Sun, Nov 03, 2024 | Jumada al-Uola 2, 1446 | DXB ktweather icon0°C

Budding romance: Gotta love her!

Top Stories

Budding romance: Gotta love her!

Romantic comedies have been a mainstay in the industry; but the recent Hasee Toh Phasee is more a showcase for Parineeti Chopra’s extraordinary talent than anything original

Published: Fri 21 Feb 2014, 1:21 PM

Updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 10:49 PM

  • By
  • Khalid Mohamed

Rom-coms — lately also called romedies — are dicey business. To be accepted 
as ‘date flicks’, they must have a chartbusting music score, a plot in which the budding romance is complicated by an unwanted third person, and oodles of glamour made possible by cool designer cos-tumes, overseas locations and lines of dialogue which can be quoted by the campus crowd.

A week before Valentine’s Day, the unlikely combo of Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap released their production Hasee Toh Phasee, which, on the positive side, had a tremendously 
appealing performance by Parineeti Chopra, as a quirky young woman who, inadvertently, becomes an obstacle in the impending marriage of her sister. She plays the part of Meeta, a role that is quirky and intelligent alternately; Meeta has recently returned from China (now that’s a first); it’s the kind of role which could have been ruined by a lesser actress.

WHAT’S SO FUNNY: Parineeti Chopra and Sidharth Malhotra during the pre-release promotions of their film Hasee Toh Phasee in Mumbai

Balancing over-the-top acting — esp-ecially the facial contortions galore — with subtle, restrained moments, 25-year-old Parineeti has asserted that she’s a natural-born actress. Her remar-kable performances in the debut-making Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl followed by Ishaqzaade and Shuddh Desi Romance weren’t just flashes in the pan.

In the event, she turned out to be the strongest factor in a rom-com which often lapsed into the cliched Sooraj Barjatya-style Big Fat Indian wedding scenario. Gratifyingly, Sidharth Malhotra, in his second outing after Student of the Year, was gallant enough to let Parineeti steal quite a few scenes from under his nose. Moreover, the chemistry between the two conveyed that 
opposites attract. A clear case of an 
introverted boy meeting a livewire girl, to be zapped by her slowly but surely.

Screen test

Parineeti actually started out working in the marketing department of Yash Raj Films, one of the biggest Bollywood production houses, when the acting bug bit her, and director Maneesh Sharma suggested her to studio boss Aditya Chopra — she got a three-film deal


Real life drama

Her famous cousin Priyanka has said, “When I came here into films, there was no one to support or back me... I was alone. Now that I am here I will protect them (Parineeti and Meera Chopra). I will make sure I am there for them.”

The interplay between the two lead players, in fact, has ensured the film a fairly sizeable audience. Neither a 
whopper hit nor a commercial downer, Hasee Toh Phasee had its votaries (and naysayers) but the unanimous thumbs-up for the feisty actress, in real-life a cousin of Priyanka Chopra, proved that she’s here to stay. Terrific, because the actress, who once aspired to become an investment banker, has the kind of screen presence that leaps out of the screen, comparable, say, to Kajol’s and Karisma Kapoor’s, who made an impact even though their initial films were nothing to rave about.

The music score as well as the locations of Hasee Toh Phasee, though, were downers. Vishal and Shekhar weren’t in an inspired mood, and director Vinil Mathew chose to film an extensive 
portion in a Madh island bungalow, which has been overused down the years. By contrast, last year’s Karan 
Johar-produced Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani could boast of all the right rom-
com requirements, even incorporating footage shot in Paris and in a grand 
Indian palace hotel.

So does Hasee Toh Phasee augur well for future of rom-coms? No facile 
answer for that. Doubtlessly, the genre has been largely reduced to launch-pads for the son of showbiz families. Besides, none of the 48-year-old Khans who have excelled in romances — Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Salman Khan in Maine Pyaar Kiya 
and Aamir Khan in Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin — can walk down the roads of young love any longer.

ROMANCES OF YORE: (top to bottom) Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Aamir Khan in Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin, and Salman Khan in Maine Pyaar Kiya set new benchmarks in romantic movies — but now they are too old to feature in rom-coms that primarily cater to the campus crowd

Every one of the Khans must feature in films which have dollops of every 
formulaic ingredient, be it action, 
muscle display and humour of the 
exaggerated kind. Saif Ali Khan, the quintessential lover boy, wasn’t convin-cing at all while wooing the much youn-ger Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty in Cocktail, and seems to be in search of an new image, explaining his jabs at an espionage thriller (Agent Vinod), a zombie flick (Go Goa Gone) and a vendetta drama (Bullet Raja). Ajay Devgn is identified as the fearless cop after Singham, although he was quite at ease in the 
company of Kajol in Pyaar Toh Hona Hi Tha. Come to think of it, of the A-listers, Ranbir Kapoor appears to be the best hope for the survival of love stories.

A major grouse against Bollywood’s rom-coms are that, in most cases, they can be linked to Hollywood. Hasee Toh Phasee, for instance, had overtones of Rachel Getting Married in which Anne Hathaway became the spoke in the wheel of her sister’s wedding. Another widely-adored romance Jab We Met, had shades of A Walk in the Clouds; Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin was a virtual 
retread of the black-and-white era’s It Happened One Night, and the similarities between Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha and French Kiss were hardly coincidental.

Needless to emphasise, romedies will always be around. How original and popular they are, remains debatable. As things stand, the Khan blockbusters will always be at the top of the multiplex market’s most-desired list. Even a Parineeti Chopra can’t always be caught up the thickets of shuddh desi romances. Next on her menu is the action film Kill Dil. After all, a Bollywood heroine has to be a Jill of all trades.



Next Story