Hasee Toh Phasee (2014) : Bollywood Film Review

By The Gorgeous Palah Chingu

Parineeti Chopra

Parineeti Chopra might not look like a typical Bollywood heroine but dude, she can act and she is brilliant in delivering her emotion on screen. I have been her Number 1 fan since I watched Ishaaqzade. Parineeti’s Portrayal as a Muslim girl named Zoya in that film is powerful and she did receive a special mention in the National Film Award of India. It is a kind of big deal in India to receive such award. For someone who don’t even go to acting school and graduated with triple Honours Degree (in Business, Finance and Economics) that’s not slightly related to performance act, you got to give her a big respect. She drew people’s attention in Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’s Film. Although that film didn’t went crazy in Box Office India, people did remember her as one of the ladies. One of the film critics said that Parineeti managed to engage with her audience causing the other ladies in the film seems so forgettable. She did win several awards as a newcomer in Bollywood for her role in the film. After ladies vs Ricky Bahl and Ishaaqzade, Parineeti then continue experimenting with her role by acting as a modern, independent and liberal girl in the film of ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’. She was amazing in that film. As someone who kind of not really give a shit about marriage and thought sex as one of the necessity things to have, her role reflected more or less of whom I really wanted to be.

My Rating: 4/5

Hasee Toh Phasee is a film that I really look forward to watch in 2014 (aside from Gulaab Gang, Roy and Kil Dil). Parineeti said in her interview that this film offered a very challenging role to her. She did face difficulty doing the role, she admitted that. Of course, if you have seen her work before, you will not plant any doubt about her. She’s going to do it flawlessly. I am right, by the way. She nailed her role successfully. A critical reception over that film is totally leaned on the Parineeti’s performance as Meeta Solanki. I always love the fact that Parineeti can easily blend her chemistry with any co-actors that she ever worked with and she don’t let them over shine her. She let her acting flow and keeps the audience’s eyes fixated on her. In other words, you may remember who the hero was in the films, but you will end up telling people how amazing the heroine in that film. Her previous co-actors like Arjun Kapoor, Sushant Singh Rajput and Sidharth Malhotra is really blessed to have a charismatic personality and strong presence. Otherwise, we may end up not remembering any of Parineeti’s co actors at all. *exaggerated much, Palah?

Meeta and Nikhil first meeting 7 years ago

How difference is Hasee Toh Pahsee with other contemporary romance Bollywood is? Gosh, I don’t even know how to begin. First, the portrayal of Parineeti Chopra as Meeta Solanki is a top notch act. Meeta Solanki is a smart girl with a vision. She ran away from home right after she stole one of her sister’s Dowries for the wedding. Upon that event, her father had a heart attack on that day. Since then, nobody even said her name, her absent as one of the daughters in Solanki family goes unnoticed and she is forever shunned by her family. She earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering after living in abroad for almost 7 years and currently in need of fund to complete her project. In this story, Meeta Solanki is shown to always has a special spot in her father’s heart. The story begins with how the young Meeta always experimented with many things and ended up seen as troublesome kid by the mess she created. She always being scolded by her uncle but her father embraced her playfulness and curiosity over things. He didn’t get angry and always approve of her youngest daughter brightness. Meeta grew up in the conservative culture (though she did has a father who is willing to bend any rule for her). She constantly is being told by her uncle that she didn’t behave like a girl her age and does not even look like a girl at all. Adding to the pressure on Meeta that she has other sisters who look like a normal and ordinary Indian girl. Meeta return to India after 7 years abroad and ask his sister, Karishma Solanki to help her reconcile with her father. She wanted to apologize to her father.

Karisma Solanki (portrayed by Adah Sharma)

Karishma Solanki is portrayed by Adah Sharma as one of Meeta’s sisters. She does not want to handle Meeta at all as she already is in so much pressure for her upcoming wedding. She will get married to Nikhil Bhardwaj (by Sidharth Malhotra) in a few days and Meeta is seen as someone who could not get a better time to return. She couldn’t take a risk that Meeta might have other scheme to steal in the wedding as she already done it before. She called her fiancée, Nikhil to solve this matter by himself. She didn’t even tell who meeta is for her. She just wanted Nikhil to do whatever he could to make Meeta didn’t come to her house before and during the wedding. Karishma portrayal by Adah Sharma is pretty much okay. I have nothing to like or hate about her. She is a bombshell girl that guys could go crazy over. Her relationship with Nikhil started as love (I am quite confident that it’s a lust actually) at the first sight. After 7 years, they still are together. I am pretty sure that they are not in love. They just love the 7 years relationship and how much they complete each other. If you are pretty like Karishma, you don’t really say no if a guy like Nikhil chase you, right? You would just say okay and see how far the relationship will take you. When this happened, it causes so much misery in their relationship. They fought almost every day and then, they make up. The same routine repeats itself each day. Both are afraid to break up because they may not have chance to find a perfect companion again. Perfect here meant ‘good looking, rich and came from a good family’.

