but before he can do anything, Bobby gets on the microphone in his broadcasting van and asks everyone to direct their attention to the video screen situated nearby. He then airs the shocking website he found, which turns out to be a cheesy porn site starring Ashol. After everyone gets a good laugh out of it, Ameet punches Ashol and knocks him out, and then Saima joins Ameet with her parents’ blessing. She returns Ameet’s love, and they share a passionate kiss.

Saima’s parents then turn their sights onto her brother, Dev (Ather Ali), and his girlfriend, Angela (Brea Cola), having decided to arrange their marriage next.