Well I have not read Chetan Bhagat’s novel, but even if you have read it, I guess this movie offers a refreshing twist to it. With Mohit Suri’s direction, this Arjun Kapoor-Shraddha Kapoor starrer somehow fails to impress, the reasons best known to the director and the author of the novel as well. It’s a typical Bollywood movie and deserves a one-time watch this weekend. Go watch it with your girlfriend but not ‘half’ right?

Half Girlfriend had the potential to be a real crowd pleaser. The original novel isn’t Romeo & Juliet but it did have its charm. Sadly, the film makes a total meal put of original concept. Its not even half as good as the book its based on. 

Half Girlfriend is a gorgeous-looking film with no real relevance beyond its Valentinian boundaries, with  plenty of unspoken chemistry between the lead pair. It could have done with less schmaltz and more raw passion, less cuteness and more real emotions.

But here is the thing. It delivers exactly the charming  confection thatChetan Bhagat’s novel attempted to be.

Through this half baked attempt at romance, social service, drunkenness you realise that Half Girlfriend is an asinine attempt at movie making, the heroine would rather have cancer than be his girlfriend! There’s no reason at all why you should go see this film.  

Half Girlfriend is a film that makes you laugh and cry – you laugh at the folly of wasting your time on it, and cry tears of exasperation. If you want to watch people playing basketball and falling in love, we recommend renting Kuch Kuch Hota Hai instead – at least that one has some nostalgia added in.

Half Girlfriend is an exasperatingly asinine love story sans depth or any kind of reasoning. It glorifies stalking, manhandling, belittles grave medical conditions and girls’ education issue with its lame and superficial treatment. It lazily talks about small town life, class divides, language barriers, gender inequality and penury. My childhood debates were far better researched than this painfully pseudo love saga that rolls out for a painful two and a half hours.

The songs in the film are hummable and the film, as expected, with excellent production values is all gloss and fluff but low on substance.

Prominent as the Suri trademarks are, Half Girlfriend is very much a Chetan Bhagat film. All the markers of the man—the anti-intellectualism, the perfumed reek of good intentions, the ability to grind down complex issues into bite-size chunks of positivity—are all present. “Madhav Jha is not a name. Madhav Jha is an attitude,” we’re told at one point. It’s surprising this line isn’t in the book: it has the sort of management-institute facileness that suits the author’s style perfectly.

The film lacks two essentials. First, there is no visible chemistry between the leading actors. Their journey of falling in love is cut rather abruptly. Second, the love story isn’t palpable enough. It’s no wonder then that the convoluted mess, which goes on for over two hours, fails to tug at one’s heart. The leading actors fail to lift the tempo of this snail-paced film, although Vikrant Massey, as Madhav’s friend Shailesh, shines.

‘Half Girlfriend’ is full of loopholes.

Neither a compelling tearjerker nor an epic contemporary romance, Half Girlfriend is definitely not the film to celebrate modern love.

The constant issue in Half Girlfriend is its wimpy characters and the contrivances they resort to arrive at its predictable conclusion.
Stupidity is responded with equal, if not more, stupidity…

Go for it and savour the romance. Experience the cracking chemistry of Arjun-Shraddha.

‘Half Girlfriend’ is too bad a film for human eyes. Unless, of course, you still like to watch love that is not only mushy, but also cringe-worthy, all at once. The film is definitely not worth your ticket price.

I enjoyed the first half. Suri knows how to create drama, and sweeps us up in places, enough for us to ignore the constructed-ness of the characters and the plot. In the second, which is doused in melodrama and swelling `gaana’, I was left with that looming question: is half better than none?

Half Girlfriend is confused, forced and takes the audience for granted. In one word: disappointing.

Mohit Suri, who knows how to whip up drama and create moments, is woefully off his game here. “Half Girlfriend” is a misfire of epic proportions. Blame it on the book, or the script that it spawned, but this movie is excruciating to endure. It’s the cinematic equivalent of an ulcer.

Ruined by a bland, by-the-numbers plot and mediocre performance, HALF GIRLFRIEND is a painful adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s novel. Yes we have had engaging adaptations like KAI PO CHE!, 2 STATES and the modern cult 3 IDIOTS (inspired) from Chetan Bhagat’s work but we also had ONE NIGHT @ THE CALL CENTRE and now we have HALF GIRLFRIEND to give a full company.

Dekho but at your own risk.

Half Girlfriend has full drama and works primarily due to Arjun Kapoor’s stellar performance and his crackling chemistry with Shraddha Kapoor.

Director Mohit Suri seems to have taken the ‘half’ in the film’s title a tad too seriously when it came to big screen. Mediocre performances and sluggish pace play a major spoilsport here.
The film has a couple of instances where Riya (Shraddha) is seen crooning ‘Stay A Little Longer’. Wonder if that was meant for the restless lot of us who were waiting for the end credits to roll soon!

I would recommend going to a restaurant or café, chatting with friends, reading a good book, getting a spa done or whatever, just whatever that makes you happy and keeps you occupied during the weekend rather than watching this boring, silly tale. If you are indeed planning to watch Half Girlfriend, don’t tell me that I didn’t warn you before!

Watch this film if you are in the mood for a romance punctuated by a generous dose of drama, tears and heartache.You may not become any wiser in love with this film, but you are not going to die of boredom either.

It’s only towards the end that Half Girlfriend, the film, begins to diverge from Half Girlfriend, the book. Otherwise, it’s an all-too-faithful adaptation. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that this is a smart adaptation — unlike Kai Po Che or even 2 States — and more’s the pity.

The first half breezes through, but post interval proceedings hang; in tandem with the hangdog expression worn by the hero. Arjun is sincere, but seems too urban for an ideal `Bihari’ fit. And Shraddha, who looks her loveliest here, lacks gravitas.