Nikhil Bhardwaj (Portrayed by Sidharth Malhotra)

Nikhil met Meeta for the first time in a café somewhere around the town where he lived. Karishma told Nikhil to handle it however he likes. She didn’t even introduce Meeta as her sister to Nikhil and keep referring her as a guest. Nikhil suddenly remembered that he met Meeta 7 years ago at the wedding where he and Karishma hit on each other for the first time. They met when Meeta try to elope and her shirt is hooked on the coil wire. Nikhil then help Meeta escaped from it and asked Meeta where she’s running off. Meeta told Nikhil the location and he helped her carried her baggages until some taxi stopped to send her to airport. That’s how they met 7 years before. Nikhil met Meeta first before Karishma. However, Meeta’s appearance and facial expression recently is really weird and it freaks Nikhil out. It turns out later that Meeta have a tendency to swallow many anti depressant pills to keep her stable, well functions and to avoid from facing any complicated emotion naturally. Later, Nikhil found out that Meeta is Karishma youngest sister. He could not bear the fact that Meeta is treated that way and brought her to his home. Meeta is introduced as one of friends from Nikhil’s best buddy. Nikhil learned so many things about Meeta and the truth behind why she steals from the wedding 7 years ago. The more time they spend time with each other, the more they realized that they did fall in love with each other. Meeta confessed her love to Nikhil and asking him to elope with her because she assured that Nikhil will be miserable in life by marrying to her sister. However, Nikhil couldn’t do it as it will be a betrayal to Karishma and they did spend 7 years try to maintain the relationship.

Meeta 2.0 by Parineeti Chopra

This film seriously began with how hilarious parineeti’s face when she made her ‘Meeta 2.0’ as Nikhil would call it. Meeta 2.0 will appear right after the normal Meeta swallow a dozen of her anti depressant pills. You will laugh your ass off. When it reaches to the scene when Meeta bumped into her relatives, that’s when you realize there’s tears streaming down your cheek. When Meeta was insulted by her sister and uncle for coming home just to rob them again, you can sense her helplessness. She could not explain why she did it and even she wanted to, nobody would fucking listen. When her uncle slapped infront of her relatives that is when her father appeared. Her father cried and asked why her daughter is being hit. The scene of how Meeta’s father defended her infront of her entire family is so touching. He didn’t care about the money that Meeta stole from him as he claimed it did belong to her at some point. Meeta is his daughter. This particular scene really breaks my heart. It showed how a father didn’t care at all about the money and just glad that his daughter returns to home. The wedding event proceeds as usual even Meeta begged Nikhil not to do it. Meeta then said goodbye to her father on Karishma’s wedding day and planning to return to China to complete her project. Karishma found out about the two of them and confronted Nikhil about it. She told Nikhil that marriage would not be the same as the relationship. There is no on and off relationship. When Karishma called off the marriage, Nikhil run from the altar only to find that Meeta already waited for him at the back gate where they first met before.

Suprise Event for Karishma Solanki went wrong!

Their Chemistry is really good actually!! ;D

Last but not least, topless scene by Sidharth Malhotra. Woot2.

Actually, Meeta did return to India to get more funds for her project from her father. For Meeta, she had one principle only. She will steal but only from her father. She knew her father will forgive her unconditionally. She then regrets it when she knew that the day she stole from her father, her father’s having a heart attack. That’s why she asked Nikhil assistance in the first place. They are spending so much time together on planning how to get more funds. In that few days, they realized that they loves each other. There is one scene that I found very sweet is when Nikhil disturbed Meeta’s father in the middle of the night. It’s later revealed that Meeta’s really missing her father and wanted to see him even from afar. That’s when Nikhil wake Meeta’s father up and asking him to go on the rooftop with him. Nikhil acted as he was concerned about the wedding and the groom procession. Meeta did catch a glimpse of her father on rooftop with Nikhil’s help. I actually like Sidharth more in this film compare to student of the year film. Sidharth in this film is more mature and revealing his other side of being an actor. He’s insecure, depress in the sense of wanting to make more money, coward in voicing his opinion (even when he’s right) and he’s afraid to follow his own path. All his life, he always is being told to do this and that. Parineeti may contributes ¾ for this film but Sidharth completed it with ¼ from his role. Their chemistry as Meeta and Nikhil really touch the core of my heart.

