Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela

Directed by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Supriya Pathak, Richa Chadda

Released: 2013

My rating:  destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

Does the world really need another take on Romeo and Juliet? Of course not. In fact after pure and precise adaptation by Zeffirelli from the 60s every new movie on the topic can only pass of as „fine“ at best. Still a prospect of the story adapted by megalomaniac of Bollywood Bhansali, who had previously given us some serious visual orgasms and basically drowned us in feelings (positive or negative), against Indian backdrop sounded deliciously tantalizing. Even more so since SLB´s last venture with Guzaarish felt somehow shallow and pretentious to me. I was hoping for the return of magic of Devdas (also a classic story revolving around self-obsessed people) or HDDCS but while I would rate Ram Leela above Guzaarish, it is still much weaker than all the rest of SLB films. I was also pinning my hopes to it as a film that would be THE film of 2013, only to be kind of let down.

How´s my lipstick?

Given I am not the greatest fan of the original story, it still cannot be denied that it was heading to somewhere following (even if naive and hormonal) basic logic and once it reached the tragic climax one felt for the two young people. Ram Leela could easily turn a teenage puppy love into a truly passionate affair, but ultimately the teenagers from Verona owned them. Lust at first sight that happens between oily, hairless Ram who dedicates a whole song to get dandruffs out of his baal, and stunning beyond words Leela is good and makes sense, yet everything that follows is just too quick. But to be fair, it doesn´t do THAT much of a damage. Yet. I was quite enjoying the story of two families who shoot at each other every day for centuries and obviously suck at handling the gun considering they never hit anyone. And when they do, it is by accident.

Up until the moment of Ram and Leela being found by their families and torn apart, the movie works. However after that to the very last minute there is not an ounce of common sense left. Ram becomes the leader of the family gang, yet does absolutely NOTHING to get to Leela, in fact he is not even answering her desperate phonecalls. Leela holds onto her logic a bit longer, but then looses it as well. The story reaches new heights of WTF with HER becoming the leader of HER family gang. But while both our lovers can weep their eyes out they decide to continue the mutual family slaughter. I did not understand who exactly they were fighting with. Ad to it extremely random change of mind that other pivotal character goes through near the end and you are left with your head hurting from all the shaking.

Not all is bad. The film is visually pleasing and the play of colours wonderful, be it the blue and white Holi or red and golden Navratri, also the use of different festivals to give the viewer sense of how much time has passed is skillfully vowen into the narrative. Music is appropriate and follows the story well (yet I expect more from SLB films after the gold that were Devdas and Saawariya soundtracs). I could have done without the forced Priyanka Chopra´s item number. Women in the film are all in the top form and it wouldn´t be wrong to claim the film belongs to them. Supriya Pathak is nothing short of amazing. She steals the show with her portrayal of Baa - and only looses breath near the end with her (already mentioned) nonsensical and unexplained change of heart, which takes away from the impact of her character – and also makes the uselessness of the final Ishaqzaade-ish tragedy all the more frustrating. Her scenes are intense and very well create an image of dangerous woman who is scarier than all the dudes running around with their rifles.

Deepika Padukone is looking beautiful and emoting beautiful. I loved that underneath the tough exterior there was really just a very vulnerable, yet determined creature. I wouldn´t say it´s her best performance, but definitely very good. She also emerges as a very capable dancer, oozing grace in Lahu Munh Lag Gaya and unbound energy in Nagada Sang Dhol, even manages to pull off the throwback into the 90s that is the only unfitting song Ishqyaun Dhishqyaun, suffering from Govinda/Karishma hangover. Finally Richa Chadda, with an air of mystery and looking positively gorgeous, deserved more scope and more stuff to work with. She is brilliant in whatever she is given. And even though minuscule, I would mention the subplot with Leela´s unwilling prospective groom among positive as well.

