Rating: **

Director: Aziz Mirza
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Om Puri

Kismat Konnection falls under the league of those feel-good NRI love stories having a customary Indian narration in some foreign location. The kinds where every person the hero even randomly stumbles upon speaks to him in Hindi.

The kinds where the hero is still named as Raj Malhotra. Where’s the story you ask? Left to chance.. fate, destiny, luck or Kismat as you may call it.

Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) is the university topper but somehow luck isn’t favouring him. Five years post graduation he is still jobless and waiting for his first assignment as an architect.

Kismet connects as he comes across Priya (Vidya Balan) who happens to be his lucky charm. In her presence even the impossible turns achievable for Raj. Raj desperately seeks her company in all his endeavours from employment to affection.

Just when you start liking the breezy premise, the director decides to add (rotten) meat to the story by adding a hackneyed love triangle to stretch the screenplay by a few more cliched scenes.

Priya is already engaged with another guy but we are familiar with the fact that the heroine will ultimately end up with the hero. And since the third angle just happens to be some side-hero, he’s also given a bad conduct certificate of two-timing to make his exit easier.

On a parallel note Raj gets the contract to design a shopping mall which incidentally happens to be on the same land where Priya supports a community center.

Surprisingly the film derives the plot on the same grounds of the old age home premise in Lagey Raho Munnabhai and more shockingly Vidya Balan ends up playing the same character as in the earlier film.

Either director Aziz Mirza should have derived from some other source or if the inspiration was so compelling, he should have cast some other actress. This is deja vu on the face.

Finally Raj wins both, Priya and the project by delivering a sentimental speech in the climax where he talks about everything from global warming to US superpower but for the practicality of the project.

Was there a cross connection here? And the film opts for such a convenient conclusion that you wonder if there was any problem at the first place.

Kismat Konnection starts on a promising note but soon resorts to conventional formula. The second half drags with Raj’s repeated attempts to win the construction contract.

The love triangle is clearly off-track and is simply enforced to manipulate that mandatory sangeet song sequence to appease the family and NRI audiences.

Thankfully the script steers away from sermonizing on bhartiya sanskriti et al, an avid tendency with such genres. On the upside Binod Pradhan’s cinematography is eye-pleasing and Pritam’s music is soothing to the ears.

This time around Shahid Kapoor displays a hangover of.. no not Shah Rukh but Amitabh Bachchan in the initial reels and also does a complete take on his extended Namak Halaal dialogue.

Nevertheless he soon comes to his usual self and gives a sincere performance. And those Ahmed Khan choreographed gyrations can never go wrong. As against the notion, Vidya Balan carries a graceful charm and is natural as ever.

Om Puri is effective in his imposing character with a Punjabi accent. Vishal Malhotra repeats his friendly act for the nth time. Age has caught up with Juhi Chawla and it shows onscreen.

Concisely the film only connects with the viewer intermittently and a lot has been left to Kismat.

Author: Siddharth | Filed under: Bollywood Gossips, Movie Review, Vidya balan

 

Harman Baweja finally makes his much-awaited debut in a lavish 50 - 55 crore movie titled Love Story 2050! Directed by Harry Baweja, his father, of Qayamat fame (the Ajay Devgan movie that released in 2003). Since Qayamat, Harry has been busy working on Love Story 2050, his son’s mega debut. Priyanka Chopra is Harman’s co-star in the movie. Expectations are high, mostly due to the high-on-special-effects trailers and good promotion. Does it click?

Love Story 2050 starts off as a simple love story that revolves around two characters Karan (Harman Baweja) and Sana (Priyanka Chopra). Karan is a happy-go-lucky spirited boy who goes off the rules and Sana is a shy and petite young girl who goes by the rules. What happens when opposites meet? They are attracted, love blossoms between the two. All comes to a stand still when Sana dies in a accident!

In search of his love, Karan goes into the future, right into the year 2050 with the help of his scientist uncle Dr Ya (Boman Irani) who has spent more than 15 years of his life inventing the time machine. 2050 is spectacular, flying cars, sky-high multi storey buildings, robots et al. Karan finds Zeisha (Priyanka Chopra), now a superstar, a pop singer.

Will Karan and Sana get back again? Will the future bring them together?

Love Story 2050 Review

Harry Baweja has undoubtedly put in a lot of effort and hard work into Love Story 2050, whether its the costumes, settings, special effects and to a certain extent even robots. But unfortunately, the script is way below average. The story is nonsensical, the love story lacks soul, you dont feel for any single character in the movie. Harry Baweja as a story teller fails big time.

The first half is never ending, but towards the end it gets slightly interesting, you hope for a better second half. Imagining life 42 years from now is exciting, but what unfolds on the screen in the second half is probably equilvalent to a third degree torture. It painfully drags, the special effects although great, outshines the love story, you no more care for any of the characters. The robots and the special effects too starts to get monotonous towards the end. 30 mins into the second half, you desperately await the end for the credits to roll.. Yes, its that bad!

The runtime is 3 hours plus, most of the portions can be chopped off easily. For example the character of the masked villian, who appears in the latter parts of the second half, was absolutely unnecessary. He also seems to be a last minute inspiration of Naseeruddin Shah’s character in Krrish.

Seriously, its very hard to sit through this movie. The packed house for the preview show, was almost half empty, well before the credits rolled!

Dialogues are irritating.. Harman’s favorite dialogue in the movie is ‘I dont need luck, because i have love’ He repeats it so many times that, you feel an urgent need to pull every hair out of your head! Music is average, except for the ‘Milo Na Milo’ track, nothing is even worth a mention.

Performances are no better! Harman Baweja has been compared to Hrithik Roshan, no less! Well, he is good looking, a excellent dancer, has got a good screen presence.. But in the acting department, he has a long long way to go. His dialogue delivery outright sucks! Priyanka Chopra disappoints in a meaty role, with great scope for histrionics. Boman Irani is funny at times. Archana Puran Singh is good.

In short, Love Story 2050 is yet another major disappointment of 2008. A utter waste of Rs 50 crores plus spent on this never ending tale. The opening at the box-office is expected to be good, but the negative word-of-mouth would affect Harman’s debut. The collections should start dropping heavily from Monday. This futuristic tale has absolutely no future!

Author: Siddharth | Filed under: Bollywood Gossips, Movie Review