Movie Review: Half Girlfriend Se Dosti Karoge? Sure, If You Want A Sar Dard
Director saab Mohit Suri delivers an aadhi-adhuri kahani, with neither Arjun Kapoor nor Shraddha Kapoor delivering the acting goods competently
Ab yeh bhi lo. Paperback writer Chetan Bhagat’s lakda and lakdi meet, bicker ticker over their mental faculties, attitude towards sex-vex and then land up in the Big Seb better known as New York, New York.
So wooden are the lakda-lakdi that they’re quite like the desk jahaan se am koshish karoing to likho this tukda of samiksha. Vishay: the Mohit Suri-directed Half Girlfriend. Why not Aadhi Sakhi kripa karke?
Waise bhi both the releases (Hindi Medium is the other one) of this hafta have bhayankar issues, and rightly so, with employing the Queen’s English in the jagah of Hindi. That’s why this review, shama kijiye. Compromise kiya hai. Best to go with Hinglish, this week, hai na?
Accha, must say Mohit Suri is a digdarshak I have a naram corner for, vishesh karke his Kalyug which first tackled the video-porno phenomenon, Woh Lamhe (kaafi engrossing si film thi) ,and Aashiqui 2 as well as Ek Villain khaas karke for their mann-lubha denewaale music scores.
Yeh bayaan karne ke baad, khed hai ki Suri sir’s Hamari Adhuri Kahani, oh was too much unbearable. And now he’s come up with another adha-adhura afsana. Even the gaana bajana doesn’t help this Aadhi Girlfriend much. Sirf Mithoon ka compose kiya hua geet Phir main tumko chahoonga, kabhi kabhar gunguna ke liye kaabil hai.
Shayad mein gunehgar hoon.Chetan Bhagat ki kahaaniyon ka main pankah nahin. Unki angrezi bhasha or plot construction are not my types. Is liye unki yeh bhi novel nahin padhi, sirf picture dekh li. Online credits ke mutabik the kitaab has been adapted into a screenplay by Tushar Hiranandani and dialoguegiri is by Ishita Moitra.
Image Source: youtube/BalajiMotionPictures
Ek-do dialogue ki jhalak bhi padh lijiye. Ek point pe leading lady kehti hain, “Some things cannot be put together after they break. Only the cracks remain.”
Cracked, ha ha! Aur apna hero bhai, ek situation mein kehta hai, “Haar nahin maanni chahiye. Haar ko harana chahiye” or some such. You have to defeat…defeat. Hainnnnh?
Kuchh bhi. Back to Lakda (Arjun Kapoor) who in my perception strives to do an impersonation of Big Moose from the good ole Archie comics. From Bihar, he somehow gets admission into Delhi’s St Steven’s College (St Stephen’s se confuse mat kijiyega). Fatafat, he falls in pyaar with campus ki lakdi (Shraddha Kapoor) on seeing her playing basketball. Prem rog mein der kyun? Woh dono dost ban jaate hain, cuddling, smooching-vooching lekin lakdi kehti hai, no bedroom frolics please. Pyscho-problem hai, you see. Aalishan ghar mein uske daddy-mummy are into an abusive relationship, as distasteful as an unsalted potato chip. Now what?
Our heroji is gussa. She’s just not taking the rishta further. Heroji ka dost (Vikrant Massey) keeps giving him Agony Uncle Advice. Still no go. Phir they re-encounter in Naya York mein. Never too sooner.
Full-on boyfriend stalks Aadhi Girlfriend (reminding you of Badrinath ki Dulhania where the chasing was done in Singapore). Baaki toh aap readers ko sab pata hi hona chahiye. Predictable ending ka intezar kijiye unless you haven’t already started counting every maha-slow minute of this unintended take on the far more maturely-argued Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, jis mein Anushka Sharma also wanted to go so far with Ranbir Kapoor, and no further.
Is Mohit Suri’s Bollywood rom-sob in sync with the times? Sach kahoon toh I’m no yeh road blocks hain pyaar ke expert. I can only say neither the boy nor girl showcased here, I’ve ever met, or am likely to meet in this lifetime. Itne avoidable problems create karte hain khaali peeli, that they hardly arouse your concern or prod your jazbaat. Grow up baba and baby, you want to chillao out loud, get yourselves a life with or without each other. Why inflict your woes on us? Duniya mein aur bhi gham aur worth-telling stories hain, yaaron.
