Rating: 3/5
Banners: UTV Motion Pictures, Bhandarkar Entertainment
Cast: Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, Pooja Chopra and others
Music: Salim-Sulaiman
Cinematographer: Mahesh Limaye
Editor: Devendra Murdeshwar
Story, screenplay, direction: Madhur Bhandarkar
Producers: Ronnie Screwvala, Madhur Bhandarkar, Siddharth Roy Kapur
Release date: 21/09/2012
Madhur Bhandarkar, the protégé of RGV, has been known for his gritty dramas and this time he has come up with yet another inside story on the entertainment industry. Let us see how this is..
Story:
Starting with a flashback mode, the story begins with Mahie Arora (Kareena Kapoor) a top league heroine who is going through a phase of emotional rupture.
The reason for that is, her fading career and at the same time her insecurity about the relationship with the married superstar Aryan Khanna (Arjun Rampal) who is yet to get his divorce.
An impulsive and highly volatile being that she is, Mahie’s streak of eccentricity tends to push Mahie to do some rash gestures. But the arrival of a new PR Guru Pallavi (Divya) starts another innings for Mahie but in the process of limelight and publicity, Mahie gets lonelier and lonelier as she climbs. What happens after that forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
Kareena Kapoor has given a committed performance. She may not be as versatile as Vidya Balan or graceful as Aishwarya but she sure has that attitude to carry herself. She has portrayed the various facets convincingly.
Arjun Rampal looks quite weary. Unlike his previous flicks where he had that freshness, this film shows him in a rather old and starved look taking away his stud charms. Performance-wise, he was nice.
Randeep Hooda had a brief role but he did his bit well. This is a different side to his characterization which is usually raw and rustic.
Divya Dutta was apt for the role of a PRO. She has portrayed her character in the most realistic way possible and added value to the scenes that she did.
Govind Namdeo was perfect, Helen was useful, Ranvir Shorey was excellent as Dada, Pooja Chopra was okay, Mugdha Godse was brief, Lilette Dubey was standard, Shahana Goswami was seductive. The others did their bit as required.
Highlights:
- Kareena’s performance
- Storyline
- Background score
Drawbacks:
- First half
- Dialogues
- Weak pace
Analysis:
The life of entertainment industry is all about glitz and glamour and that’s why the audience love to watch films because it is a dream world. From a distance, the film industry is quite flashy and even the lifestyles the stars lead are quite flamboyant. But here is the truth.
It isn’t so rosy as it is perceived to be. And that is what Madhur Bhandarkar has tried to show with this attempt. Usually it is the heroines who have a plush lifestyle but the fact is that beneath all that beauty, glamour and craze, there lies a girl who is confused, misguided, ambitious but without clarity of thought. Unfortunately, they cover it up with something called ‘Attitude’ and ‘I know everything and I am never at fault’.
Well, that doesn’t really work for long and the price has to be paid. Though dialogues are totally spineless, one line from actress Helen in the film sums it up. The essence of her words meant “In the craving for glamour and glory, what we don’t realize is we have lost a lot in the bargain. And by the time we realize, it is too late.” And that is the life of a heroine in a nutshell.
Madhur has always shown interest in dealing with reality issues and he must be appreciated for choosing his own line of work to show the dark side as it may rub his colleagues on the wrong side. But this time, he didn’t have that grit or intensity that he usually has. This was more sober. Of course it had its deep moments but due to the length of the film and stale dialogues, the fizz was missing. Overall, this is a film which many heroines would connect and would work as an eye opener for those aspiring to be one.
On the flip side, this may not work with the masses who expect some glamour feast due to the reality dose. At the box office, the film has a good potential of scoring profits.
Bottomline: Watch it for knowing her life and not her beauty…
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected] or https://twitter.com/greatandhranews)
