What a weekend! I saw two movies back to back this Saturday after a real long time. I honestly can not remember the last time I did something like this! The first one was Singh is King (review coming shortly) and the second one was this. In fact the Singh is King ended at 4:45 and this one started at 4:40. We jumped straight out of Singh is king and dashed straight into the auditorium showing Bachna Ae Haseeno(BAH from now on) and man was this movie worth it! But obviously my psychobabble would come in its relevant section. One small thing I would like to mention here - from this review onwards I am along with the review I shall also upload the music of the movie for you to download. I am working on a separate section on my blog which would let you download stuff easily but until that gets done I shall post the link for the music files right in the middle of the review. For this one however here is the link to download music. Click here
That said, let us roll...
Vital Stats:
Title: Bachna Ae Haseeno (BAH)
Director: Siddharth Raj Anand
Length: 162 minutes
Starring: Me (LOL! my lady love swears that Ranbir Kapoor's character is completely me :D)
Seriously
Ranbir Kapoor, Minnisha (Not Manisha) Lamba, Bipasha Yumm Basu, Dipika ConicalFeet (Padukone), Hiten Pental (Pental Jr).
Plot: The story revolves around Raj (Ranbir Kapoor). And yes they indeed called the character Raj and what's more, Raj is really thankful to his mother for giving him this name as it makes his task of getting girls to fall in love with him much easier courtsey Shah Rukh Khan and DDLJ(If you don't know what this means, die now). Raj is a perfect playboy, a max chilled out boy who is doing well in his career (employed by Microsoft he is in their gaming division), who looks fab and who knows how to get a girl to dance to his tunes in this utterly cute chocolate boy devilish kinda way. His best friend is Sachin (Pantel Jr.) who endorses Raj's philosophy about life and girls and career etc. Raj goes about breaking hearts in the first half of the movie from Switzerland (Minnisha Lamba as Mahi) to Mumbai (Bipasha Basu as Radhika) until fate takes him to Sydney where he chances upon Gayatri (Deepika). As fate would have it he falls heads over heels over Deepika who dishes his dish to himself. She leads him on but brutally turns him down when he proposes wedding to her. This makes our Hero realize how much pain and anguish he caused Mahi and Radhika when he broke their hearts. He is now a changed man. The protagonist must now travel from Sydney to Amritsar and to Mumbai to seek repentance and suffer any pertinence that he so deserves for his past actions.
My Psychobabble: Ranbir Kapoor ROCKS! Have no doubts my readers here is one young dashing ultimate killer boy who has not only recovered fantastically from the disaster that was Sanwariya but has left no bloody stone unturned in his quest for excellence. He looked amazingly handsome in a very young cute boy kind of a way and has delivered a character performance that is second only in comparison to the commercial industry maestros. He has completely gelled into his character and has played the part beautifully. What made me wonder however was what made him unbutton his shirt so much in the movie!? I mean throughout the first half, barely would be a sequence where Raj's torso was not on display.
The movie is quiet well done. For quiet some part it does look like a DDLJ rip off but then unlike some recent directors who would go to any length to claim their movie is not based on any Hollywood movie whatsoever (kudos on making such humans God, tussi sachchi great ho!) our Raj here actually thinks out aloud about DDLJ and makes sure he does all that the Raj in that movie did to get his girls. After all the character of that Raj was and still is a screen legend! What's even better is that all DDLJ rip offs are so amazingly done that they actually make you feel good about ripping off a movie! The movie maintains a decent pace in the first half and though it does seem to drag in the second half still it rarely ever gets boring. One piece of advise however I have for director - two songs back to back - Nada. Not good! Na nope never and no not even if one of them features Yumm Basu.
Nope.
Never.
Nada.
That was one big flaw in the movie, these two songs that almost come back to back. They hit you when the movie has just begun slowing down and when you are beginning to realize that uh oh Raj got screwed big time man, the funs gone! They together with about 10 more minutes until the third song really kill your interest for a while.
Bipasha Basu (Sigh!) has looked her usual Yumm self. Lets admit it, the lady aint no great actor but then when you look like that who gives two hoot about if your eye brow was arched one degree too little while you frowned or not. Trust me, I for once ain't looking at your eye brow babe ;). And I know I aint alone here. Whenever you see the movie, watch out for the scene where Raj meets her for the first time. Take Raj out and put any straight man in the scene. Nothing would change, nothing at all! That was perhaps my favorite sequence in the whole movie. She has played her part good. To be honest her character in the second half of the movie did seem like a rip off from Devil Wears Prada but then even if it was who cares! John you lucky dog!! Gym here I come.
To Deepika Padukone - Babe come out of Om Shanti Om now please. You aint no red carpet dominating diva or a super star or some princess of Timbaktu or something so please stop behaving like one. I am not sure if it is just me or do others can also sense this fake regal aura that she tries to put all around her even if she is playing a character that drives taxi and works in a super store. Her portrayal of Gayatri was way way off the mark. Besides I am not sure whose stupidity was it, the director or the designer but what girl can drive a taxi for a living the whole night long wearing 6 inch heels!
Hiten Pental has delivered a good performance. I wont call it extraordinary simply for the fact that his character was played a bit down in the movie in comparison to Ranbir's (which is of course obvious). But whatever little time he gets on the screen he makes his mark. I especially recommend one particualr scene when he is shown talking to Raj in men's toilet (what you want me to call it a rest room now? Seriously, do you go there to rest!? Gross!) advising him on a certain situation with Bips. His expressions as he delivers his dialogue were priceless! Kudos man good going.
Minnisha...urmmm what do I say. She has done good no doubt but not as amazingly good as the others. By the way whoever made her wear those salwar in the first half..dude sorry but that really was bad designer sense there.
Verdict: Not to be missed. I don't care what the critics are saying about this one (I ain't a critic if you are wondering by the way, I am an "apperciat-or") I would definitely recommend catching this one. In fact I am already planning to see this again very soon!
