Raabta- Divine Love and Reincarnation, Recipe for disaster

Director- Dinesh Vijan

Budget- 50 Crores approximately

Best Dialogue- "Agar roze nahi rakhe to phir Eid ka kya maza."

Raabta's first look suggested that it was a mushy romantic comedy and as we all are suckers for a good romance, we eagerly awaited for its trailer.

In the trailer, Irffan Khan says, "Ab ye bhi koi kahaani hai, chalo kahaani badalte hai, raja badalte hai, rani badalte hai, kal jo adhoora tha aaj badalte hai", we realized that it was a reincarnation drama and half of the buzz of the film was lost.

Then we were shown a glimpse of the item song "Raabta" featuring Deepika Padukone and some buzz was again created.

Guess the leading lady Kirti Sanon wasn't much pleased with this shifting of focus towards Deepika's long legs so the makers took J Star's hit song "Mai Tera Boyfriend" where we get to see Sushant's six packs and Kriti's long legs. Sadly, this song was kept at the end of the film and most of the audience had already left after watching Deepika's item number.

The hero is from a middle class family who does stupid things like jumping from bridges and his logic is, "Saare din mai legal kaam karta raha to bacchon ko kahaniyan kya sunaunga?"

Yes, that's how bad the character development is and it is followed by worse lines like, "Meetha Bechti Hai Par Dard-E-Dil Dikhta Hai Teri Ankhon Se" or "24 Ghante Tu Itna Acha Smell Kaise Karti Hai? Kaunsa Sabun Lagati Hai?" 

It could have been intentional as even the heroine tells him, "Kitna Cheesy Hai Tu?" to which our hero replies, "Mera Kuch Part Chocolaty Bhi Hai"!

I'm still wondering what that line meant.

In the first half of the film both the hero and heroine keep saying "hum kar kya rahe hai". After the interval the heroine gets to know what is going on and there is one more character who from the beginning knew what was going on. Then when the heroine tries to tell the hero the reason behind their actions he doesn't believe her.

If this sounds confusing to you then you have no option left but to spend 2 and a half hours of your precious time and some hard earned money and find how everything is connected.

The starting credits thanked Deepika Padukone, Rajkumar Rao and 10 other people. During the whole film I kept waiting for Rajkumar's appearance and later when i googled, I came to know that the highly insignificant role of the 300 year old man was enacted by him.

Jim Sarbh, who excelled as the terrorist in Neerja, plays a rich NRI but guess he can't decide between Pakistani accent or British accent and so talks like a mentally retarded person saying stupid lines like, "Mujhe dekhne se fursat mile, to kaunsi drink piyogi bata dena".

It's surprising that Dinesh Vijan of Maddock films who chose to produce a sensible film like Hindi Medium selected Raabta for his own directorial debut.

The film was released in 1800 theaters and got an opening of just 5.6 Crores. The film will be lucky if it can even make a lifetime earning of 25 Crores which is less than half of the film's budget.

In a line, item songs and chemistry between the lead pair can bring the audience to the theaters but it's only the content accompanied by good dialogues and acting which can make the film a hit.

Avoidable

Review of Cocktail

One word which describes the film -  Complicated

Best Dialogue – Na salim na ,aur bhi gham hai zamane main mohabbat ke siva .

Genre- Comedy / Romance

Director-  Homi Adajania

Producer –  Saif Ali Khan , Dinesh Vijan

Music Director – Pritam

Cast –  Saif Ali Khan ,  Deepika Padukone , Diana Penty

Budget –  45 crores

Cocktail is a mixture of Diana’s sweetness , Deepika’s hotness and Saif’s second hand jawani . The film dealt with free sex, booze ,live in relations ,  24- 7 parties . They just needed to add the psychiatrist angle to the film and it could have been a complete mirror of the American lifestyle.

Diana showed good acting potential in the first half of the film . It was her first film but she managed to stay at par with the other two actors.

Saif as  a womanizer was totally unfit for the role. We loved him in a similar role in  Hum Tum  but  then he was 8 years younger in that film . He looked better in the second half but in total it was a very average performance. 

The surprise element of the film for sure was Deepika Padukone. It  was an author-backed role and she gave such a powerful performance .Right from her entry to the last scene she totally charmed the audience. She was as comfortable in a bikini as she was in an evening gown or an Indian dress. She portrayed the part of a confused ,spoilt rich girl so perfectly that we could feel her pain and emotions.


Randeep Hooda had a good one minute entry as an angry young man but after that he was totally wasted .At this point in his career when he has received appreciation for his powerful performances in Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster  and    Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai  he should be very selective while choosing films . 

Boman and Dimple are veteran actors and they left an impact even in their very small roles.

It was the most awaited romance of 2012 but there is not a single  dialogue which will be remembered long after the film is totally forgotten. Don’t we still remember Deepika saying to Rishi  Kapoor in   Love Aaj Kal  - “ek akhiri  baar bye kehna kyon zaroori hota hai? Or Saif  in the climax saying  - “Tum bhi kamaal karti ho Jaaneman “

    

I hope the censor had clearer guidelines in giving a film A /  U certificate . Though the film had  no scenes or abusive language but the content was such that I would surely want  my kids to stay away from it.

In a line  if you are a die-hard Deepika fan you will love this Cocktail . Don’t expect a great romance and you will not be disappointed .