The major accomplishment however is that it explains why most bollywood rom-coms(or atleast the Yashraj and Dharma productions ones) are heading south - the sense that they are trying to be uber“cool”. This display of blatant coolness is everywhere with Jai turning Jay, a man who dresses in formals addressed as uptight and mocked endlessly. The foundation of the story is trying to be cool with Jai continuously scoffing at the idea of love while Simran who works as an art director on a romantic director’s(smoothly played by Sonu Sood) set lives by that very notion.

The problem is first time director Punit Malhotra doesn’t invest in the relationship much at all but unremittingly throws dialogues from old hindi movies in a ridicule laden sentiment via Jay’s character. He could do well to take a few tips from Imtiaz Ali, the man whose earthy love stories and the transition from non-committed to emotional attachment is written in such a relatable way that one feels that this might exactly be an encounter in the everyday life of two people in a relationship.

Imran Khan who has a limited reservoir of acting, is at tremendous ease in the bouncy sequences that dot the first half but comes nowhere to winning our heart in the second half. IHLS is almost an extended and bare-bones version of Aamir-Preity Dil Chahta Hai track. And that is why, he didn’t need to look further than his accomplished uncle’s portrayal of the cool Akash and his feelings and that too in a ditto scene in DCH, the one over the telephone where Aamir describes his lost love to his Dad. Imran's performance is no where as wrenching.

Sonam is perfectly cast but how you wish she was more fleshed out(physically as well, she is taking size zero to negative) as to her history with her “perfect” boyfriend, what makes them click as a pair in addition to the hasty story that they are childhood buddies. She is as always pleasurable in the light hearted scenes but is very raw in settings that need a bit more heart.

Sometimes, I say take it easy and try to enjoy a romantic film on its surface alone but even that is hard with this film. I hate luv storys , which even in its spelling of its title challenges grammatical syntax in order to be cool, tries promisingly in the beginning to ridicule the concept of love, but ends up mocking its own self.

Stranger than fiction.... and fact

An amateur drama masquerading as a movie

Anjaana Anjaani starts off with the protagonists on a bridge ready to commit suicide. In a hastily assembled back story, Akash(Ranbir) invested a lot of money in a particular venture only to see the market crash and go bankrupt. He meets the equally depressed Kiara(Priyanka in a pseudo vivacious role) who is there for another reason shown to us during the course of the movie.

The beginning portions do show the maturity that has slowly crept into Siddharth Anand’s direction ala Kjo’s KANK and I thought this will be a light hearted tear-jerker worth analyzing. But after that promising start , Anjaana Anjaani is unique in its texture that there is nothing to dissect. It is as if the production team came up with a check list that read

Trendy expensive wardrobe despite hero-heroine being penniless – Check

Great locales – Check

Music – Check, 2 club songs, 1 road song, 1 mellow song.

Screenplay – Check...Gay jokes, underwear underwear, hooking up with a hooker , yeah we do have some idea of a screenplay. And we can always figure something out as we go along. And oh yes, tribute to previous Yashraj movies in many scenes.

Character history – Check , errr….Not needed, ok a little bit put in. Make them orphans, lets make it easy on ourselves.

Original Script – Hmm… Yashraj we have a problem.

There is no script to speak of astonishingly. And whatever is dished out on the screen seems more juvenile than Dennis the Menace. There is not one character that makes us root for him or her. Every situation, every dialogue comes up as a cropper. It is quite frustrating that here was a great opportunity to explore two flawed people coming together on a road journey, but the chance is wasted and everything seems a contrivance.

Priyanka who enthralls us with her mini-dresses is equally mini in the acting department not helped by the fact that the character is so poorly etched. Ranbir is a zombie who seems to have sleepwalked on to the wrong set. He lacks commitment.

Anjaana Anjaani is a fatuous travelogue of sorts with the music being the only thing going for it. At the end of the movie, how you wish the film, would have ended right at the start with the two leads jumping to their conclusion to spare their own anguish as well as ours.

The music is awesome in both the movies, however it is all in vain. :(

The plot is once again inspired from old Hindi films, a couple of English ones and mixed with a clever dollop of nostalgia. The main story revolves around Pritam (Mithun), a widower and his three sons Madhav(Warsi), Laxman(Khemu) and Lucky(Tusshar) who due to business rivalries cannot see eye to eye with Gopal(Devgan), his brother Laxman(Talpade) who are actually the sons of Pritam’s ex lover Geeta(Ratna Pathak). The ex-lovers situation is uproariously executed in a Hindi film spoof and Mithun Da reprising his disco dancer role. Daboo(Kareena) tries to get the old couple together but in the process has to convince the whole family to live together.

From the performances, Devgan just can’t crack it at comedy. He is pretty wooden and I think Shetty just picks him up for representing sanity in this mad atmosphere. Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade are the main rib-ticklers while it was great to see Johny Lever back in form. His two cronies Vrijesh Hrijee and especially Sanjay Mishra whose way of spelling was just hilarious also liven up the already frenzied air. Perhaps, the more interesting aspect (for me who prefer humor to be more subtle than slapstick) of the movie was Kunal Khemu’s idiomatic dialogues which packed a nice little punch of their own. Kareena is for the glamour but goes through the motions well. Mithun and Ratna Pathak Shah are good.

Overall, the fun remains until the jokes and acts begin to get repetitive but neither the film claims nor expects to be some logical device. Total Paisa Vasool. Watch it for timepass but I just hope no more Golmaal movies are in the pipeline.

Rating : 2.5/5

There is a thing called watching films because of the simple pleasure involved in watching them. But seeing Christopher Nolan’s Inception, gives you watching a video game feel. Audiences claim that it bends your mind but looking at its action sequences I thought it bends gravity more than the mind.