Bachna Ae Haseeno (Movie Review)

The packaging is sleek, the plot is somewhat different, the cast has A-listers and the music is a big hit. Yet, “Bachna Ae Haseeno” doesn’t cut it and can be best described as a collage of pretty faces and prettier locales, which alone can't sell a Hindi film.

The movie sets out as a romantic comedy, and does comparatively fine till the time the comic element is kept alive through witty dialogues. However, once it enters the ‘romance and emotion only’ territory, the fizz goes flat, and so does the film.

Draped in trademark Yash Raj beauty, “Bachna Ae Haseeno” begins in Switzerland and ends in Sydney. Along the way it also travels through India and Italy as we follow the exploits of Raj Sharma (Ranbir Kapoor), from his student days to his life as a software developer with Microsoft.

Cool dude Raj loves his women, but just as much as he loves the good times and his freedom. For company, he has steady friend Sachin (Hiten Paintal) and a string of unsteady relationships, most notably with Mahi (Minissha Lamba), Radhika (Bipasha Basu) and Gayatri (Deepika Padukone).

He breaks hearts without any guilt, till the time he’s left heartbroken himself. The pain wakes him up to all the pain he himself has handed out, and he sets out to seek forgiveness and close unfinished chapters.

Pre-release, much was said and written about the good looking cast, stunning locales, Aki Narula’s wardrobe for the stars, the film’s music and, of course, whether the movie will end Yash Raj Films’ dismal show at the box office.

Good things first. The music undeniably is the movie’s strength. Well picturised, the songs are as much a pleasure to watch on screen as they are to hear. However, just like Vishal and Shekhar’s hit score couldn’t rescue “Tashan”, it’s unlikely that their effort here too will make up for the movie’s shortcomings.

Hardly any frame of “Bachna Ae Haseeno” is without Ranbir Kapoor, and he’s one of the film’s biggest disappointments. The actor, who showed immense potential in his debut film and then swept all the Best Newcomer awards, fails to deliver mainly because he is miscast as the “killer” Raj. With no trace of “rogue” in his Mr. Nice Guy persona, he is unconvincing as the ruthless heartbreaker. As the lovelorn Raj he does better, but still comes nowhere close to what he’s said to be capable of.

In the acting department, the movie is, in fact, redeemed by two unexpected people – Minissha Lamba and Hiten Paintal.

Though her dialogues are cheesy at times, the petite Minissha plays Mahi with her heart and makes the character stand tall in comparison with the leggy beauties Bipasha and Deepika, who both seem stiff and self conscious. A bit too poised, they fail to infuse any natural flair or passion into their characters. So we neither believe in the small town girl-turned-supermodel Radhika or the taxi-driving alpha male Gayatri. More importantly, neither is able to generate any on screen chemistry with Ranbir, despite a few intimate scenes.

Depika, playing shortest of the lead roles, and Ranbir become the latest off screen couple to fizzle out on screen.

In fact, Ranbir connects better with Hiten Paintal, who even overshadows the hero in many of their joint scenes with his brilliant comic timing, probably inherited from his father, veteran comedian Paintal.

Both the film and the lead actors improve in the looks department, thanks to the picture postcard locations and Aki Narula’s trendy styling. Agreed that the heroines needed to look their best, but some more thought could have gone into instances like Gayatri driving a taxi in stilettos and a red-nosed Mahi prancing on the Swiss slopes in a flimsy patiala shalwar or playing in snow in a short-sleeved kurti, while those around are covered in woollens.

While Yash Raj Films is looking for ways to reverse its dipping fortunes, the film’s writer Aditya Chopra turns to his own past glory for inspiration and there are repeated references to his blockbuster “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge” in the film’s first half hour. In fact, he even lifts an entire sequence from his hit film. Not satisfied, he turns back the clock even more and seeks further inspiration from the 1960s Dev Anand starrer, "Teen Deviyaan".

As a director, Siddharth Anand did far better in his last film, “Salaam Namastey”. Here, armed once more with a ‘it’s different’ storyline, he remains unable to turn it into something significant, probably because of the sluggish screenplay and little meat in the second half's story. Moreover, by opting for style over substance, he leaves us with a film which looks nice on the surface, but has no heart or soul.

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Minissha Lamba, Deepika Padukone

Director: Siddharth Anand

Music: Vishal and Shekhar