Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 18th April, 2014
Time : 149 minutes
Director & Writer : Abhishek Varman (based on the novel by Chetan Bhagat); Music : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Starring : Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amrita Singh, Ronit Roy, Revathi, Shivkumar Subramaniam
Someone decided to take a light, humorous, fictionalized account of cross cultural marriage and make a masala film out of it. Thus reducing its IQ level even further. Reducing most of the characters to caricatures. Adding in several songs, co-ordinated dance moves and fancy outfits. The lead pair, though, look good and are peppy. And the film has its funny moments and fair share of one liners, giving us a light, frothy, very predictable one time watch
They (Arjun & Alia) both meet in IIM-A and slowly but surely fall in love. A few songs and some steamy scenes, kisses later, its time for them to involve their parents. And that’s when the predictable North-South divide comes in. Arjun has to woo Alia’s very dour, staid folks (Revathi and Shivkumar) while she has to patao his dowry & ‘hum ladke wale hain’ obsessed, gauche mother (Amrita Singh) and also try to figure out where the land lies in his frosty, awkward relationship with his dad, Ronit. And then they have to get their respective parents to like each other…
The book is usually better than the movie and so is the case here (Disclaimer : I found the book really funny, probably Chetan’s best and had even met him a few times for the movie rights). The leads were good fun, both seemed to enjoy themselves in their roles, displayed some witty repartee and exude charm, though Alia’s South Indian roots were not really visible apart from a couple of gajra’s and one dance performance. Also, without the explanations behind the characters, the parents say things to each other which don’t seem natural, getting too petty, stereotypical too quickly. The second half drags and while the songs are fine as an album, in the movie it made most people just reach for their mobile phones.
Its not bad, enough peppiness and laughs (The Duke and Minty wedding entrance, Arjun's turn as a gawky, MCP-ish nerd in the beginning and Alia's response to that) to keep you going but if the central theme, as in the book, was to show how Indian marriages are not just about a couple getting together but also the respective families, I felt it was a job half done.
(Disclaimer 2 : Being from IIM-A and also having just been to campus a few months ago, somehow didn’t like seeing our alma mater in the shoot. Didn’t expect this reaction from self but it almost seemed like an invasion of privacy watching our hallowed grounds, awe-inspiring plaza and beautiful arches cheapened by Hindi film songs, especially with wording like Locha-E-Ulfat)
7 comments:
Distances melt when passions meet...
Youngsters in love. Full of hope. Full of promises. Ignorant of reality. One of the most important jobs you'll ever be hired to do is to be a spouse. Getting that right, is critical to sustaining a happy marriage. It requires the ingredients of intuition & empathy : the path to happiness is about finding someone who you want to make happy, someone whose happiness is worth devoting yourself to... There are no easy answers to life's challenges. The strongest relationships spring out of a real & often earned connection felt by both sides. A courtship that can't withstand reality testing is only an affair.. An affair rooted in the heart. The poetry of relating & embrace of happiness.. Being in boundless love is one of the most beautiful feelings... Their lives seemed destined to be fantastic on every level.. Inter caste/ love marriages are so different from a conventional 'arranged' marriage.. a man marries a woman but a woman marries the family...
Your purpose determines your power. While men are all about IQ, women bring with them EQ..
The emotions captured in the book are definitely better.... Kaanch ke baarekh tukre uthate hue bahut zakhm khaaye hai in haathoo ne.. kabhi plate to kabhi glass...
No matter how fancy western outfit might seem... Nothing beats the traditional Indian Kanjeevaram saree... Be it this movie or the way Deepika Padukone carried herself in Chennai Express... It enhances the beauty, poise and beauty of an Indian woman...
Your views on Locha-E-Ulfat reminds me of similar wordings, from the movie Manoranjan, a 1970's movie featuring Zeenat Aman, Sanjeev Kumar and Shammi Kapoor.... "Goya-ke-chunanche"... Both words aren't supposed to be used together...
Secret to a long happy marriage - An old woman was sipping on a glass of wine, while sitting on the patio with her husband & she says, "I love you so much, I don't know how I could ever live without you...." Her husband asks, "Is that you, or the wine talking?" She replies, "It's me....talking to the wine." Well said !!
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