Ayan Mukerjee lays out an elaborate languorous game-plan for a romantic liaison between two discernibly incompatible human beings who just happen to be thrown together in two very stylishly planned scenarios, shot with panoramic panache in Manali, Spain and Udaipur, in a screenplay that revels in silences rather than screams. Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (YJHD) is a very confident film. Outwardly it exudes the air of being a conventional boy-meets-girl saga but scratch the surface, and out comes a modern take on ambition, love as well as friendship. The film has packaged its lead duo smartly to live up to its jawaani-deewani tag. It's more of jawaani than diwani, though. The joys, hopes, angst and despair of youth are all served with a designer-perfect punch through the story of four youngsters. At the same time a rom-com, a road movie and a coming-of-age trip,
Ayan's new film should keep its target audience - the urban multiplex
crowd - happy.
SCRIPT & SCREENPLAY : The script as well as screenplay is the brainchild of Ayan Mukerjee who showcased sparks of brilliance in his last flick Wake Up Sid. No wonder, this script carries the same subject further but he has widened the focal point of this script to aspirations, love and friendship through well sketched characters. In a startling subversion of convention Ayan Mukerjee very often allows his characters to seek out their own destination in a journey where unpredictability is not usually a possibility. In YJHD Ranbir and Deepika Padukone, both in their element, are not afraid to do those things that couples in our mainstream films are generally forbidden from doing. Indeed the central romance develops with the kind of unassuming naturalness that we rarely find in our over-cooked love stories. In the story-line, Ranbir's Bunny is a videographer for a TV travel show while Deepika plays Naina, doctor in the making who takes off on a trek trip to Manali to let off steam. Their few good traits will evidently rub off on each other. Tagged along are Bunny's buddies, the drifter Avi (Aditya Roy Kapur) and the tomboy Aditi (Kalki). Naina joins the wild trio and is obviously the odd one out. The holiday ends, the foursome parts ways, only to reunite years later at Aditi's marriage (yes, it's a K.Jo production so we won't miss the scope for the shaadi naach gaana). What follows is meant to twist the Bollywood romance but being a commercial flick it has to end with a happy climax, which it does. The best part about YJHD, is that the script does not re-istrict itself to just that typical candy floss love but pays focus on all aspects of relationships. The Ranbir-Aditya duo has one very interesting confrontational sequence in the second-half where director Ayan Mukerjee allows the pair to let its stressful relationship play itself out without extraneous pressure. That, we soon realize , is the beauty of this film.
STARCAST : Casting of movie is one of the biggest factors that decides fate of the movie, choosing the right actors in sync with characters amounts to half the battle won and this is where YJHD scores brownie points. Ranbir Kapoor (Bunny) of course, is a natural-born student of the cool-school. Though here his character and performance lack the uncut raw innocence of Ayan Mukerjee’s Wake Up Sid, Ranbir still plays a self-centred commitment-phobic with extraordinary self-assurance. Remember, its not easy to perform a character who is part rebel, part Sufi, and wholly afflicted with wanderlust and also very much a playboy Bunny. As usual, Ranbir once again manages to charm audience and sweep lotta girls off their feet. Deepika Padukone (Naina), is the girl who throws off her chashma, not afraid to make a spectacle of herself (heh heh) gets into her character’s skin. She is a revelation to herself and to the audience. Hers is also a very complex character to play as she is sheltered, a doctor in the making, and has never stepped out of her city on her own. He teaches her to live, to be alive and although She falls in love, wants to be with him but never reveals cause she understands that they can never be. It is a remarkable performance from the lead pair whose chemistry is so phenomenally excellent that it can only be understood by watching it on-screen. Kalki Koechlin gets a complex, meaty part and pulls it off with a batty quality that she's always borne. Aditya Roy Kapoor plays his two distinct personas with equal ease and in fact both Kalki & Aditya have played their characters with aplomb. The film boasts—or perhaps that is not the word to use, since unnecessary bravado is not an easily obtainable commodity here—of some well-written cameo characters played by very skilled actors like Dolly Ahluwalia, Tanve Azmi, Farouq Shaikh and even Kunaal Roy Kapoor who inhabit Naina and Bunny’s world just long enough to let us know how disparate the world of two made-for-each-other people can be, and how desperate their need to find a mutual centre.