Overall, this could be my new favorite romantic film all the time after Barfi. It got all the right flavors in some romantic film could not offer. The soundtrack of the film is just awesome. I really like modern beat hindi songs. I like all songs in this film (from Manchala (which is freaking sad song) to a very sassy and feisty sound like ‘Shake it like shammi’, ‘Punjabi Wedding Song’ and ‘Drama Queen’).

Shuddh Desi Romance (2013) – Review

BY RUBY CHINGU (who is already smiling like a madwoman…)

RATING -9/10

Director – Maneesh Sharma

Writer – Jaideep Sahni

After spending many hours watching intense political thrillers like Madras Cafe and D-Day, Shuddh Desi Romance came into my life like an aromatic cup of Starbucks coffee in the morning – strong, awakening and just beautiful. My face muscles were so exhausted as I could not stop smiling and gushing over the story for the whole two and half hours.

Set in a small colourful town of Jaipur, Shuddh Desi Romance (Pure Desi Romance) is about the desires, love, lust but mostly confusions of charming young man with a heavenly smirk  named  Raghu (Sushant Singh Rajput). Trapped between his modern carefree personality and the traditional Indian ‘mating/wedding’ culture, Raghu thought he had always wanted to get married. He agreed to an arranged married, only to chicken out later, leaving the girl at the altar. THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is only the beginning.

The core themes of the film are many – one of them is the relevancy of marriage (or any institutionalized culture) in any consensual love relationships. Our character, Raghu is a man who believes in love, attraction, devotion etc etc. It is only marriage that he is uncomfortable about and the big mysterious responsibility around it. He is not really commitment-phobic. Marriage-phobic might be the most accurate description. When he met Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra), an independent brutally honest girl, he fell head over heels with her. After a few days dating her, he left his house and moved into her flat. Clingy, much? Or maybe he was just being optimistically endearing.

Inevitably, there is always this assumption that couples who are in a stable relationship MUST be in want of a marriage. Surely, they would want to ‘legitimize’ their union, whatever that means. However, what if there are certain people who are comfortable the way they are? What if marriage is not exactly their thing? It may happen to some. Nevertheless, most have to conform to the entrenched culture of marriages, only to doubt their decisions.

Raghu and Gayatri’s relationship was somehow ruined by the thoughts that they should get married when it was obvious that both of them did not really believe in weddings, what more marriage. After being dumped by Gayatri, Raghu started dating Tara (Vaani Kapoor), his ex-fiancee and was quite happy with her to the extent that he planned to propose to her. Again, in a classic Raghu style, he had doubts again. Should he or should he not get married?

Right before the proposal, he encountered Gayatri again and realized that amidst the up and downs of their past relationship, he had always loved her. Tara ended things with him and Raghu reunited with our heroine. Three days later, they had a wedding, only to run away from it as well – yup, both of them.

So, what exactly is the problem here? Not our Raghu and Gayatri but the wedding itself. Why is it always there, haunting and chasing our main couple like a parasite? Not trying to sound pessimistic or anti-marriage here but I love the ending where both of them decided that they would be together despite not being ready for marriage. So what? I love you, you love me. I am not ready to get married. So are you. Where does the need to get married comes from?

Who knows. What I do know that this film is a love story and love wins in the end.

Why should you watch the film?

The plot. It is not a conventional love story. It is a refreshing and very different interpretation of romance. Instead of naming it Shuddh Desi Romance, it should be called Unique Modern vs. Traditional Romance instead. Raghu’s journey to discovering his true position about the whole wedding marriage thing is entertaining. It was obvious from the beginning of the film that he had commitment issues but it was not until the end that he was aware of them. Haish, so innocent…..

The excellent cinematography. The main reason why the film is very enjoyable. Contrasting vibrant colours. Colours, colours and more colours.

Great couple dynamic. The chemistry between Sushant Singh Rajput and Parineeti Chopra as Raghu and Gayatri captured me within ten minutes. One is an awkward people-pleasing guy, another is a brutally honest independent girl who smoked the first time our hero met her.

OMG they look so sweet together I want to cry…. TT

He’s the emotional sweet boyfriend, she’s the clear-headed rational girlfriend. He was optimistically foolish about what he wants in his life and she was pessimistically realistic about the nature of their relationship. One thing they share in common is that they love and can’t get enough of each other. All those elements make the couple so addictive to watch.

