Folks,
Caught a screening of Bachna, which began at 6:15 at Fallbrook,
Southern Cal and ended at 9:05. Why am I giving you all these stats?
Cause therein lies the problem. While an ok watch, it was just too
long and too predictable.
I looked at my watch 12 times after the
first hour and when intermission came, I actually thought it was "the
end." Actually if it had ended there, it would have made a fine film.
Luckily "intermission" came only as a word, not an actual interval,
cause else we would have had to sit though 20 minutes more.
To truly enjoy this film, watch it in Fallbrook, cause there is a 24
hour fitness next door, some fine food, take along an Ipod, etc,
cause you'll need all of that.
Summary of the film was, boy toys with two, dumps them, now girl toys
with boy dumps him, now boy seeks his own redemption, the first
redemption is fine, the second one is forced (whereas it should be
the other way around) and happens for no reason and then lo behold
now the "independent" third girl, for no reason, has become "highly
dependent."
The "for no reason" is the romantic comedy way of what Sanjay Gupta
resorts to in his thirllers, "mindless violence" when the
scriptwriter cannot bring out any other logical justification.
There is a game going around asking which girl the guy gets? Since
the movie is so predictable, the answer to that one is also very
predictable and I won't venture there. Acting wise, I thought so in
Saawariya and I still think so, Ranbir is average (not bad, but not
as amazing as he is made out to be), Bipasha is not. Forget the "hot
and happening factor" the lady can act. She stole the thunder in
DHOOM 2, she certainly does so in Bachna. Kunal is probably a Yash
Raj loyalist, nothing else can explain why he would do the cameo that
he does do (and nothing wrong in being a loyalist, that is just my
observation).
The songs are catchy, and so is Minisha's excessive make up. The
locales are nice, although in all these the city of Amritsar is
probably captured better than all of Australia and Italy. Given I
spent last summer in Zug, in Switzerland, that country has been
caught beautifully on camera, although it is Gastaad here. The guy
who plays Ranbir's buddy is actually pretty impressive. The pace is
light, but when the lenght increases everything else seems too long.
It has a bit of masala to keep it moving, but director Siddharth
Anand tries too hard to emulate a Salaam Namaste.
Sincerely,
Vivek "it's great that multiplexes in India are also malls, otherwise
Bachna se Bachna" Kumar
