Anjaana Anjaani

Director: Siddharth Anand

Actors: Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Anupam Kher, Zayed Khan

Romantic comedy "Anjaana Anjaani" goes in to so many directions, you wonder what happened to those good old films where Boy Met Girl… and they lived happily ever laughter.

Laughter, there's plenty of it in "Anjaana Anjaani". Raucous laughter, bitter laughter, silly laughter, goofy laughter… The couple Akash and Kiara are portrayed more like two beer-swigging buddies on a road trip through the USA (shot with shimmering restlessness by Ravi Chandran) than lovers staring at the moon and dreaming of the ever-after.

This is that 1940s' Bette Davis-Clark Gable county where love emerges from the verbal skirmish between two people thrown together by fate. There isn't much plot on display here. Once we know that the two suicidal protagonists are together for the rest of the movie the only mystery that remains is why such vibrant lives would want out.

The drama of death as defined by the rituals of daily living are rather elaborately, sometimes engagingly other times tediously, mapped in the plotline which is slimmer than Priyanka Chopra's waistline. Regrettably for an interactive rom-com the dialogues are not always as savvy, sassy and seductive as they ought to be.

Many times you feel the dialogues are translated from the English rather than conceived in the spoken language. Then there are the songs. Sigh. Tediously carpeting the soundtrack of the second more-pointless half, Vishal-Shekhar's music just seems to be creating a dimension to divert our attention from the two belligerent characters played by two very engaging actors who quite often seem to be inventing pretexts for their characters beyond those provided by the plot, character and the lines they mouth.

Priyanka Chopra, incontestably the most complete and watchable actress of her generation, makes you forget the film's obvious blemishes, mainly lengthy self-indulgent passages of pedestrian passion-play written in a tone that attempts to be flip but fails to grip. With every film Priyanka grows in stature as an actor even when the space offered is meager as in "Kaminey".

Given a wall-to-wall character to perform in this film she has so much fun digging into the crevices of the person she is required to create, you end up watching only the character and the actress, in that order.

Perfect timing in the comic scenes, skilfully and subtly seductive in the bedroomy interludes and boisterous when in a drunken rage, Priyanka takes over the show from her first inebriated appearance on a bridge where she spots our hero while trying to jump to her death.

Ranbir Kapoor in comparison is surprisingly subdued. It's partly to do with the nature of his character (an arrogant misguided soul with little control over his ego). But you suspect Ranbir just decided to sportingly play the backseat boy this time because on Priyanka he had finally met his match on screen.

Zayed Khan as Priyanka's heart breaker gets little space. But he makes sensitive use of the meager playing-time.

With more support from the dialogues and an elaborate supporting cast (the people who get a voice are largely stereotypes, the preachy lady doctor, the hero's supportive friend and his chirpy wife, etc), the very fine lead pair would have been better able to express their exceptional skills as actors.

"Anjaana Anjaani" is a film that sets off a tender saucy engaging trip. It somewhere loses its way. But still gets to its targeted destination because of the lead players who appear to know all the signposts and U-turns. By heart.

“All the greatest love stories (sic) are between strangers,” promises this picture’s tagline. In real life, this ‘love between strangers’ business, I suppose, would mean a one-night stand.

It makes for the customary premise for any formulaic, frothy film like this. The lead couple starts out hating each other, or as platonic friends, and eventually slips into eternal love. The picture takes about the same time to finish as the popcorn in your tub. Female audiences suitably develop crush on the male star. Tears are shed; laughs had; paisa vasool, as they say. Fair play.

Anjaana AnjaaniThe climax scene usually takes place at an airport (bus-stop or railway station). This is where you find the hero (or the heroine) rushing, in a moment of epiphany, having found their destiny -- their partner for life -- waiting for them somewhere at the other end.

Between this airport sequence and what’s called the ‘meet-cute’ (first time the couple meets on screen), there is supposed to be a plot, possibly sub-plots, strong conflict and a set of characters. This one unfortunately has none.

The director (Siddharth Anand, fine for the genre) has figured out the songs (a dozen of them) and the scenic sweep all right. You travel across the deserts of Nevada on road, into the neon lights of Las Vegas, peer over San Francisco from a perfectly chosen spot, and look down from New York’s George Washington Bridge.

The latter is where the hero and the heroine, strangers, meet, attempting at once to commit suicide. The boy’s (Ranbir) lost all he had to the Wall Street crash. The girl’s (Priyanka) apparently lost her childhood sweetheart to a casual affair. Neither sees any point in carrying on. They try to kill themselves together: wrap their face up with cellophane; light up gas in the kitchen stove…. By the fifth failed effort, you’re not sure either is really hell-bent on hara-kiri. Suicide demands strong resolve, not sociable company. There’s no such thing as a 'couple exit'.