A likable second heroine with a strong character. Tara, Raghu’s girlfriend after Gayatri, and Raghu were genuinely attracted to each other. However, she always knew that Raghu’s a bit of a confused person and their relationship would not last long.

Nevertheless, it was surprisingly sweet while it lasted, though my heart will always belong to the Raghu-Gayatri couple.

The soundtrack. The song Gulabi. Need I say more? (Though I do wish they make a music video of the song featuring Raghu and Gayatri instead of Tara.)

Shuddh Desi Romance is a beautiful story even with an unconventional storyline. Most importantly, it makes an audience like me go through a whirlwind of emotions – happiness, nervousness, sadness, confusions – as it led me into an unpredictable confusing journey of being a young person in love.

I am so fucking happy and grateful to the Mr Sahni who wrote the story . Mr Sahni, I love you! *sobs* *mentally touching your feet as a sign of respect*

SPAZZING TIME!!

SWOON, BABY, SWOON…

May I just fucking say… Sushant Singh Rajput. Hai Allah, save me please… was phrase I uttered most as I was trying to keep myself sane as I watched his acting in this film. Raghu is always attracted to dominant opinionated women. Always a people-pleaser, he often tries to make his lover happy. Exactly my type of man. *cries* He’s so perfect.

  Gawddd, that pair of eyes…. *sobs*

Damn, I’m so happy! Please God there are more films like this to come…

ISHAQZAADE – 2012 Bollywood Film Review

Review by Ruby Chingu

RATING – 7/10

(It’s a good film, thoroughly enjoyable, very cute and passionate with a great soundtrack. A perfect Bollywood film. But the story did not haunt me. It was not really mind-blowing or left me with something to ponder at.)

Every now and then, I always enjoy a good Bollywood film. To say that the effects the films have on my childhood, growing years and now pre-adulthood are magical is an understatement. Because there’s always something more to these films than just the great songs, perfect choreography and sometimes illogical fairytale-like plots. They are great love stories. The passionate I-can’t-live–without-you ones. I don’t believe in such love but it’s great fun to watch people who do. They persuade me, sometimes, that this types of love can be appealing and worth dying for.

Ishaqzaade (Love Rebels) is one of those films. It took me a year of my best friend, Palah Chingu’s relentless persuasion to watch it. And when I finally did, I hated myself for not watching it earlier.

    

The story revolves around Parma, a Hindu local gangster and Zoya, a Muslim college girl who had been enemies since they were children due to the fact that they belonged to rival political families. Zoya’s father is an MLA, or Member of Legislative Assembly. Gun violence in their lives were predominant. Parma and Zoya grew up to hate each other. Overtime, while campaigning for his grandfather and Zoya for her father, both found ways to love and did fall in love with each other.

Their love was the secretive, passionate kind. They had to sneak around town to meet each other and dated only at places where their family members wouldn’t be able to see them. They were different yet very much alike. He’s a rash kind of guy, unwanted by his grandfather who saw him and his widowed mother as a burden whereas she was a firebrand loudmouth of a girl – though loved and doted by her father – was sidelined from the family’s political venture because she was a girl and for them, girl holds the family honour. He made a mistake in cheating to her and it took her a long time to forgive him. However, their shared love for each other endured and they chose that over the hatred of their families who would rather see Parma and Zoya dead than dishonour them by being with each other.

Some may say the ending kinda sucks. For me, it does not. Because it’s not really a suicide for me. Parma killed Zoya, Zoya killed Parma – both out of their own requests. Rather than dying in the hands of their family members who were hunting them, they would rather end their own lives. They knew they were doing to die anyway. They wanted love to win. Did it win? Well, if you looked at it, it kind of did. If they killed each other, they did it out of love. If they were killed by their families, it would be out of hate.

The direction of this story is great. The cinematography, too. The plot, though seemed very cliche at first, somehow feels fresh. The film seems familiar yet gives off very different feeling. The strongest point of the fim? Both leads, our Parma and Zoya are very VERY CUTE together!! Both characters were always angry, intense and loud. Both had guns on their own accord. Both lacked manners. Both possessed no sense of rationality – once they wanted something, they go for it notwithstanding what other people think. That’s why they were made for each other. Coming from different background, they were so similar for each other.

And that’s what I find the most endearing part of the movies. Their families are, of course, important to them but it had nothing to do with their love. Once they came to realize that their families wouldn’t accept them, they did not give up. They were about to lose everything anyway. So, yeah.

Death does not seem as scary as it used to be next to the person you love.

What passion, yaar!