Directed by: Kunal Kohli
Starring: Shahid Kapoor,
Priyanka Chopra, Prachi Desai
Released: 2012
Verdict: destroy every
copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable -
good – great – amazing
I was expecting a fluffy
and cute film but it turned out to be quite lame. Surprisingly enough
it was not about reincarnation, which was the impression I got from
the promos, but perhaps that would have made more sense in the end.
One by one, and for
whatever reason not chronologically, we are presented three love
stories that have one thing in common – they happen in a span of
mere minutes. First it´s the Mumbai of the 60s, where in a big film
studio an aspiring musician falls for a film star (whom he doesn´t
know, even though he seeks job in films and she gets her own Filmfare
cover from time to time. Huh.) However at the same time he acts way
too familiar with a common girl who thinks he´s in love with her.
And boom – she happens to be the filmstar´s best friend. This
storyline, though weak in terms of script (and everything else), was
watchable. Priyanka (looking gorgeous, no arguments there) had
nothing much to do in a whole film, but Shahid as Govind, though
unsuccessfully trying to recreate the Raj Kapoor magic, was more or
less agreeable both as a character and as a performer at this point
(it gets worse later). The sets creating scenery were too obviously
painted to be taken seriously – or was that intentional to bring
out the vibe of the era?
Second story moves forward
in time to our present where Facebook and Twitter are a part of
everyday life. A young college student breaks up with his girl, but
two hours later falls in love with another. After much SMS messages
they are full of true pyaar, which includes sending each other photos
of their burgers etc etc, but the ex-girlfriend (who by the way
initiated the break-up) decides she is jealous and makes public some
unflattering pictures of the guy, to which he answers with posting
her pictures. His new love doesn´t understand fun apparently and
leaves him. Boo hoo. Let´s put a hood on and have some smart talks
about how women are like alcohol. This storyline was hand down the
worst. Not only neither of them looked the age they pretended to be,
but all the messaging actually made them seem like 13 years olds.
Especially the whole photo war between Krrish and Meera (WHO keeps
photos like that in their phone anyway???). Super lame.
I was rather looking
forward to the 1910s (oh the time when to sing in prison was illegal)
bit, but it let me down. Lahore at that time was apparently full of
horny girls waiting only for Shahid to rid them of their virginity. I
am no expert on Indian culture, but from what I´ve seen and heard,
looting a girl like that often leads to the guy being beaten up and
worse, yet this guy is ruining every girl in sight and he walks
freely in the city, without any father being distressed. And of
course the girl who gets his heart is the one who doesn´t let him
into her bed as soon as she sees him. Pure pyaar yet again. But alas
her father is not inclined to marry his daughter off to a notorious
womanizer who recently is in prison, and instead he weds her to a
decent man he approves of. Bastard, nah? The „mass crowd“ scenes
in this were anything but a „mass crowd“. It got better as it
progressed, but the first impression really took its toll.
But if you have not
understood already, all the stories are about TRUE PYAAR. And what
Bollywood taught us? That PURE PYAAR always wins. And so you can be
sure that confused filmstars will hop onto that train, that
university students acting like prepubescent children will update
their Facebook status, and that the director will conveniently and
quietly kill off the girl´s decent husband so the womanizer can
marry her instead.
Finally the question is –
why? I did not understand the need for three different stories, that
obviously had no connection between them. Did Kunal Kohli get three
similar scripts and couldn´t decide so he rolled them all into one?
That seems the most probable version to me.
