Shaadi ke side effects: Leaves you with little to be affected!

-

The promise of Vidya and Farhan and the potent combination of the two, calls for any film afficinado to rush to the nearest hall, but pity, it fails to deliver and Saket does capture some of the core essence of the shaadi factor, alas loses the plot post interval. The first half is good, breezy, with great comic timing from Farhaan. Yet the second half, seems to have the typical writer's block dilemma.

Both Farhaan and Vidya are superb and they perhaps carry the burden of second half all by themselves. So much so, we fail to understand the presence of two very badly written characters of Veer Das and Illa Arun (god! what were they doing in a complete misfit of a role). Ram Kapur is spot on and does full justice to his role. But the rest as they say, too much expectation and too little to deliver. The prequel to this, Pyaar ke side effects had the oddball chemistry running between a oh so! suave and delectable Rahul Bose and the quirky, mad, rustic Mallika Sehrawat going, that seemed to give a much anticipated "time to normalise" factor to the movie. But, this one here, looks for a beyond despair moment or moments.

Let us start with the positives. Both Farhaan and Vidya give no room to complain and they fit in effortlessly in the their roles, each one spaced and give lessons to wannabes (currently there are dozens floating around) on how to relax and play their roles. You can make out how much of preparation must have been done by both of them to give the right pitch to their roles. Kudos. Moments that stand out, their onscreen chemistry in itself looks good, conversations between Ram Kapoor and Farhaan stands out and they indeed look convincing, Rati in a cameo (was wasted though) for the perfect foil to the burly Vidya. You can make out, Rati's daughter in the movie has to be Vidya. Farhaan's group of friends advice to read the manual on pregnancy and follow the rules is spot on and stands out as classic moments in the film. Apart from this, we see the usual delinquency moments from each of the character and the emotional bit of the cornucopia runs high through the movie.

What fails! The script overall needed the much required tautness. The movie does not need to be beyond the 120-130 minutes frame. Yet, it needlessly and mindlessly stretches. At times, you tend to just wonder, did the Director forgot about switching off...The songs are out of place and unlike the prequel none of the songs stands out. Remember the two classics from Pyaar ke ...Jaane kya Jaane man and the funky Paape pyaar karke...Farhaan is a let down for the voice he lends to the number Yahaan Vahaan, but Mohit is bang on with the beautiful Bawla sa sapna.

Pity, what could have been a beautiful and nice little film, suffers from largely perceptual biases (marriage and it's ill effects and positive effects along with) and the preconceived notion that ultimately you come back to the basics. But, that may necessarily not be true...perhaps the growing rate of divorces, separation, break-up now abound in urban metropolis is a case in point. Yet, in all I would strongly recommend the movie needs at least one viewing, if not for anything but the striking chemistry of Vidya and Farhaan.     

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dhoom 3: Overrated, Over-hyped, and an over the top Aamir Khan

-
Image
Coming back to writing a piece after a very long time. I think about 3 months. Unfortunately, there was not a single film worth mention that released between now and September that is worth a shot. For that matter there is nothing in 2013 that is actually worth a mention. There were so MANY films and so much of hype and so much of marketing built around these films, but each one was a disappointment and perhaps a bigger one preceding the other. We come to that in a recap of 2013, probably as a next piece. But for now, it is Dhoom 3. What to write? What to say? Frame after frame it is Aamir Khan and not one but two, did I give out the suspense? Well nothing much in giving it away, as there is nothing at stake in the movie to give it away. YRF, Vijay Krishna Acharya, and everybody involved in the process of making the movie seems more enamored than anything else with the lead star. Makes you feel bad for Jai Dikshit and Ali. And as luck would have it, the only parts of the movie wh
Read more

Ramu Kaka, the family Physician, Kheer, Silk Gown et al...

-
Image
  Cinema is a medium to convey a message; message which are verbal or visual based. It has the power to alter narrative or perhaps the discourse too. In the 50's 60's and even more pronounced in the 70's and 80's film stars commanded a huge influence on the audience. Hair style, clothes and accessories were copied by audience blindly. The Sadhana Cut became a famous hairstyle or the bouffant of Asha Parekh or the Sharmila Tagore style eye liners; even the men folk were not left behind. The ear hiding hairstyle of Amitabh Bachchan or the bell bottom or the unbuttoned shirt (only the first 2-3 buttons) went on to be cult classics. But, this rage was/is actually a global phenomena. It happened across the world and it still continues to create a sense of dystopian world which audience are more than happy to lap up.  In more recent times, two Hindi films, Dil Chahta Hai and later Zindagi Na Mile Dobara went on to change the way how youth looked at lifestyle and travel. Infac
Read more

Buno Haansh: If you have read the story, don't go

-
Image
Like I said in the title, if you have the read the original, which I think came out in the last or last to last year, Sharodiya Shonkha, do not watch the film as it is a complete let down. But if you have not read the original by Samaresh Majumdar, the movie is worth a dekko. The way different characters starting from the protagonist Amal to the characters, Shohag, Rijula and even all sundry characters develop are no where close to the original. What further adds to the agony, the climax scene which has been altered keeping Dev's image into account, which is unfortunate. The film to put it simply lacks the desired drama and the suspense, which if one has read the book will understand. It looks like a narration currently and there are moments where the film falls in a trap of trying to do justice to the book and the creative license it wants to use. Perhaps, this trap always remain when one tries to adapt a story or a classic novel into a cinema format. Some of the classic n
Read more