Bachna Ae Haseena: not bad
Aug. 23rd, 2008 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieLast night, I went to see Bachna Ae Haseeno, a Bolly flick starring Ranbir Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Deepika Padukone.
The plot of BAH is pretty simple: Ranbir is a player who thoughtlessly manages to woo and ditch two pretty awesome women (Minisha and Bipasha), in addition to various enjoyable one night stands. Until he falls in love himself with Deepika who turns him down flat. Falling in love for the first time, and being turned down actually makes him grow up and realize the wrongs he committed, so he embarks on a quest to find the two women he wronged and earn their forgiveness (which is actually my favorite part of the movie. This is a rare Bolly flick where the second part is better than the first).
So, good or not? I liked it and didn't want my money back, but I didn't love it. It entertained me but it neither made me giddy with joy (except for one moment which is spoilery) nor emotionally involved.
It's episodic (as each woman gets her own 'story') which is a tricky thing to deal with: sometimes you can have an episodic movie which makes each story feel complete, fully developed and even fleshed out (one of my favorites, Salaam e Ishq does just that) but in BAH all three stories feel rather underdeveloped. Deepika's part especially suffers from it. What is it in her that makes Ranbir give up his silly lifestyle, change for the better, fall in love? Sure, she is hot, but so were Minisha and Bipasha. I suppose he has grown up and is ready for committment, in his late 20s, but h was quite happy slutting around just months before and once again, why Deepika? Yes, she is independent and doesn't believe in committment or long-lasting relationships which makes her somewhat similar to Ranbir, but that's not enough! We don't see enough of them together to buy this love. Normally I would buy a quick convo or two and a song to enstablish Bolly love, but not when the first half, especially the Minisha one sort of 'exploded' that Bolly convention, and not when the man is a hardened player. And not when Deepika and Ranbir, I am sorry to say, like so many real-life couples, do not have much chemistry. In fact, it is his chemistry with Bipasha that really crackles actually.
And Bipasha somehow ends up the most fleshed out of the women (though Minisha as Mahi, the naive romantic who ends up having her face rubbed in the ugliness of real world and becomes pragmatic to an extreme degree (always an extremist), a perfect and dutiful wife who cannot open her heart even to her husband, is also a fascinating character).
That's another problem: I find Rashika (Bips) and Mahi (Minisha) more interesting and dynamic and developed than Deepika. And I found myself, even as I was enjoying the fluff-with-a-feminist-message BAE, that I was watching one of two different movies: either the movie about Mahi and her husband and how that developed, because I am a sucker for the whole 'he loved her from afar and married her in an arranged marriage when her heart was broken by a scumbag but he only learned about it laer. And now he tries to show her love but she is frozen but dutiful but then falls back in love with him' type stuff. I can't help it, I am a die-hard romantic, sort of like early Mahi. Plus, what sane woman would reject Kunal Kapoor. Heck, I'd take him over Ranbir, and I love Ranbir. Side note: the giddy moment of joy I was talking about is the wedding song Ranbir does, with the dancing and the colors, and husband and wife 'reuniting' and just the beat. It's sort of interesting, the meta commentary here (just as I love all the DDLJ homages/refs): it really plays with the DDLJ formula, doesn't it? It's the trickster Raj who is an unscrupulous bastard, and it's this movie's 'Kuljit' who is actually loyal, loving, and even 'filmi' in his devotion, even if in a very unfilmi way. Mahi can have her sweeping romance, she just needs to know where to look. I love that!
Or, I found myself wishing I'd be watching a movie where Ranbir was an immature jerk to Bipasha and came to beg her forgiveness years later when he grew up and realized what he's done and became her assistant and then they fell in love all over again. Because that was some sparkling chemistry (and the most grown-up interaction in the movie). After her angry passionate outburst at him in her house, I half-expected him to grab her and kiss her and for them to have and angry, angsty make-out, though objectively speaking I knew it wasn't going to happen.
Ranbir is a total charmer and I hope he becomes a huge star. He took a character who should make me loathe him in the first half, by any stretch of the imagination: a shallow selfish player, and made me actually want to watch him and even like him. The scene where his romantic marriage proposal is turned down and he gets desperate made me half go 'now you know how it feels buster' and half feel awful for him, which is quite a feat. And when he grew up as a result of that, he was quite awesome. I can't say he is classically handsome (though that body is to die for and he certainly shows it off often enough) but the charisma to burn sure makes up for it.
Also, I did get why Deepika changed her mind. Sending him away made her realize she loved him enough to be willing to take a risk (I can't see her letting anyone boss her anyhow).
So overall, enjoyable two and a bit hours. But I think Hum Tum did the story of a flirt falling in love for the first time and what it means and what happens much much better. That leads me to the fact that part of why I only liked it is certainly not the movie's fault: it just is not the type of movie I normally prefer. I like my deathless love movies: the Veer-Zaaras, the DDLJs, the Fanaas, even Hum Tums (HT is swoonily romantic in the second half), better than something like this. Can't help it.
