Bollywood Bulletin: Yeh Jawaani Hey Deewani

I had waited long for the Indian movie, "Yeh Jawaani Hey Deewani". I wanted to see it in cinema but as fate would have it, that wasn't conveniently possible. So I downloaded it on my computer and watched it at home.

I liked the movie for its leading cast couple - my favourite and most adored actors in Bollywood. It was nice to see Deepika in this new identity though not many would have liked her here given her character's simplicity and innocence after her rocking appearances in recent movies like Cocktail and Race 2. My orange shirt girl! And as always, Ranbir Kapoor was too good. He comes across decently in all the roles assigned to him and never disappoints.

I really liked the songs. They were different and upfront. Madhuri looked fabulous and happy in her Ghaghra performance. The Dilli wali girlfriend song lyrics made me love it. Badtameez dil was a fine new piece with a new idea. Balam pichkari was colourful and enlivening.

Sadly, however, the movie did not meet the elevated expectations that I had attached to it. Though a nice, light watch with a cute star cast, it is not one of those movies that I would be wanting to see soon again. Neither did the story capture me by awe, nor I was spellbound by any particular parts of the movie. Very typical and very slow-moving.

The songs are no doubt a major appeal and have my strong vote. I give them full marks. But disappointingly, I felt as if they had been haphazardly placed here and there. I had the same feeling in Karan Johar's last production, "Student of the Year". So the two movies had one thing in common: songs forcibly fixed in a lacklustre story.

I am amazed at Karan Johar's recent productions. I wonder what happened to his good luck charm. Kajol was there in the Disco Deewane song in "Student of the Year" but she did not make an appearance in this one.

Karan Johar used to have better movies. Surely most of his movies have been about glamour and pomp but at least the popular ones had a dramatic, flowing story that smoothly connected segments along the storyline with ease and perfection and did not awkwardly fix bits and pieces here and there.