Ramaiya Vastavaiya (u/A)

Director: Prabhudeva
Cast: Girish Kumar, Shruti Haasan, Sonu Sood, Randhir Kapoor, Vinod Khanna
Running time: 148 minutes

Ramaiya Vastavaiya is so ’80s in theme and treatment that you half expect a Jeetendra in white shoes or a Shakti Kapoor in drawstring pyjamas to pop up on screen. Instead, it’s back to the ’70s with Vinod Khanna and Randhir Kapoor who, between themselves, whip up enough melodrama to push Nirupa Roy and Durga Khote on to the back foot.

That melodrama, of course, comes from its origins. A frame-by-frame copy of Prabhudeva’s directorial debut Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana, Ramaiya Vastavaiya has bits and pieces of almost every Salman Khan love story you can think of — Maine Pyar Kiya to Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! to Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya. But those films were fresh and had a story to hook the viewer; Ramaiya Vastavaiya is so formulaic that even the good bits from its inspirations end up being boring and stale.

The threadbare plot can be summed up in a single breath: spoilt rich boy meets simple middle-class girl and the two fall in love. With both families opposing the match, boy has to prove his love for the girl by winning over her strict brother. The boy in question is Ram (debutant Girish Kumar) who spends the first half of the film clowning around with a mop of hair on his head that suspiciously looks like steel wool. No wonder Sona (Shruti Haasan), who he meets at his cousin’s wedding, refers to him as ‘Australian bandar’ for the major part of the film. But expectedly, the two fall hopelessly in love by interval point. The inevitable happens and the lovers are separated, with Sona’s brother Raghuveer (Sonu Sood) throwing Ram a challenge to prove his love. The challenge? He has to reap more harvest than him by the time the season draws to a close. Yawn….

To be fair, the first half isn’t all that bad. The constant nonk-jhonk between the leads is fun, but gets repetitive after a point. There’s hardly any spark in scene or dialogue and Prabhudeva — who has given us action money-spinners like Wanted and Rowdy Rathore — tries to inject humour, but if landing face first in a pile of cowdung or getting head-butted by a ram is your idea of LOL, then Ramaiya Vastavaiya has that kind of humour in abundance.

Tips honcho Kumar Taurani puts money and marketing muscle behind son Girish and though the newcomer is endearing in parts, he clearly isn’t leading man material. Shruti Haasan is stiff and there’s hardly any chemistry between the lead pair. Nasser, who has impressed in many a Mani Ratnam film, is reduced to a bumbling extra, with Sonu Sood as the only saving grace of this film. Music men Sachin-Jigar, however, do well in punctuating this formulaic film with some foot-tappers.

Steer clear of this ’80s mish-mash. If revisiting the past is your weekend fix, opt for a Bhaag Milkha Bhaag or a Lootera re-run.