They set New Year’s Eve for their final date with death, again, jumping off the same George Washington. The handsome twosome has time now to check off wishes from a bucket-list: it’s adventure sport for the penniless girl; a woman he loves so he can bed, for the virgin guy. Whatever.

You know both will fall for each other. You wait around hopelessly. Ranbir Kapoor, the star, remains the only big idea behind this film then. He bares his torso; walks around in a white ‘baniyan’ (what Americans call the “wife-beater” vest), eager to bring back a forgotten wear; charms women with his look; swigs the tequila shots; almost gets buggered by a hulk; drives under the desert sun… All for a story that doesn’t exist.

You know why this film does. Or why rom-coms such as these get repeated ad infinitum on screen. When they work, oh, they take in serious crores. It’s business as usual. There has been much talk about Anjaana Anjaani being a copy of 'The Girl On The Bridge'. However after watching the film I can vouch that it's not true. Anjaana Anjaana is not a copy of any particular film. Rather it is a mish-mash of ideas that may have been borrowed from various movies. Hence though the story is not something we have seen in Hindi cinema before, neither does it seem completely fresh. At various moments through the film you will feel you have seen it before.

The film is about a boy and a girl who meet for the first time on a bridge - where they had reached to commit suicide. Both fail repeatedly at ending their lives and come to a conclusion that probably these are signs that they are yet to complete something in life. A deadline is set - 20 days from then, on the New Years eve they will commit suicide and till then they will live together and help each other fulfill their wishes.

No it is not a Bucket List or a Dasvidaniya where they go about tick-marking their to-do list. Rather it's a journey to understand life and love and also each other better. Anjaana Anjaani makes an out and out love story. And it has a fair dose of comedy to keep it going. The wish however is for the going to have been faster than what it was. The film on the whole has loads of winning moments but the first half does not see the story moving anywhere. It only gets moving later in the second half. The screenplay is not consistent.

Among the good parts include some super song, great cinematography and visuals, cool dialogues and effective background score. But the real highlights of the film are the Anjaana and Anjaani - Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. It probably is a dream for any actor to get so much of screen time. And this film is almost entirely meant of them. And they excel. Ranbir Kapoor proves yet again why he is being termed as the next superstar. It is really hard to look at anyone else when Ranbir is on screen. But this time he will have to accept that Priyanka took away the eyeballs - mine at least! Priyanka Chopra, who has come up with memorable performances in the past, reminds again that she is indeed in contention for one of Indian cinema's best actresses. The only problem I had - she comes out of the sick bed in complete make up. But then again is a directorial blunder!

Siddharth Anand has given us 'Salaam Namaste' and there is no doubt that he is capable in telling a story telling. But there are certain liberties taken in the film which deducts from his ability as a storyteller. Anjaana Anjaani works for the die-hard romantics and fans of the lead stars. For the rest it is an average storyline with good amount of repetitiveness embedded with superlative performances. Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and directed by Siddharth Anand, "Anjaana Anjaani" is different from other romantic sagas. Generally couples in love commit to die for each other, but in this film romance blossoms after the two meet when they are about to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge.

Shot in New York City, Las Vegas and San Francisco, the film is made at a budget of around Rs.25 crore. Priyanka says the topic of "Anjaana Anjaani" coincides with the current problem in society.

According to a report, India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and recent studies suggest about 40 percent are adolescents. At least 125 people aged 29 years or below are committing suicide every day and 51 percent of the total suicide victims are graduates or college students or youngsters.

"With so many suicides happening it is a topic of discussion in India now. The greatest thing about this film is that it is the window which shows you shouldn't do that (commit suicide), you never know when life will turn around," Priyanka, 28, had told IANS. "Give yourself an opportunity. This message is conveyed in a beautiful way through the film," said the actress. Paired together for the first time, this is Priyanka's first and Ranbir's second film with the director after "Bachna Ae Haseeno" (2008).

Set in the US, the story revolves around San Francisco-based Kiara (Priyanka) and New York boy Akash (Ranbir), who are tired of making it big in life and striking gold. After several failed attempts to be successful in their careers and love, both decide to end their lives. And as luck would have it, they land up on the same bridge at the same time!

Akash stops Kiara from ending her life. He tells her to travel with him to Las Vegas to give life another chance, and thus begins a hilarious misadventure that brings them closer. However, destiny interrupts again and the duo are forced to part with the understanding that their days together were a brief interlude of insanity, which had to succumb to real life. With a contemporary appeal and foot-tapping numbers, the movie's music, composed by duo Vishal Dadlani-Shekhar Ravjiani, has been dominating the charts.

Ranbir, 27, was keen to postpone the release date as it is coinciding with the day when the verdict in the 51-year-old Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid legal dispute will be pronounced.