Yash ‘Raj’ is back…

Thirteen years ago, Aditya Chopra did it for SRK, four years back; Kunal Kohli did it for Saif, and now with Bachna… Siddharth Anand attempts to do it for Ranbir. By and large, YRF has been ruling the rooster with a quintessential chocolate boy hero and their fairy-tale like romances…while SRK is yet to recover from the blue-eyed boy mania of DDLJ and Saif would perhaps never be more adorable than he was in Hum Tum, the romance factory has projected yet another strong contender to carry the ‘Raj’ tag in Yash Raj further…

An unconventional yet formulaic story, this one literally pays homage to the YRF biggies of the yesteryears, then be it the all time classic DDLJ, or the director’s maiden venture Salaam Namaste, or then Hum Tum for that matter. What’s interesting is that several other moments from the film are an amalgamation of a lot of movies which are far from romance, but the context has been changed beautifully in the film, the prime case in point being The Devil wears Prada.

Casting wise, each of the women are so apt for their parts, and they actually build Ranbir’s Raj very well, then be it Minisha’s immature impishness, or Bipasha’s sizzling sultriness or Deepika’s enigmatic effervescence. The only big flaw in the narrative is Minisha’s character Mahi, which is scarred far too much by a tiny incident. Add to that, for the justification of the stereotype and also to raise the issue of good packaging versus good content, the writer’s have made Kunal Kapoor the ideal man, every woman would pine for. And Minisha’s cold behaviour towards him, borrows from Rani Mukherjee in KANK (though the adultery is absent out here) which is definitely a problem, and a strict no no. But unlike KANK, the Raj here, takes charge of the situation and hence the film doesn’t meander hither-thither. Ultimately all’s well that ends well.

Otherwise, the film is pretty perfect for a mainstream commercial Bollywood Masala film. The Deepika track may seem like a hasty execution, but then that can be ignored; coz with more meat into it and more build-ups for their finale, the detractors would have cribbed about the length. All in all, it is a perfect entertainer with dollops of romance and a dash of emotions and humour. And to add to the starry performances, there’s good music (Vishal-Shekhar in full form with able support by lyricist Anvita Dutt Guptan), excellent visuals (Cinematographer Sunil Patel does his career’s best job) and fresh choreography (Ahmed Khan adds to the charm).

But the two real stars of the film are director Siddharth Anand and the face of the film, Ranbir Kapoor. While the former takes giant strides on celluloid as compared to his previous films, the latter actually gets his due this time. In terms of effort and hard work, Ranbir is as earnest and honest as he was in Saawariya, and this time the story doesn’t let him down, so there seems to be a winner. Besides all this Bachna… is special for me, coz Yash ‘Raj’ is back!