Turning our attention to somehow effeminate Ram, Ranveer Singh nails some of the scenes and disappoints in others (but yay to his dancing). He is very inconsistent throughout, going over the top quite a few times. It doesn´t help that he shares next to none chemistry with his Leela (somebody explain to Bhansali that eating each other´s heads every five minutes does not create an image of love or passion if you simply don´t have “it”). Romeo and Juliet is primarily a story about two people who cannot be without each other. But here the script has them separated quite early on and the relationship practically ceases to exist (???). Truth is because of all that I did not care for Ram and Leela as a couple.

Overal Ram Leela is an average fare. Not “bad” and not “good”. Worth a watch, if only for Deepika Padukone. It is getting more and more interesting to watch her evolving into a very fine actress. I give it „flawed but enjoyable rating“, even though I did not exactly enjoy myself.

MIA

I know, I'm completely missing in action these days.  Blame it on a big exam coming up and the start of a new job.  InshaAllah will pick up writing again in the next 2 days or so!  =)  Until then, hope you're enjoying the current lot of dramas on air......because I'm only enjoying 2-3.  Haha.

Thanks for being so patient and always reading!

1983

Cast: Nivin Pauly, Anoop Menon, Valsala Menon, Tiny Tom, Jacob Gregory, Saiju Kurup, Kalabhavan Prajod, Neeraj Madhav, Saji, Sanju, Joy Mathew, Jiyad, Nikki Galrani, Rajeev Pillai, Shine Tom Chacko, Srinda Ashab, Dinesh, Seema G Nair

Genre: Sport, Family Drama

Direction: Abrid Shine

Production: TR Shamsudheen

Story: Abrid Shine

Screenplay : Abrid Shine, Bibin Chandran

Cinematographer: Pradeesh Varma

Music: Gopi Sunder

Editing : Manoj

Studio : Shams Films

Distribution: LJ Films (India),PJ Entertainments (Overseas) 

Release Date: 31^st January, 2014 (Kerala), 14^th February, 2014 (Delhi)

Language: Malayalam

Duration: 2 hours 18 minutes

Rating: 4/5(Very Good)

1983, has captured the euphoria of cricket so efficiently and effectively. It is indeed a great treat to the country that eats, drinks, breaths and sleeps cricket.

The beginning note of the movie itself is power packed with the 1983 Cricket World Cup victory in the backdrop, jubilation in a remote village Brahmamangalam in Kerala, supported with great musical score in the background.

Rameshan, a 10 year old boy, remained glued to the television to watch the match and the victory sparked a new passion within him for the sport. There is a beautiful scene where this boy while playing cricket along with his friends falls in the field and for the first time he notices the dew drop, its freshness and beauty. It shows how the sport and the cricket ground became the entire universe for Rameshan who started living cricket.

The grown up Rameshan is played by Nivin Pauly, another great performance by him. He grew to be a great batsman who gave mesmerizing shots at the local club matches along with Pappan (Saiju Kurup), Babukuttan (Sanju), Saji (Dinesh), Prahladan (Neeraj Madhav), Mantle Johny (Kalavbhavan Prajod), Varkey, Chandru, Basheer forming the rest of the gang. 

Rameshan’s whole focus was to practice and play matches; academics and even his love interest Manjula (played by Nikki Galrani, who looked very fresh on screen) took a back seat.

Meanwhile the passage of the decades is smoothly shown through visuals of India’s defeat at the world cup matches, which followed thereafter, movie poster of Chitram… Harikrishnans…on the walls, b/w television sets to colour televison sets and the historical 2011 Cricket World cup victory.

A bit of drag was felt towards the end of the first half, since it seemed like the movie is shifting its focus from the main frame of sport into domestic things. It was painful to see a great player Rameshan settling down to his disillusioned father Gopi’s (Joy Mathew) mechanical shop, but then also, it was delight to watch him hitting brilliant sixers during local club matches. Srinda Ashab essayed the role of his onscreen wife Susheela very naturally, innocently and certain scenes of hers were full of humour.

