Rating : 3/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2013
Running time : 2 hours 10 minutes
Director : Mohit Suri
Cast : Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor, Shaad Randhawa
Kid rating : PG-13
Rahul is a singer. We meet him when he is past his career’s prime, because of his alcoholism. One day, wandering about in a drunken haze in Goa, he comes across a singer in a beer bar. Entranced with the quality of her singing, he promises her singing stardom and does his best to promote her. Arohi Keshav Shirke (Shraddha) in due course becomes a big singer and also Rahul’s girlfriend. He loves her and she him, so what can possibly go wrong?
This is Aashiqui #2 from the Bhatt stable – you might remember the first one with floppy haired heartthrob Rahul Roy and Anu Agarwal. Aditya and Shraddha Kapoor star here. Neither of them display mature acting, so the film’s kind of a washout from that side of things. Their freshness and innocence, especially Shraddha’s, does partially redeem the effort, but doesn’t make this sub-par film watchable. She is the daughter of yesteryear villain Shakti Kapoor and Himangi Kolhapure (sister of film actress Padmini Kolhapure) and first appeared in the regrettable Luv ka the End, as the lead. That film, I believe, sank like a stone, as it should have. Aditya has recently appeared in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani as Bunny’s friend Avi, and did seem to do well. So the dismal performance here is either first-film jitters or the fact that director Mohit Suri couldn’t eke it out of him like Ayan Mukherjee could.
Both actors show promise for future films if they can get a grip. Shraddha Kapoor is pretty enough (she goes on her mother, thankfully) and given a good director and some acting classes could do well in the industry. Aditya is good-looking in a gaunt, nerdy sort of a way – I can’t see him as leading man, but he’ll probably do well in multi-starrer films where the weight of the film isn’t on his broad shoulders alone.
Besides the (lack of) acting, the film suffers on scripting. The screenplay is jittery, given to fits and starts and awkward transitions. The story is as dull as ditch-water, and the characters not much better. Rahul seems to be a thoughtless cad given to extremes, smashing household items to smithereens and getting into brawls and fights, and Aarohi for all her love never can quite take a stand – she is the (problematic) epitome of the suffering Indian woman. I wasn’t invested in either’s well-being, so the film never quite takes off. The film’s characters are drawn with broad brush-strokes and colored in black and white – very little room for nuance or finesse here.
True to the Bhatt standards however, the film does have some nice melodies. There is “Tum hi ho” and “Chahoon Main Aana” which he sings to her and then she resings. Other than that, this film is a tepid watch. Instead of that, see this.
