Rating : 2.8/5
Genre : Romance
Year : 2017
Running time : 2 hours 25 minutes
Director : Akshay Roy
Cast : Ayushman Khurana, Parineeti Chopra,
Kid rating: PG
This film’s review can be summed up thusly: the trailers were better than the actual film. Quite a bummer because my expectations from this film were so high!
Abhimanyu Roy (Khurana) is a successful B-grade hindi horror novelist, penning “classics” like “Chudail ki choli”. When he decides to write a “quality” romance, he ensconces himself in the parental home, and overcome with nostalgia while listening to an old mix-tape, looks back over the events that have shaped his life. Thus, we are introduced to his next door neighbor, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Bindu Shakarnarayanan (Chopra). Abhi has been smitten with Bindu from the day he laid eyes on her. Reciprocative feelings are hard to discern because flighty, ditzy Bindu knows not what she wants.
Khurana plays Abhimanyu to the T, Parineeti not so much. Although I can’t blame Parineeti really – she is a fine actress. Her character itself felt like it had no depth. We do get to see snatches of her personality and her thought process, but I didn’t really get to know her. Was she just your garden-variety self-centered extrovert, or was there more to her? I couldn’t tell.
Ergo, this does not work as a love story. I’m firmly in Abhimanyu’s corner, and feel for his fragile heart, but I see not the tremulousness of effervescent love etc. Much ado about nothing. The emperor hath no clothes. I could go on.
We didn’t need this film. And I say this with some regret: the film was well made, it went back and forth in time, and put together the story through colorful vignettes. Some scenes and songs (like the one below) were done so movingly, but alas, the emotion behind the imagery isn’t conveyed. The characterization (or lack of it) sinks the film. It’s hard to feel for narcissistic strangers. So, waste not your time trying.
Kidwise: Clean.
