Release date:
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March 14, 2014
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Director:
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Nupur Asthana
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Cast:
Language:
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Sonam Kapoor,
Ayushmann Khurrana, Rishi Kapoor
Hindi
|
“Slim” is a desirable adjective when what’s being
described is a human midriff, a new laptop or cellphone design. As slim as
Sonam Kapoor’s waistline – that’s a compliment to the lady. As slim as Bewakoofiyaan’s storyline – not.
Director Nupur Asthana’s second venture
as a film maker does not live up to the expectations raised by her credentials
as a successful and established TV writer-director, or by her fun first film MujhseFraaandship Karoge. MFK was crisp, pert and
packed with both action and entertaining realism. Bewakoofiyaan, on the
other hand, peters out after a promising first hour. It’s engaging while the
going’s good, inoffensive once it loses its fizz, visually appealing
throughout, and average overall. Not bad not good is just not good enough
coming from Asthana, especially considering the team she’s bagged here,
including writer Habib Faisal whose filmography includes the screenplay of that
fantastic 2010 film Band Baaja Baaraat plus Rishi and Neetu Kapoor’s
comeback film as a couple, Do Dooni Chaar which he wrote and directed.
Bewakoofiyaan
stars Sonam as Mayera Sehgal and Ayushmann Khurrana as Mohit Chaddha, two
rising corporate types in Delhi who are very much in love. They’re both earning
well and prone to spending all they have. Mayera is addicted to shoes and
clothes, so it’s a good thing she brings home a hefty pay cheque. Mohit is no
better, and like too many 20-somethings out there today, blithely spends off a
credit card without worrying about the effect on his bank balance.
The third angle in this economic
triangle is Mayera’s dad (Rishi Kapoor), the equivalent of financial chalk to
their cheese. V.K. Sehgal is a retired senior bureaucrat who values money very
differently – he’s thrifty without being miserly, and comes from a generation
which was taught to save for a rainy day when the monsoons are many months away.
What happens to the equation between these three when an unexpected cash crunch
visits one of them? Will relationships suffer? Can love survive? These are the
questions that Bewakoofiyaan seeks to answer.
The first half is credible, as are
the two youngsters, but Asthana and Faisal have little to add in the second
half. Besides, though Mayera and Mohit are real, Mr Sehgal is a hyperbole of a
human being. The character might have worked in a film that aims at a
melodramatic tone, but Bewakoofiyaan is not such a film. As a
result, Mayera and Mohit’s tolerance of the old man’s utter rudeness and
meanness to Mohit are hard to digest. Far from being funny, which is what it’s
meant to be, his behaviour borders on the offensive. Yeah yeah, we know fathers
are suspicious of men who date their daughters; we know doting dads are tough
on potential sons-in-law (if the guy is their darling girl’s own choice)
but this man is just plain obnoxious and I can’t possibly imagine a feisty girl
like Mayera or a self-respecting chap like Mohit swallowing his nonsense.
With the advantage of better-written
characters, Sonam and Ayushmann invest them with believability and charm. It's such a joy to see a strong heroine with a substantial career in a Hindi film. The
two actors look good together too. Besides, Sonam is stunning and has a wardrobe to
die for in this film, as she does in most of her films. What she needs to guard
against though is being typecast as the spoilt rich kid on and off screen. Please
don’t point me to films that have been different. Perceptions count for
everything in showbiz, and if she does one more film in which we see her
shopping for designerwear till kingdom come, she’s harming her CV.
The
music of Bewakoofiyaan is nowhere as gripping as I expected considering that
the talented and offbeat Raghu Dixit is the composer. Gulchharrey is the
most appealing of the songs (sung by Benny Dayal whose diction I find attractive).
Both Gulchharrey and Khaamakhaan are well shot. Habib
Faisal’s lyrics for Khaamakhaan encapsulate the film’s story: the girl in the song tells
the guy not to worry about money but he seems convinced that she would not want
him if he went broke, although he has no evidence to support his fears since Mayera
is financially independent and does not treat him like an ATM. She sings: Khaamakhaan
jod-tod kare / Khaamakhaan pai pai pe mare / Khaamakhaan yaar pyaar se dare / Khaamakhaan
mujhe kare kyun pare… Jo toofaan aaya, bistara utthaaya
/ Dil khaali karke tu chala. He counters that with: Tere dil ka kiraaya / Jo bhar nahin paaya / Toh kar degi mujhko dafaa.
Wish the film had explored that theme with greater depth. The
truth is that young men these days are often foxed when they meet women who
don’t need them for financial security. It’s not easy to make the journey from
watching your mother take money from your father all her life, to your
girlfriend who earns enough to support both of you. If Mayera had lost her job,
how differently would she have reacted to a situation of dependence, however
brief, on her boyfriend? Mohit is clearly a liberal, yet is there not a gender
angle to the way he unravels when financial difficulties arise? And if she gets
a plum posting abroad, why doesn’t a woman as broad-minded as Mayera consider
asking the man in her life to join her and to relax while he bides his time searching
for a job in the same city, as most men would have automatically suggested to
their female partners? Is Mayera not as liberal as she appears, or is she pre-supposing
unrevealed insecurities in him?
If Bewakoofiyaan had dug deeper around these questions, it could
have been something special. As things stand, it’s not bad
but not good either.
.
Rating (out of five stars): **1/2
CBFC Rating (India):
|
U/A
|
Running time:
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120 minutes
|
Photograph and videos courtesy: Yash Raj Films