The pace again picked up in the second half where Rameshan sees the fire in his son Kannan. There starts the journey of the father Rameshan in living his passion and I must say Nivin Pauly excelled even as a forty year old man. Vijay Menon (Anoop Menon) as a cricket coach is very impressive, who is sharp to understand the talents of the young boys, disciplined and empathetic. Rest of the movie is woven around how Rameshan chases his dreams through his son. Certain father-son moments actually gave a lump in my throat.    

Jacob Gregory as Sachin’s namesake, though in a short frame in a cameo, creates an impact through his performance. All other supporting cast and child artists have also given great performances.

Fashion Photographer turned director Abrid Shine actually shines through his debut film. A great work by him. He is flawless as a story teller with his minute detailing. Screenplay by Abrid and Bibin Chandran has elements of humour, sadness, disappointment, hope, passion, dreams, innocence, expectations, joy etc. The movie seems to be a dedication to the living legend Mr. Sachin Tendulkar whose emotional good bye speech had a message (his father’s advice to him), which was – “Chase your dreams but make sure you don’t find short cuts”. Indeed, a beautiful message…

Cinematographer Pradeesh Verma has captured the beauty of the village very nicely. Yes, it indeed seems to be part of God’s own country. Editing by Manoj is also very sharp and appropriate.

Gopi Sundar has done amazing music. The song “Olanajali kuruvi...” sung by P Jayachandran and Vani Jairam  is so melodious. Background music is also full of life. “Thallvettam Kanumba…” is also full of positive energy.

1983… a great treat to watch…it hits a sixer…

Neel Kamal

Directed by: Ram Maheshwari

Starring: Waheeda Rehman, Manoj Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Lalita Pawar, Balraj Sahni, Mehmood, Shashikala

Released: 1968

Verdict: destroy every copy – horrible – bad – whatever – flawed but enjoyable - good – great – amazing

Do you remember a scene from Kaagaz Ke Phool when an aspiring actress played by Waheeda Rehman attends a party and styles herself for it according to latest fashion trends? She then bumps into a director, played by Guru Dutt, who discovered her and is in for a nasty surprise when instead of flattery she is scolded by him for ruining her unique charm, which lies in simplicity. I felt like Guru Dutt while watching Neel Kamal. Somehow I felt that the dramatic 60s styling with mad cat eyes and huge hair never suited Waheeda Rehman, arguably one of the most gorgeous women on screen ever. Her beauty has been done justice by black and white film the most, where indeed no trappings of fashion would distract from her soulful face. By no means am I saying she looked bad in this film – after all that may not even be possible and her innate grace is as overwhelming as ever – but somewhere down the line I was not happy with her styling. How could I know that would actually turn out to be one of many voes offered by the film.

Neel Kamal is one of the films that cannot decide what they really are supposed to be about. Is it a horror? A reincarnation mystery? A family drama? There are even (very slight) hints of psychological thriller. From many ways they could the makers pursued the most unfortunate one and went on with weepy saas-bahu melodrama in which ultimately all characters loose their likeability. I would also say they all loose their brains, but most of them have none to loose from the beginning. In fact the supposedly mentally disturbed heroine is, for most part, the only one who has some logic left, while everybody else only have heads so it doesn´t rain into their throats.

The premise sounds intriguing, make no mistake. Once upon a time a sculptor was in love with a Princess, but instead of happiness he found death because of it. His immortal pyaar stalked the palace even as centuries went by and it fell into ruins. And finally, after years, a young woman hears the voiuce of the culptor calling out to her, for even though she is named Sita, she was once the Princess Neel Kamal. But is it all real? Or is Sita mentally disturbed or ill? In any case it lands her into a big pile of poo as the film goes on.

