BEFIKRE (U/A)
Director: Aditya Chopra
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Vaani Kapoor
Running time: 133 minutes
When Aditya Chopra made Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge back in 1995, he wasn’t really telling a new story. Two people falling in love and parent(s) not approving was the hot Bolly subject of the time. But Adi told it his way with a lead protagonist not seen before in Hindi cinema.
Cut to 2016, the man’s picked the trending topic in Bolly rom space — two people are in physical union but emotionally isolated. Imtiaz Ali’s done it a couple of times, Karan Johar’s taken a crack and now it’s the time for the Chopra scion to give the matter his own marination. No wonder Adi calls Befikre his “second first film”.
The film’s got more than a French connection. Not only is it entirely set in Paris, the heroine, Shyra (Vaani Kapoor) considers herself French because while both her parents are Indian, she was born and grew up in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Her French is indeed fantastique but she does guided tours of Paris for Indian tourists in Hindi. That’s not where she meets Dharam (Ranveer Singh), though.
Our boy, with borrowed genes from DDLJ’s Raj, is a stand-up comedian from Delhi who’s flown in to Paris by a friend to provide a funny fillip to his restaurant. And Dharam wants to get garam with anybody who would tolerate him. He bumps into Shyra at a party and the two get into this fun dare-to-date deal.
From wolfing down hot chicken wings to slapping a cop in the middle of the road to dancing in bare essentials in libraries, they do their dares and almost suck out each other’s lips at every opportune moment. They start living together — not because they want to have sex; that they were getting loads anyway — to spend more time with each other. That time, however, doesn’t flow well and soon they break up.
Now, in Adi’s world, friendship develops when the couple start meeting again post-break-up. KJo may take note(s). Dharam and Shyra even start dating other people and they seem perfectly okay with the arrangement, so much so that the four go on a weekend getaway together. Emotions finally surface when marriage proposals pop up and it’s time to take stock of what’s left of their past relationship.
The biggest fear about Befikre was whether at 45, Aditya Chopra was the right guy to helm and handle such a young rom com. But somewhat surprisingly, the first half of the film is mint-fresh and a lot of fun.
There’s nothing much in terms of plot but there’s an infectious energy at brew as the movie glides from one episode to another with carefree abandon. The songs (Vishal-Shekhar) work beautifully as well with the lead pair’s dancing giving it a Broadway musical feel rather than an assembly line Bolly song-and-dance routine.
It is the second half which takes an emotional drubbing and not in a good way. The catharsis looks a little plastic because everything till then has been so flaky. The mother-daughter scene looks out of place and the change of heart abrupt. And that very-Priyadarshan finale was definitely not what the good doctor ordered.
But Ranveer makes everything believable. Besides the crowd-pleasing goofiness replete with perfectly-timed one-liners, the endearing vulnerability, which made him a star in Band Baaja Baaraat, is again at full play here. Don’t blink or you might miss the butt flash!
Vaani is a smart bit of casting. That reconstructed chin doesn’t really help, but she’s got great screen presence and gets her attitude for Shyra spot-on. The two of them not only have sizzling chemistry, they also dance like a dream.
Befikre is the most good-looking Bolly film of the year; cinematographer Kaname Onoyama shoots the frames with a lot of warmth and Anne Seibel’s production design is top-notch. After Kahaani 2 last week, editor Namrata Rao again pieces together a film in a way only she can.
Ever since he made that film which still runs in Maratha Mandir after 21 years, Aditya Chopra is always under pressure to deliver a masterpiece. You could actually see that pressure getting to him in Mohabbatein and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Befikre, in the way its written and directed, doesn’t give much of a damn to past glories (the trumpet version of Mehndi lagake rakhna sounds good, though) and seems to have originated from a very pure place. When you are not ogling at the two sexy leads, you are most likely to be wearing a goofy smile on your face.
Pratim D. Gupta
Befikre defines love in 2016 because.... Tell t2@abp.in
