Well, not sure what's going on with the prod house, but they seem determined to move away, quite conclusively, from the brand of fluff they've been purveying. Or, maybe, not move away, but adding to the(ir) repertoire. Whatever it is, its been ages since I bought that fluff, and I'm glad that their brand did not keep me away from this one.
Much has been said and written about the plus/delux size leading lady, so I'll just skip that. To me, it was just one more impediment for the lead pair to surmount, the way most lead pairs surmount the other obstacles they face over the runtime of any tale worth telling.
Khurrana may have made a few mis-steps since his debut, and I was not too sold on that one either, except for appreciating its Indie contentions. If Delhi was a character in that one, Haridwar is, in this. As is the period setting of the 'Jhankaar' nineties.
The Bajaj scooters, the cassette tapes, the mix tape makers and the onslaught of the compact disc all become as important as the main tale, and as anyone worth their salt knows, the enjoyment of any tale is in the appreciation of the leads in their milieu, where the milieu itself plays a huge part. The 90s, and Haridwar do that in this flick.
It is not 'heroic' to do the kind of things that the grey-shaded (no allusion to those 50 shades, of course) lead male does, effectively taking away any semblance of audience-sympathy with those acts. To redeem oneself from that point is a feat that can only be done by some great writing, and solid acting. Lucky that the Kataria- Khurrana combo manages to produce those in spades, leaving us entertained all the way through.
Certain slight mis-steps in the narrative towards the end, where certain events seem contrived are excusable, since they are quickly disposed off in the service of the bigger tale, that of the redemption of the lead in the eyes of the leading lady.
Saddled with the burden of evoking a mostly-shallow audience, the lead débutante succeeds, and how! The writing supports her throughout, and she bears the burden, while responding organically, and endearingly to every bit of narrative axes thrown at her.
The elephant in the room though? While I'm happy that the makers chose to portray the leading lady as someone who's happy and comfortable with herself the way she is, being overweight myself, and having known many others who are/were, I was unable to understand why the screenplay completely chose to ignore the possibility, that a character as strong as the we're led to believe that the leading lady is, chooses not to make any 'changes' to that situation of hers, while she seems to be the one with the plan for everything else that befalls her, that needs her to take stock and fight back. Strange, indeed, but I'll gladly trade that off for seeing a self-confident, self-assured lead anyday.
The final ode to the 90s (there are 2 of those) is/are tongue-in- cheek, and welcome. There is genuine affection on the part of the makers to the location, the milieu, the supporting characters (Sanjay Mishra, as always, stands out, and is ably supported by Amin, Pahwa and the rest, who're all at their natural best) and all the departments of the flick prop the narrative up (the way they're all meant to). However, and I do not mean this in a negative way, the background score stands out. Andrea Guerra, who also scored 'The pursuit of Happiness', one of the best-scored flicks ever) does the honors here, and is ably supported by the sound design, in ensuring that this flick has one of the freshest scores ever. Kudos to whoever had that idea in the first place, and for picking out whatever got into this theatrical cut that I got to watch.
Anu Malik's score for the songs are alright, with one soft number standing out. It is very apt that he was chosen to score, though I might have examined Anand-Milind or Ram Laxman as well. Or might have used them all. Who know how that might've turned out?
Definitely worth your buck at the local multiplex, and might perhaps merit multiple viewings as well, never mind the stupidity of the powers-that-be in allowing the movie to play in its entirety. I do with they had discs with unrated versions release too - that way I'd skip the diluted cinema-going experience that has seemingly come to stay, since no one else seems to be bothered at all.