Image Source: youtube/BalajiMotionPictures
A technically polished film from Balaji Movie Productions, sure, lekin it’s the kahani and the uninspired way it is narrated, that set off your sar mein splitting dard. Especially, note a weirdo apperance of Bill Gates through techno-jugglery. LOL.
Aur acting shakti ka kya kaha jaaye? Vikrant Massey and Rhea Chakraborty (in an abbreviated part of Lakda’s nayee premika) are theek thaak.
On the other haath, Arjun Kapoor is laboured and miscast. As a smalltown bumpkin-turned-junooni-Romeo, he is mannered and expressionless. In the title role, Shraddha Kapoor tends to focus more on her wardrobe and cosmetic niceties. An likeable actress usually, how you wish, she had dived with more gehrayee into the fathomless waters of emoting.
So, sawaal yeh hai ki yeh Bollywood ki ek aur dil vil pyaar vaar ki kushti recommend ki jaaye ya nahin? Obvious jawaab: nahin, kabhi nahin, kisi aur picture ka intezaar kijiye, please.
Speaking for myself, I’m kicking myself for not catching up belatedly on Bahubali 2.
Kuchh bhi. Back to Lakda (Arjun Kapoor) who in my perception strives to do an impersonation of Big Moose from the good ole Archie comics. From Bihar, he somehow gets admission into Delhi’s St Steven’s College (St Stephen’s se confuse mat kijiyega). Fatafat, he falls in pyaar with campus ki lakdi (Shraddha Kapoor) on seeing her playing basketball. Prem rog mein der kyun? Woh dono dost ban jaate hain, cuddling, smooching-vooching lekin lakdi kehti hai, no bedroom frolics please. Pyscho-problem hai, you see. Aalishan ghar mein uske daddy-mummy are into an abusive relationship, as distasteful as an unsalted potato chip. Now what?
Our heroji is gussa. She’s just not taking the rishta further. Heroji ka dost (Vikrant Massey) keeps giving him Agony Uncle Advice. Still no go. Phir they re-encounter in Naya York mein. Never too sooner.
Full-on boyfriend stalks Aadhi Girlfriend (reminding you of Badrinath ki Dulhania where the chasing was done in Singapore). Baaki toh aap readers ko sab pata hi hona chahiye. Predictable ending ka intezar kijiye unless you haven’t already started counting every maha-slow minute of this unintended take on the far more maturely-argued Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, jis mein Anushka Sharma also wanted to go so far with Ranbir Kapoor, and no further.
Is Mohit Suri’s Bollywood rom-sob in sync with the times? Sach kahoon toh I’m no yeh road blocks hain pyaar ke expert. I can only say neither the boy nor girl showcased here, I’ve ever met, or am likely to meet in this lifetime. Itne avoidable problems create karte hain khaali peeli, that they hardly arouse your concern or prod your jazbaat. Grow up baba and baby, you want to chillao out loud, get yourselves a life with or without each other. Why inflict your woes on us? Duniya mein aur bhi gham aur worth-telling stories hain, yaaron.
Image Source: youtube/BalajiMotionPictures
A technically polished film from Balaji Movie Productions, sure, lekin it’s the kahani and the uninspired way it is narrated, that set off your sar mein splitting dard. Especially, note a weirdo apperance of Bill Gates through techno-jugglery. LOL.
Aur acting shakti ka kya kaha jaaye? Vikrant Massey and Rhea Chakraborty (in an abbreviated part of Lakda’s nayee premika) are theek thaak.
On the other haath, Arjun Kapoor is laboured and miscast. As a smalltown bumpkin-turned-junooni-Romeo, he is mannered and expressionless. In the title role, Shraddha Kapoor tends to focus more on her wardrobe and cosmetic niceties. An likeable actress usually, how you wish, she had dived with more gehrayee into the fathomless waters of emoting.
So, sawaal yeh hai ki yeh Bollywood ki ek aur dil vil pyaar vaar ki kushti recommend ki jaaye ya nahin? Obvious jawaab: nahin, kabhi nahin, kisi aur picture ka intezaar kijiye, please.
Speaking for myself, I’m kicking myself for not catching up belatedly on Bahubali 2.
Thumbnail Image Source: youtube/BalajiMotionPictures & instagram/arjunkapoor