If I decide not to judge the movie for the old-fashioned sexism it stands for (complete with Sita having to undergo a harsh test to prove her innocence to a very undeserving hubster and nasty girls wearing western attire whilst pure heroine would never don anything but a saree) there are still too many things completely wrong about it. First of all – Sita is obviously a sleep-walker. Instead of trying to cure or at least help her condition the only worry her father has is who is going to marry her (and a doctor himself very scientifically supports the idea that the best remedy for sleep-walking is marriage), and when she does marry he doesn´t even make her new family aware of her „disease“, even though it is pretty life-threatening. Sita´s husband keeps randomly changing his mind about his wife according to what he is told the latest. He never bothers to actually ask her. And one look at an old statue combined with some crap about ghosts he deduces in his mind is what actually makes him believe her, instead of a delayed information from her father about her sleep-walking.

I wished the film would focus on Sita and her battling with her disease/visions/past life, but the makers did not find a time for that, wasting too much footage on her nasty sister-in-law played by ever-annoying Shashikala and her husband who looked like from another world altogether, played by Mehmood. Their subplot ranges from heavily awkward to downright embarrassing. Not to mention next to useless to the main story. Completing the mosaic of insane characters, who are concerned with everything BUT the source of what happens to Sita, is the devilish saasu-maa Lalita Pawar, who makes Sita´s life a living hell so it is OK for her to just change her mind at the end cause she don´t wanna live in an empty house yo. And nobody even wants her to say sorry. And since I really wanted Sita to send them all to blazing hell by that point I could only roll my eyes in frustration.

Neel Kamal wastes not only a promising plotline, but also its first class actors. Waheeda Rehman carries it all on her elegant shoulders, but seems as weary as her character while doing so. At least she gets to use her amazing dancing skills in several songs. Manoj Kumar as a confused pati parmeshwar looks handsome and has nothing to work with. Even seeing his plight over doubts he may have as a loving husband would have been interesting, but you know, let´s have a catfight between Shashikala and another random lady over a man neither loves instead. And over-possessive ghost Raaj Kumar, who keeps trying to kill his reincarnated love and just when she says OK decides it´s actually not that important, was quite weak.

Neel Kamal disappointed me on many levels, as a film that could have been exciting and different, but ended up being very „common“ and tiring.

Gunday

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Saurabh Shukla, Victor Banerjee, Pankaj Tripathi, Darshan Gurjar, Jayesh V Kardak

Genre: Crime, Action, Drama, Romance

Direction: Ali Abbas Zafar

Production: Aditya Chopra, Padam Bhushan (Line Producer), Aashish Singh (Exceutive Producer)

Story: Ali Abbas Zafar, Sanjay Masoom (Additional Dialogue)

Screenplay : Ali Abbas Zafar

Cinematographer: Aseem Mishra

Music: Sohail Sen, Julius Packiam (Background score)

Editing : Rameshwar S Bhagat

Studio : Yash Raj Films

Release Date: 14^th February, 2014

Language: Hindi

Duration: 2 hours 34 minutes

Rating: 3/5(Good, only for its cast)

Gunday (गुंडे), is built upon the same old formulae – two friends falling in love with the same girl, friendship turning sour, heroes as gunday (as per the law) but maseeha for the poor… we have seen it all. Gunday, although not falling under the genre of my preference, let me be unbiased in reviewing the same.

The movie begins at the backdrop of 1971 war, where Bangladesh as a country was born. It gave birth to lot of orphans and refugees. Gunday is about two young orphans Bikram and Bala who witnessed the war and its aftermath. Refugee camp turned out to be a hell rather than a shelter for them, where the seeds of gunday was sown. Fighting for survival, the inseparable duo escaped to Calcutta (now Kolkatta). The young Bikram and Bala enacted by Darshan Gurjar and Jayesh V Kardak reminded me of Salim Malik – Jamal Malik (played by Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Ayush Mahesh Khedekar) of slumdog millionaire. Both Darshan and Jayesh have given fabulous performance.

The grown up Bikram (Ranveer Singh) and Bala (Arjun Kapoor) with their illegal business (they have justification for all these) started ruling Calcutta and became its most loved, most celebrated, most reckless, most fearless, and most powerful ... Gunday!