The plot of BAH is pretty simple: Ranbir is a player who thoughtlessly manages to woo and ditch two pretty awesome women (Minisha and Bipasha), in addition to various enjoyable one night stands. Until he falls in love himself with Deepika who turns him down flat. Falling in love for the first time, and being turned down actually makes him grow up and realize the wrongs he committed, so he embarks on a quest to find the two women he wronged and earn their forgiveness (which is actually my favorite part of the movie. This is a rare Bolly flick where the second part is better than the first).
So, good or not? I liked it and didn't want my money back, but I didn't love it. It entertained me but it neither made me giddy with joy (except for one moment which is spoilery) nor emotionally involved.
It's episodic (as each woman gets her own 'story') which is a tricky thing to deal with: sometimes you can have an episodic movie which makes each story feel complete, fully developed and even fleshed out (one of my favorites, Salaam e Ishq does just that) but in BAH all three stories feel rather underdeveloped. Deepika's part especially suffers from it. What is it in her that makes Ranbir give up his silly lifestyle, change for the better, fall in love? Sure, she is hot, but so were Minisha and Bipasha. I suppose he has grown up and is ready for committment, in his late 20s, but h was quite happy slutting around just months before and once again, why Deepika? Yes, she is independent and doesn't believe in committment or long-lasting relationships which makes her somewhat similar to Ranbir, but that's not enough! We don't see enough of them together to buy this love. Normally I would buy a quick convo or two and a song to enstablish Bolly love, but not when the first half, especially the Minisha one sort of 'exploded' that Bolly convention, and not when the man is a hardened player. And not when Deepika and Ranbir, I am sorry to say, like so many real-life couples, do not have much chemistry. In fact, it is his chemistry with Bipasha that really crackles actually.
And Bipasha somehow ends up the most fleshed out of the women (though Minisha as Mahi, the naive romantic who ends up having her face rubbed in the ugliness of real world and becomes pragmatic to an extreme degree (always an extremist), a perfect and dutiful wife who cannot open her heart even to her husband, is also a fascinating character).
That's another problem: I find Rashika (Bips) and Mahi (Minisha) more interesting and dynamic and developed than Deepika. And I found myself, even as I was enjoying the fluff-with-a-feminist-message BAE, that I was watching one of two different movies: either the movie about Mahi and her husband and how that developed, because I am a sucker for the whole 'he loved her from afar and married her in an arranged marriage when her heart was broken by a scumbag but he only learned about it laer. And now he tries to show her love but she is frozen but dutiful but then falls back in love with him' type stuff. I can't help it, I am a die-hard romantic, sort of like early Mahi. Plus, what sane woman would reject Kunal Kapoor. Heck, I'd take him over Ranbir, and I love Ranbir. Side note: the giddy moment of joy I was talking about is the wedding song Ranbir does, with the dancing and the colors, and husband and wife 'reuniting' and just the beat. It's sort of interesting, the meta commentary here (just as I love all the DDLJ homages/refs): it really plays with the DDLJ formula, doesn't it? It's the trickster Raj who is an unscrupulous bastard, and it's this movie's 'Kuljit' who is actually loyal, loving, and even 'filmi' in his devotion, even if in a very unfilmi way. Mahi can have her sweeping romance, she just needs to know where to look. I love that!
Or, I found myself wishing I'd be watching a movie where Ranbir was an immature jerk to Bipasha and came to beg her forgiveness years later when he grew up and realized what he's done and became her assistant and then they fell in love all over again. Because that was some sparkling chemistry (and the most grown-up interaction in the movie). After her angry passionate outburst at him in her house, I half-expected him to grab her and kiss her and for them to have and angry, angsty make-out, though objectively speaking I knew it wasn't going to happen.
Ranbir is a total charmer and I hope he becomes a huge star. He took a character who should make me loathe him in the first half, by any stretch of the imagination: a shallow selfish player, and made me actually want to watch him and even like him. The scene where his romantic marriage proposal is turned down and he gets desperate made me half go 'now you know how it feels buster' and half feel awful for him, which is quite a feat. And when he grew up as a result of that, he was quite awesome. I can't say he is classically handsome (though that body is to die for and he certainly shows it off often enough) but the charisma to burn sure makes up for it.
Also, I did get why Deepika changed her mind. Sending him away made her realize she loved him enough to be willing to take a risk (I can't see her letting anyone boss her anyhow).
So overall, enjoyable two and a bit hours. But I think Hum Tum did the story of a flirt falling in love for the first time and what it means and what happens much much better. That leads me to the fact that part of why I only liked it is certainly not the movie's fault: it just is not the type of movie I normally prefer. I like my deathless love movies: the Veer-Zaaras, the DDLJs, the Fanaas, even Hum Tums (HT is swoonily romantic in the second half), better than something like this. Can't help it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-23 04:31 pm (UTC)That elevator scene was pretty amazing. I hope someone casts those two together because they had surprisingly great chemistry and I want to see if that can be a thing in a whole movie.
And Ranbir impressed me. I still don't know how he managed to make me like his character, even when I was really annoyed at him.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-28 09:46 pm (UTC)