Bachna Ae Haseeno

Bachna Ae Haseeno is well shot, competently performed and the writing shows glimpses of honest-to-goodness subtext and intelligent character development. It's also a film centering around a lead actor, showing off just how much of 'it' he has -- and he has more than a fair amount. If only the second half wasn't as predictable as it is, the film was an hour shorter and every one-liner wasn't accompanied by a burst of background score acting like a laugh track, we could have had a really good film.

In the end, of course, Bachna Ae Haseeno is a showreel for the sheer talent of Ranbir Kapoor who blazes across the screen like a blinding light. He's got that indescribable star quality, and what's more he can act. At comedy, in the emotional scenes, and yes of course when he's dancing — your eyes are transfixed on the screen when he's up there even in a passing shot. Despite its strengths, the film isn't terribly good, and that's a pity because it most definitely could have been. Ultimately, it's an average film, at best time-pass viewing.

The film belongs to Ranbir Kapoor. Even when he's doing the most awful things you really can't get mad at him. Bachna Ae Haseeno is unapologetically shallow, highly improbable and despite the occasional kissing, absolutely sanitised. But that's precisely what we see Yash Raj films for. I recommend that you check- in reality at the door and enjoy this over-blown fantasy.

The promise that Ranbir Kapoor displayed in Saawariya, his debut venture, has been duly fulfilled in this breezy, urbane tale of love and longing, set against a come-of-age backdrop of 21st century twenty-something Indians. Here is a crackling bunch of gals and guys who mirror the mores and manners of modern India, even as they re-live the traditional Bollywood fable of ishq-vishq, pyar-mohabbat.

Ultimately, however, Bachna is a well-made rom-com, and will serve you allright as the afternoon break on a weekend. Embracing the formula as it does, it has a certain joie de vivre that pervades through. It may get silly as it progresses, but that only brings it down from instant classic to good timepass, and if that could have been said about half the films this year, I wouldn't be as curmudgeonly with this one.

As a director, Siddharth Anand did far better in his last film, "Salaam Namastey". Here, armed once more with a 'it's different' storyline, he remains unable to turn it into something significant, probably because of the sluggish screenplay and little meat in the second half's story. Moreover, by opting for style over substance, he leaves us with a film which looks nice on the surface, but has no heart or soul.