Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008)

Director:

Siddharth Anand

Writers:

Devika Bhagat (screenplay)
Anvita Dutt Guptan (dialogue)

Release Date:

15 August 2008 (India)

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Bipasha Basu	...	Radhika
Kunal Kapoor	...	Sardar
Ranbir Kapoor	...	Raj
Minissha Lamba	...	Mahi
Deepika Padukone	...	Gayatri
Hiten Paintal
Cameron Pearson	...	Taxi Passenger

Also Known As:

Untitled Siddharth Anand Project (India: English title) (working title)

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Certification:

Ireland:PG

Filming Locations:

Circular Quay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Yash Raj Films

Trivia:

Katrina Kaif was removed from the project as the film was becoming too lengthy.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Raj works at Microsoft in Sydney as a game developer who made Halo 3. But Microsoft was just the publisher of Halo 3. Halo 3 was developed by Bungie Studios.

A new angle in the love triangle, but not youthful

Yash Chopra camp is moving on a tough road since last few months and they hope to move on to the highway again with Bachna Ae Haseeno. But the journey may not be that easy as the movie is intense, mature and also has repetitions at a very slow pace. It lacks the youthfulness of "Jaane Tu…", so you may not get the result as expected looking at the young and peppy promos.

Excitement of watching "Bachna Ae Haseeno" goes down the moment movie starts with the main title song. It takes away all the charm of the brilliant track worked upon with the original voice of Kishore Kumar. That was a major letdown from the director in my opinion.

The story is about a killer lover boy "Ranbir" who goes on betraying his girlfriends and regrets his past when he himself is dumped by a girl. The two girls he hurts are Minisha Lamba & Bipasha. Deepika is the girl who says "No" to him for her own reasons.

If you feel that it's an original story idea then you must see John Cusack's "High Fidelity" in which he also tries to find out why his affairs were not successful in his youth. And then goes back to his girlfriends asking them the reasons of their breakups. The only difference is that here Ranvir goes back to say sorry for his deeds to his past girlfriends.

First half of the movie hugely resembles "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" and even the characters talk about the film in their scenes. This part bores you as you know every scene which is coming one after another. It features Minisha Lamba, who looks cute in some and aged in few scenes. There is no novelty in this part of the movie.

The second part is a bit bold as it shows a live-in relationship between Ranbir & Bipasha. Bipasha gives a very subtle performance in this part and looks ravishing in her revealing outfits. She acts well in the scene when she is left by Ranbir on the wedding day.

The third part has a fresh and gorgeous face of Deepika Padukone who dumps Ranbir when he proposes to her. In fact Deepika takes the highest numbers in the looks department as compared to the other two. She has the minimum footage but has a descent dress sense and impresses the viewers in the few scenes she has.

Post interval Ranbir goes back to Minisha & Bipasha to ask for their forgiveness. Out of the two, Minisha sequence is the best one, which is also highly influenced by "DDLJ" and "Jab We Met". Kunal Kapoor as her sardar husband looks perfect and has also acted brilliantly. This part of the script is well written and executed. Bipasha sequence is too fast and looks hurried up a little.

The second half is bit slow in parts and that makes you hear noises in the theater. There are some intense dramatic scenes which are heavy for the young audiences and they may miss the youth factor in the movie.

The persons who impress you most on the whole are Ranbir, Kunal Kapoor and Deepika Padukone. Though Minisha & Bipasha get more footage but Deepika scores over them with her powerful screen presence. Bipasha acts well but her limitation is that she has to play the role of a supermodel (which is a reality too).

Kunal looks great and equally acts his part with competence. His getup proves that being from Punjab themselves, Yash camp knows how to portray a Sikh in films (much better than Aneez Bazmee).

Ranbir has a very camera friendly face and he is brilliant in his act of a person at different stages of his age. No doubt a far better attempt from "Sanwariya". Both Ranbir and Deepika don't look like doing their second movie. Together they look the best in the movie and you will surely enjoy watching them together.

Music of "BAH" is rich with the brilliant title track and "Khuda Jaaney". Vishal-Shekhar have done a splendid job with the original voice of Kishore Kumar and the song is just superb. "Khuda Jaaney" grows on you as the film finishes and you remember it moving out of the theater.

Director Siddharth Raj Anand, is excellent in some sequences and knows his job well. But the screenplay makes the movie slow at times which proves a handicap for the director.

In my opinion if only the Minisha–Ranbir-Kunal story was adapted for the complete movie then it may have resulted in a more entertaining flick.

The conclusion is that it is a mature and intense film lacking the youth factor which was expected. It is slow paced at times and will face mixed responses at the box office. Musically its a hit but at the ticket window, it will face a rough road.