The title of this film, the makers remind us helpfully, means
obsession. But the only obsession that Junooniyat demonstrates is
with giving romance a bad name.
The film tells the same old pappy, pulpy story of a pair of young
lovers up against sundry pyaar ke dushman.
The latter category is, predictably, personified by a father who
thinks he owns his daughter and an unsuspecting NRI bridegroom
who walks into a wedding ceremony, family in tow, blissfully
unaware that the bride isn’t dying to tie the knot with him.
That is how original Junooniyat is. It resorts to fluffy poetry and
screechy songs to heighten the intensity of the love between an
army captain and a college girl. The result in terms of dramatic
traction is zilch.
The lovebirds, on their part, yo-yo between overwhelming passion
and outright inanity as they struggle to get their lives in order.
In one scene, the unwanted suitor who wings in from Canada
( Gulshan Devaiah in a special appearance although there is little
that is special in the half-baked character) is on a Ferris wheel with
the girl he is supposed to wed.
We will go up and we will come down but all will be fine, he assures
his would-be wife.
Had the subject been Junooniyat , he would most definitely have left
out the bit about going up and being fine. The only direction that
this film travels in is down.
Here is how and why. Amritsar girl Suhani Kapoor ( Yami Gautam)
slinks away from a Christmas camp in the Himalayas and goes for a
swim in a hot sulphur lake. She loses her bearings for no apparent
reason.
Army captain Jahan Bakshi ( Pulkit Samrat) stationed in Sonmarg
comes to her rescue even though the lass seems to be perfectly hale
and hearty when help arrives. Not so good movie
