HAHK + HDDCS = Bewafaa. Review on Bewafaa

Did a FDFS on Bewafaa today. Thought it would be a good movie. Thought it would have riveting scenes of emotional encounter. Thought it has enchanting music so also it would have fantastic acting. And I thought wrong. Totally off the mark. For Bewafaa is none like what I thought it to be. It is a squib damper than a rain-soaked shirt on your back.

The story

The movie is quite simply put, a mixture of Hum Aapke Hain Koun and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Anjali (Kareena) loves Raja (Akshay), but when her elder sister Aarti (Sushmita) dies leaving twin girls behind, she is obliged (?) to marry her husband Aditya (Anil).

Aditya cares two hoots for her sacrifice, but when he realizes how he?s mistreating his wife (after a ?oh my God, how heart-wrenching!? dialogue from his wife; tell me why she didn?t do this earlier) she?s already back in the arms of her beloved Raja.

Begins a saga of clandestine romance between Anjali and Raja, till Aditya finds out and offers to step out of the way. But Anjali with another supposedly marvelous bit of insane dialogue (?Biwi bewafaa ho sakti hai, ek ladki bewafaa ho sakti hai, magar ek maa kabhi bewafaa nahin ho sakti?) dumps Raja (again) like he was yesterday?s garbage and returns back to Aditya.

Flaws

(i) Anjali finally leaves Raja for her elder sister Aarti?s children. She makes it as though she?s going to spend her life looking after them. But in the three years she has spent at Aditya?s house as his wife, not a single scene of motherly bonding has been shown between her and the children.

(ii) The whole movie is built up in such a way that the audience believes Anjali will go back to Raja. Even in the second last scene when Aditya almost steps out of the way for Raja, we feel the movie has ended. It seems that the last scene of Anjali?s ?mother India? dialogue and her subsequent remaining with her husband was an after-thought on the part of Dharmesh Darshan to pander to the common viewer?s warped traditional senses.

(iii) Akshay Kumar looks like a joker in the film and he acts like one. He has got the most horrendous get-up with a penchant of displaying crucifixes as pendants. He acts so bad that the audience laughed at his emotional climactic scenes instead of feeling pity for him. Now think what Shah Rukh Khan would have done with the role.

(iv) Kareena proves yet again that she cannot act to save her life. None can be moved by the plight of Anjali the way she has been portrayed by Kareena. Come on, Kareena, get a life.

(v) The movie draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags in many scenes. After Sushmita?s exit the movie just moves slower than fungus growth. It is enlivened once again only after Manoj Bajpai?s and Shamita Shetty?s entry.

(vi) The purpose of the characters Dil and Pallavi (played by Manoj Bajpai and Shamita Shetty) is not explained well at all.

(vii) The movie is too heavy with no comic relief at all. But wait a moment, there?s comedy ? Akshay?s emotional scenes at the climax.

(viii) The movie begins as HAHK and ends as HDDCS, but neither does it have the chirpy entertainment of the former nor the elan of the latter. This is like a meal without spice.

Pluses

(i) As usual, Sushmita Sen. She is just marvelous and dignified in the short role she has. She brings up the pre-interval portion of the movie immensely.

(ii) A subdued Anil Kapoor. Great restrained acting. The way a husband with a philandering wife ought to behave.

(iii) Manoj Bajpai as Dil Arora in a small role shines. Though his role is not substantiated, he provides some light moments with his commendable performance and proves that he is no longer just ?Bhiku? Bajpai.

(iv) Shamita Shetty as Pallavi Arora. Take my word for it, this girl has improved. She?s put enough spunk in her role and her take on ?Piya aur Miya? is memorable.

The director

Dharmesh Darshan fails again after ?Mela? and ?Haan, Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya?. I even felt his big ?hit? ?Raja Hindustani? utterly regressive and denigrating to women. He must realize that if he?s making a woman-centric film, it is not necessary to show her as the angel of sacrifice. Come to think of it, why must it always be women who should make their sacrifice? Why can?t men do the same? Why could the ending not have been Aditya sacrificing for Anjali instead? These kind of village-mentality movies are definitely passé.

Verdict

Stay clear away from the theaters showing this one. If you don?t want to see incompetent actors directed by an incompetent director (who doesn?t know what he wants to show) hammering their outdated ideas into your heads, just don?t watch this one. This is a year of disasters ? Kisna first and now this one. God knows when the next Black will come along. Take a bow, Sanjay Leela Bhansali. You rock!!!