There comes the entry of gorgeous Nandita (Priyanka Chopra), a cabaret dancer who swept both Bikram and Bala off their feet. There are certain light moments when both Bikram and Bala try to woo Nandita turn by turn. I wish, these moments could have been prolonged a little more. Nandita has given some sensuous performance through dance sequences. Although her costumes don’t belong to 80’s era of fashion.

Irrfan Khan as ACP Satyajeet Sarkar has definitely added his style, cool, composure to the character. He plans a chakraviewh and the movie moves ahead to let us know whether and how Bikram, Bala get trapped in that chakraviewh. Irrfan is also the narrator.

Music by Sohail Sen is good. Jashn-e-Ishqa, Jiya, Tune maari entriyaan and Aslame-Ishqum have ranked well in the chart-busters. Irshad Kamil as penned down some good lyrics. Cinematography by Aseem Mishra highlights Hoogly, Howra Bridge, fish market… the specialties of Calcutta.

Director Ali Abbas Zafar has definitely tried to take out the best from Ranveer and Arjun, although I felt Arjun’s expressions betrayed his dialogue at times – ‘Ye tevar humare khoon me hai’. I need to mention that I missed the director Ali Abbas Zafar of Mere Brother ki Dulhan fame in this movie.

Saurabh Shukla is natural and effortless as always.

It is disheartening that Gunday has nothing new to offer. Very predictable plot.

Watch Gunday only for Ranveer & Arjun’s chemistry, Irrfan’s tactful cop act and Priyanka’s dance numbers.

Alas! Gunday …Hum Gunday the, Gunday hain aur Gunday rahenge… Koi hume sudhaar nahi sakta…   

Om Shanti Oshana (ഓം ശാന്തി ഓശാന)

Cast: Nivin Pauly, Nazriya Nazim, Aju Varghese,Vineeth Srinivasan, Renji Panickar, Vinaya Prasad, Shobha Mohan, Nelson, Lal Jose, Akshaya Premnath, Oshein Mertil, Harikrishnan, Vijay Raghavan (Guest Appearance), Manju Satheesh, Nikki Galrani

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Direction: Jude Anthany Joseph

Production: Alvin Antony

Story: Midhun Manuel Thomas

Screenplay : Midhun Manuel Thomas, Jude Anthany Joseph

Cinematographer: Vinod Illampally

Music: Shaan Rahman

Editing : Lijo Paul

Studio : Ananya Films

Release Date: 7^th February, 2014

Language: Malayalam

Duration: 2 hours 10 minutes

Rating: 3.5/5(Good +)

Om Shanti Oshana (ഓം ശാന്തി ഓശാന), is so refreshing and exhilarating. The female protagonist of the movie Nazriya Nazim as Pooja Mathew narrates the story. The movie scores high due to its simplicity. Though when the movie opens with the birth of a girl child and her journey to grow as a teenager (shown in the inset) with nursery rhymes in the background, it gives a feeling that the movie plot might have been dealt very very lightly. But as the plot unfolds, it is delightful to watch a teenage girl Pooja trying to explore love in life. After a brief period of infatuation with Yardley (a class mate), she gets infatuated with the male lead Nivin Pauly as Giri Madhavan. Yeah, initially it seems to be a mere infatuation of Pooja with Giri. I could relate very well to the infatuations of the teenager but later it is amazing to watch the beautiful lighter moments through which an infatuation transforms into steadfast love and it has been dealt in with great maturity by ‘still-to-grow’ teenager Pooja.

Nazriya as Pooja has given a very natural and spontaneous performance, who has expressed the intricate emotions of anxiety, love / possessiveness for Giri, disappointment after being treated as a small girl by Giri, still holding him close to her heart with the hope of uniting with him etc. very convincingly.

Nivin Pauly as Giri has given a fine assured performance with his serious look and dons various roles viz. a social worker, kung fu master effortlessly. Though this movie is narrated from Pooja’s perspective, Giri as a clear-headed, almost ascetic, practical youngster does leave an impact through his ground-to-earth performance.

