Release date (India):
|
November 21, 2014
|
Director:
|
Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK
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Cast:
Language:
|
Saif Ali Khan, Ileana
D’Cruz, Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, Govinda, Preity Zinta, Guest
appearance: Kareena Kapoor Khan
Hindi and English
|
Happy
Ending
is a romcom that aims to deconstruct romcoms. It comes armed with the sort of
understated humour we don’t get enough from Bollywood. Too often we assume that
laughter, loudness and mindlessness are inextricably linked. Well, firstly,
inoffensive mindlessness can be enjoyable unless it becomes the only available
option. Second, the assumption itself is wrong. Happy Ending, for instance, elicits a steady stream of laughs
throughout its two-and-a-quarter hours of running time, but it is certainly not
mindless – despite its flawed screenplay – nor is it loud. The film is sweet, comical
and harmless enough to tide over its own failings.
While telling us the
story of Yudi Jaitley, the film also takes potshots at formulaic romantic
comedies in literature and mainstream Bollywood. Yudi (Saif Ali Khan) is an
over-grown baby living in California, a writer who has lived off his one bestselling
novel for five-and-a-half years now. It’s got him fame, money and girls, which
is all he wants from life.
Like the characters Saif
has played in a number of films, Yudi is an easygoing, commitment-phobic flirt,
unaware of his vulnerabilities. By the time we meet him at the start of this
film, his bank balance is running out, that first book has faded from public
memory and his car is being towed away by creditors. He has failed to deliver
his second manuscript to his publishers who are now busy with their hot new
acquisition, a young India-based writer of romances called Aanchal Reddy
(Ileana D’Cruz) who is currently on a book promotion tour of the US.
To save Yudi from
bankruptcy, his agent gets him a contract with the middle-aged Bollywood
superstar Armaan (Govinda) who wants him to whip up a screenplay bringing
together the best of Bollywood and Hollywood. The brief: plagiarise without
qualms. Yudi cannot write romances, so he begins to pursue Aanchal for inspiration.
As he courts her and simultaneously struggles with his writing, Happy Ending embarks on its dissection
of romcom formulae.
A similar dissection of
this film’s screenplay is telling. Happy
Ending is unrelentingly amusing and offers occasional wisdom, but leaves many
questions unanswered. For a start, swallowing Yudi and Aanchal’s success
requires a stretch of the imagination because of the setting. How many Indian writers
of light English fiction (whether US- or India-based) have achieved stardom in
the US? It’s one thing for the story to offer us one, but two within a span of 5-6
years? Aanchal is presented as an emerging celebrity but Yudi is somewhat in
the mould of Richard Castle from the teleserial Castle. It’s not an impossible situation, it’s just improbable as
of now, which makes you wonder why the film couldn’t have simply been set in
Delhi or Mumbai?
Armaan is held up as a mirror to
Bollywood’s eccentricities. Well, if Armaan wanting little Alia Bhatt to be
the heroine of his film-within-this-film is a haha moment, consider the
implications of the casting of Happy
Ending. Ageing bachelors with a wandering eye do exist, so I’m not questioning
the decision to have Saif playing Yudi. What though necessitated the casting of
Ileana, who is nearly two decades Saif’s junior, as Aanchal? The question
raises its head further because Preity Zinta appears in a small role in the
film. She’s as sweet-looking, likeable and talented as ever, is far closer to
Saif’s age than Ileana, was lovely opposite him in Kal Ho Naa Ho, and there’s no logical reason why she couldn’t have
played Aanchal – except that Happy Ending
is made in a misogynistic industry that retires women past a certain age.
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That being said, Saif’s
comic timing remains one of his
strengths though I do wish he would cut his hair, gel it less and lose some
weight. Also, his dialogue delivery lacks clarity in his second avatar in the
film as a paunchy, bespectacled, sloppy chap who is Yudi’s inner voice. Ileana
is a natural before the camera, has a pleasant screen presence and is
absolutely gorgeous.
The film’s four
satellite characters are all played by interesting actors who get varying
treatment from the writers. Ranvir Shorey excels as Yudi’s chaddi buddy Montu who is stuck in a miserable marriage. Kalki
Koechlin as Yudi’s clingy girlfriend Vishakha is adequate, though the
screenplay seems to repeatedly forget her existence; Vishakha doesn’t exit and
enter the stage smoothly, but pops up and out instead, disappearing from Yudi’s
consciousness in between.
The stars of the
supporting cast though are Preity and veteran Govinda who owns the screen every
time he is within sight. His Armaan is hilarious. As he moves to G Phaad Ke, you can’t help but notice
with a touch of emotion that the waistline is wider than it used to be, the
limbs are perhaps not as elastic as they once were, but boy oh boy, he still
dances with every cell of his being! The best-written character on the
sidelines of Yudi and Aanchal’s romance though is his ex who is now married and a
mother of triplets. It’s hard not to feel a touch of emotion too watching
Preity in that role which has been termed a guest appearance in the credits, no
doubt in deference to the superstardom the actress once enjoyed before the
industry cruelly discarded her.
Sachin-Jigar’s songs are
entertaining, with lyrics as quirky, for the most part, as Happy Ending aims at being. Visually too this is an eye-pleasing
experience. Oddly enough, considering the title, the film’s weakest point is
its ending. Though the girl remains consistently unconventional and challenging
to the man, the climax lacks panache. As unconventional romcom endings go,
Bollywood is yet to better Shakun Batra’s Ek Main aur Ekk Tu from 2012.
Directors Raj Nidimoru
and Krishna DK, who helmed 2011’s fantastic Shor In The City, have a flair for low-key storytelling which is why they pull off this film despite its issues. It helps that though they are spoofing
romcoms, their tone is not mocking. Besides, they acknowledge through the voice
of Armaan, that lofty ideals notwithstanding, cliches do succeed. Happy Ending is sadly not as wacky as it
could have been, nor is
its effort to deconstruct romcoms particularly effective or as clever and sharp
as it wants to be. However, it’s genuinely funny and unobjectionable, which makes it
easy to forgive the film its many shortcomings. I was conscious of all my
grievances while watching it, but I couldn’t help laughing non-stop all the same.
Rating (out of five): **3/4
CBFC Rating (India):
|
U/A
|
Running time:
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136 minutes
|
Posters courtesy:
Videos courtesy: The Glitch
Jaise Mera Tu video:
Haseena Tu Kameena Main
video:
Mileya Mileya video:
Paaji Tussi Such A
Pussycat remix:
