Bachna Ae Haseeno - Worse Than OSO?

-Contains Spoilers! Read at your own risk-

Bachna Ae Haseeno, the much awaited Siddarth Anand film starring Ranbir Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Minnisha Lamba and Deepika Padukone, proved to be almost as big a disappointment as Om Shanti Om [which was, sorry to say, absolute crap].

Bollywood's latest heartthrob, Ranbir Kapoor plays 'Raj' in the film [is the film industry unimaginative in reality, or do they really like the names Raj and Rahul?], a boy-searching-for-love-turned-playboy, who breaks the hearts of two girls, before having his own torn and thrown away.

The first half of the film shows Raj romancing with Mahi [Lamba] and breaking her heart. It then takes the viewers into the lives of Raj and Radhika [Basu] who are living together. Raj escapes marriage just in time, leaving Radhika and flying off to Australia on the day of the marriage. After that, Raj meets Gayatri [Padukone], who is a taxi driver NRI, and falls in love with her. He befriends her and learns that, like him, she does not believe in the institution of marriage. However he realizes that he is falling in love with her and finally proposes. Gayatri however, turns him down and walks out on him.

The film takes a totally different turn in the second half where 'Raj' realises how badly it hurts when someone breaks your heart and leaves on a quest to apologize to Mahi and Radhika. Eventually, Gayatri changes her view on marriage and sends a lot of letters to Raj expressing her love for him. The movie ends, showing Ranbir and Gayatri happily together in an embrace.

Giving Anand the credit of directing a film like Salaam Namaste which became the biggest hit of the year 2005, I am extremely shocked he would allow his standards to drop so drastically. I realise that Ta Ra Rum Pum wasn't such a big hit, but that doesn't give him the liberty to continue to direct such flop films. One would expect this movie to top the charts with the impressive cast. However, it didn't turn out quite that way.

The only thing I can compliment the movie on is the music [with the exception of the song 'Lucky Boy']. Khuda Jaane is pretty much a sensible song. The lyrics are meaningful and the melody is impressive. The cinematography, however, was disappointing. If you notice, all Deepika is doing throughout the song is wearing beautiful dresses and twirling her hands. Rotating them, again and again. And again. And again. It is so pissing off would be an apt phrase here.

And what's wrong with these people? Who on earth is the lyricist for 'Lucky Boy'? Oh yes, it was Anvita Dutt Guptan. Of course! He wrote the lyrics for the songs of Tashan! No wonder Lucky Boy had the misfortune of being born a pathetic song. It is self contradictory [Sort of like an oxy-moron]. The lyrics go somewhat like this:

Lucky boy, you’re my, lucky boy
Jaane kaun banega mera lucky boy

If she already knows .. that 'YOU are my lucky boy' then WHY is she wondering 'kaun banega mera lucky boy'.. ?

Its complete nonsense. Nowadays, the public gets caught on to anything with a catchy tune. For example Dard-e-disco [yes, from OSO]. The song is meaningless and purely STUPID, but who tells everyone that? When the movie came out, one could hear this stupid song being played EVERYWHERE. And so is the case with this so called song.. "Lucky Boy".

One last thing I fail to understand is.. If Gayatri [Padukone] was so adamant on not getting married in the first place [she gave the reason that her husband would never let her live life so independently and drive a taxi at night or work as a shopkeeper in an unfamiliar country], then why did she change her mind all of a sudden? Nothing significant happened to actually prove to her that Ranbir would allow her to live her live independently. Infact, the reason why she turned his proposal down was that she considered him just like other men.

The response towards the movie cannot be classified into 'good' or 'bad' for they are sort of mixed. However, a majority of the reviews are poor. So is mine. I personally think the film was a big disappointment and performed below expectations. This almost beats OSO, which needless to say, is my favourite movie of all time ;).

More later.

Signing off.

Mallika Priya Khullar

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