Pooja’s parents Doctor-Teacher couple – Dr. Mathews (played by Renji Panikar) and Annie do give some wonderful positive and humorous moments in the movie. I liked the way parenting has been shown.

Aju Varghese as David Kanjani is hilarious. And Vineeth Srinivasan as Dr. Prasad Varkey has less screen time but pivotal to the plot. Vinaya Prasad as Rachel has also a small role that of a wine-maker, but adds value to the movie by her sheer serene performance.

Other actors viz. Shobha Mohan as Giri’s mother, Lal Jose, Harikrishnan, Manju Satheesh, Nikki Galrani have also given good performances.

Director Jude Anthany Thomas has been successful in making a very simple straightforward rom-com movie without much twists / turns and a grey character / element within it. I watched the whole movie with a smile on my face.

Cinematographer Vinod Illampally has shot the visuals in sync with the simple positive tone and mood / tempo of the movie.

Shaan Rahman’s music adds to the romantic flavour of the film. Especially “Kattu Mooliyo Pranayam…” is good.

Watch Om Shanti Oshana and celebrate Oshana of love, positivity, tranquility and splash of humour.

Heartless

Cast: Adhyayan Suman, Ariyana Ayam, Om Puri, Deepti Naval, Shekhar Suman, Madan Jain

Genre: Romantic Medical Thriller

Direction: Shekhar Suman

Production: Alka Suman

Story: Niranjan Iyengar

Screenplay : Nina Arora

Cinematographer: Derrick Fong

Music: Gaurav Dagaonkar

Editing : Akshara Prabhakar

Studio : Windmill Entertainment

Distribution: Windmill Entertainment

Release Date: 7^th February, 2014

Language: Hindi

Duration: 2 hours 17 minutes

Rating: 3/5(Good)

Heartless, a directorial debut by Shekhar Suman. I heard Shekhar Suman sharing in one of the TV show during movie promotions that this movie is literally and figuratively heartless. True upto an extent. Shekhar Suman indeed dons the hat of a director in a very good manner. Though, I need to admit that this movie has its own share of flaws and fine points.

The first half of the movie is not built up logically and the characters are not defined nicely. I kept on wondering at the fast-motion love which blossomed between the lead pair Adhyayan Suman as Aditya Singh / Addi and Ariyana Ayam as Ria and tried to figure out what actually clicked between them. Why Aditya seemed to be unsure of himself, insecure in life, rebellious at times in spite of his businesswoman mother Ms. Gayatri Singh (played by Deepti Naval) showering him with her love, care, concern…it is not justified properly.

The first half gives a feeling that it is going to be the struggle of Aditya to cope up with a deadly heart disease, rather win over the disease with the support of Ria’s love. But, when the movie began, the noting said that it focuses on Anesthesia Awareness (a scary situation wherein a patient seemingly unconscious to the doctors is able to hear sounds and experience pain). So, my thoughts moved to the direction that probably, it could be a case of medical negligence. Could it be a love story or be a Medical Thriller…?

But the plot changes its track in the second half which kept me glued to the screen better than the first half ...the story begins here. With unpredictable and shocking twists, suspense is built up, still I wish the subject could have been dealt more clearly (though it is heartless on my part to say so).

Adhyayan looks good on screen, especially during the song sequences. Ariyana delivered an average performance, though looks pretty on screen.

Shekhar Suman as Cardiologist Samar Saxena is effortless in his performance. But the non-clarity (at times) of the script gets translated to his certain scenes as well.

Deepti Naval is great as Aditya’s mother, whose head-strong shrewd personality is shown on one side and on the other hand, a doting mother who lived for her son. Om Puri as Dr. Trehaan’s role is minimal yet pivotal to the movie.

Thumbs up for the exceedingly well shot scenes (especially Dubai) by Cinematographer Derrick Fong, a few nice songs (though out of place at times), a heart-touching emotional mother-son scene towards the end, no melodrama overpowering the characters… and above all a welcome break from the regular story…

It would be Heartless to write this off completely.

