Ishaqzaade

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 11th May, 2012 (India)
Time : 133 minutes
Director & Writer : Habib Faisal; Co-writer : Aditya Chopra; Music : Amit Trivedi
Starring : Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Gauhar Khan

Full marks for establishing the mileu, the people, the characters and the acting chops of the lead pair. Special credit for one of the funniest opening sequences in recent memory. The rest is a steady slide downhill as the makers cant make up their mind on what the film is really about….

It seems to be about an affair between a very feisty Parineeti and an almost psychotic Arjun. They also happen to be from warring political families with an impending election to boot. Then there are some twists, which didn’t appeal to me, and the film changes character completely in the second half.

It is set in the small town of Almora, UP. Where might is right. Gunfire is a means of celebration, expressing emotions. You press the trigger if you’re feeling good to enhance the mood or fire a couple of shots to let of steam when angry. Where race and caste matter above and beyond everything else and every little incident can rapidly become a life or death situation.

Parineeti is probably more the one to watch out for. An extremely expressive face, a range of emotions and a natural feistiness that suits her well. Arjun is going to take a couple of films to mature. There is something about him, he has a good screen presence but will need to work hard to get rid of the small town air about him, similar to what Ranveer is facing now.

So what was the film about ? Was it about the elections and the kind of rough and tumble politics of UP ? Or about Hindu vs Muslim ? Or about the affair between the two ? Or about the crimes that are committed in this country in the name of honour ? Or was it a mishmash of all of the above, touching upon all the topics but not sufficiently focusing on any…it just didn’t make sense to me…