TECHNICAL FINESEE : Pritam, once again has given excellent music and seems to have completely understood the need of the hour as far as Bolly music is concerned. Some of the tracks have already conquered top positions in music charts and can be heard playing all over the party circuit. Another highlight of the movie is its breathtaking locales which have been aesthetically captured by the cinematographer of this movie i.e. V.Manikanadan. He has done stupendously well and has shown his mastery by capturing various colors & shades which coincide with mood of the screenplay. The editor of the movie is Akiv Ali, who unfortunately has come under firing range of many critics with respect to length of movie. But, i feel it is very difficult when you sit on editing table for a movie in which all stars have given excellent performances, shot on exotic locales, has chart-busting numbers. Dialogues of the movie have been penned by Hussain Dalal who has done fantastic job by cleverly using all the so called Hinglish words being used these days. Do i need to write anything about Ayan Mukerjee who is the victorious commander in chief of this movie unit and has proved that Sid's Wake Up call was not a false alarm and he is here for a longer innings. The best part about the overall movie is that Ayan Mukerjee provides ample space for his characters to breathe and manifest their innermost secrets and insecurities without the fear of appearing less ‘cool’ than they would like the world to think.
STARCAST : Casting of movie is one of the biggest factors that decides fate of the movie, choosing the right actors in sync with characters amounts to half the battle won and this is where YJHD scores brownie points. Ranbir Kapoor (Bunny) of course, is a natural-born student of the cool-school. Though here his character and performance lack the uncut raw innocence of Ayan Mukerjee’s Wake Up Sid, Ranbir still plays a self-centred commitment-phobic with extraordinary self-assurance. Remember, its not easy to perform a character who is part rebel, part Sufi, and wholly afflicted with wanderlust and also very much a playboy Bunny. As usual, Ranbir once again manages to charm audience and sweep lotta girls off their feet. Deepika Padukone (Naina), is the girl who throws off her chashma, not afraid to make a spectacle of herself (heh heh) gets into her character’s skin. She is a revelation to herself and to the audience. Hers is also a very complex character to play as she is sheltered, a doctor in the making, and has never stepped out of her city on her own. He teaches her to live, to be alive and although She falls in love, wants to be with him but never reveals cause she understands that they can never be. It is a remarkable performance from the lead pair whose chemistry is so phenomenally excellent that it can only be understood by watching it on-screen. Kalki Koechlin gets a complex, meaty part and pulls it off with a batty quality that she's always borne. Aditya Roy Kapoor plays his two distinct personas with equal ease and in fact both Kalki & Aditya have played their characters with aplomb. The film boasts—or perhaps that is not the word to use, since unnecessary bravado is not an easily obtainable commodity here—of some well-written cameo characters played by very skilled actors like Dolly Ahluwalia, Tanve Azmi, Farouq Shaikh and even Kunaal Roy Kapoor who inhabit Naina and Bunny’s world just long enough to let us know how disparate the world of two made-for-each-other people can be, and how desperate their need to find a mutual centre.
TECHNICAL FINESEE : Pritam, once again has given excellent music and seems to have completely understood the need of the hour as far as Bolly music is concerned. Some of the tracks have already conquered top positions in music charts and can be heard playing all over the party circuit. Another highlight of the movie is its breathtaking locales which have been aesthetically captured by the cinematographer of this movie i.e. V.Manikanadan. He has done stupendously well and has shown his mastery by capturing various colors & shades which coincide with mood of the screenplay. The editor of the movie is Akiv Ali, who unfortunately has come under firing range of many critics with respect to length of movie. But, i feel it is very difficult when you sit on editing table for a movie in which all stars have given excellent performances, shot on exotic locales, has chart-busting numbers. Dialogues of the movie have been penned by Hussain Dalal who has done fantastic job by cleverly using all the so called Hinglish words being used these days. Do i need to write anything about Ayan Mukerjee who is the victorious commander in chief of this movie unit and has proved that Sid's Wake Up call was not a false alarm and he is here for a longer innings. The best part about the overall movie is that Ayan Mukerjee provides ample space for his characters to breathe and manifest their innermost secrets and insecurities without the fear of appearing less ‘cool’ than they would like the world to think.
OVER THE HEAD : There are few moments where the movie disappoints but yes one thing which hit me hard was the character sketch of Kunal Roy Kapoor, especially when one can easily understand that he is being deliberately made to act foolishly funny.
WOW MOMENTS : When Naina and Bunny make a sortie up a snowy haunted peak; when they complete each other's sentences knowing exactly what's on the other's mind; when they build a picture of their perfect lives - at complete odds with each other; and dorky characters who're secret heroes.
CONCLUSION : A ravishing rollicking romp into the realm of romance done in a rush of emotions , experience and incidents that ring true, YJHD is a delightful pilgrimage into precocity and introspection.
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