Hasee Toh Phasee

Cast: Siddharth Malhotra, Parineeti Chopra, Adah Sharma, Manoj Joshi, Sharat Saxena, Neena Kulkarni, Karan Johar (Guest Appearance), Bobby Darling (in a Song)

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Direction: Vinil Mathew

Production: Karan Johar, Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane, Anurag Kashyap

Story: Harshavardhan Kulkarni

Screenplay : Harshavardhan Kulkarni

Cinematographer: Sanu John Varughese

Music: Vishal-Shekhar, Amar Mangrulkar (Background score)

Editing : Shweta Venkat

Studio : Phantom Films, Light N Light

Distribution: Dharma Productions

Release Date: 7^th February, 2014

Language: Hindi

Duration: 2 hours 21 minutes

Rating: 3.5/5(Good +)

Hasee Toh Phasee, undoubtedly is not a regular rom-com movie with a typical love triangle, or a runaway bride or a movie with long romantic dialogues. The lead pair Nikhil Bhardwaj (Siddharth Malhotra) and Meeta (Parineeti Chopra) are weird, quirky, and unconventional. Nikhil feels that asking money from would-be father-in-law is not a threat to his self-respect, and on the other side, Meeta steals her own father’s money; both do so for breakthrough in their respective careers. Meeta completely wins us over with her deglamourized performance. 

Yes, the strength of the movie is that it is distinctly different from the usual ones and both Siddharth ‘emotional dhakkan’ (in his own words) and Parineeti as ‘bahut hi khatarnak experimental’ are terrific together.

The first half of the movie moves from a Chawl in Mumbai to Delhi and back to Mumbai over a span of two decades which though moved very fast, but the background / plot of the movie was build up in a sluggish manner. Still, bizarre mannerism displayed by Parineeti (a runaway daughter, who comes back from China), popping up pills followed with projection of a weird expression on face and the confident screen presence / endearing smile of Siddhartha are definitely refreshing which pulls us through the first half. This unusual, soft and neat decent love between the lead pair develops slowly through lot of freakish / comical / bizarre incidents. Let me tell you, there is no mushy-mushy love in this movie.

Almost 80% of the plot develops with the wedding celebrations in the backdrop and wacky guests, which do ensure Karan Johar Moments.

Karishma (Adah Sharma), sister of Meeta is good in the role of an actress, ready to be hitched, who is particular that her fiancée earns on his own capability, announcing break-up every now and then (since she is sure that her fiancée would never leave her).  

Manoj Joshi (as Meeta /Karishma’s father) excels and we get to see wonderful emotional bondage between father and the eccentric daughter Meeta whom he finds extremely intelligent, creative and original. The poignant reunion of the father-daughter duo after a period of seven years do moist our eyes. Sharath Saxena (as Nikhil’s father) is also good as a retired IPS officer. Neena Kulkarni (as Nikhil’s mother) is also good.     

It can not be denied that movie is baffling at times. Just wish that the debutant director Vinil Mathew should have enhanced the pace of the movie atleast a bit more so as to engross the audience (when I say pace, I mean the pace of Tanu Weds Manu, Jab We Met, Banti Babli etc.).

Screenplay / Story by Harshvardhan Kulkarni takes a different take on the modern day romance. Dialogues by Anurag Kashyap are simple and clean without double meanings or slangs. The cinematographer Sanu John Varughese has done a good job in capturing the Panoramic view of Mumbai’s sweeping Powai Skyline and other locale.

The song ‘Zehnaseeb’ sung by Shekhar and Chinmayi Sripada is musical to the ears and a romantic treat. Though other numbers viz. Punjabi wedding number, Shake it like Shammi, Drama queen, Manchala, Ishq Bulaava are youthful but easily forgettable.

Watch this movie, if you can ignore the lapses in the logic in it and are ready to enjoy a very soft, clean, unconventional yet baffling romantic comedy (though it is neither a hard core romantic movie nor a comedy).

Hasee Toh Phasee may not drive you crazy with laughter but am sure you may get trapped in the positive tone of this movie.