Raanjhanaa

My review: Raanjhanaa

Dhanush makes his Bollywood debut with "Raanjhanaa" and carries the movie on his shoulder with confidence of a veteran. The three Tamil connection of the movie Dhanush, A.R.Rahman and Natraj Subramanyam, the cinematographer redeem the movie to a watchable extent despite a patchy screenplay that meanders into dreary territory in the second half. Himanshu Sharma has written the story and screenplay and Aanand L Rai is the director. 

Story once again deal with the oft repeated theme of a low-class, uncouth, lowly educated, small town youth chasing and falling in love with an upper-middle class, highly educated and urbane girl. Though the girl reciprocates during her teen years, once she gets to see the real world, educated and matured she becomes realistic and falls for the right guy in keeping with her intellect and personality. But the protagonist who still harbours interest in his mind tries to break her engagement in the melee of which girl's boyfriend dies and all hell breaks loose between the couple. As it is cinema the boy is portrayed as one with heart of gold trying to redeem himself in the eyes of the girl who by this time has gone beyond exoneration until she gets her chance to get  back at him. 

When you see it in an objective manner what the heroine Zoya does is what any sane person would do in real life situation and there is absolutely nothing wrong in it. It is only the foolishness of the hero who still thinks that the love (or at the most crush or infatuation) that blossomed when the heroine was 14 would remain when she comes back at 22. And further more trying to get her back even after knowing she has found her match is imprudent. The bigoted writer makes this silly lover boy the embodiment of selflessness while tries to vilify the practical and wiser heroine as a villain.

In the eyes of the writer the hero is still a hero however bad he treats the girl who is head over heals in love with him and does whatever he asks her to do (even going to the extent of trading her own chastity to try stop heroine's marriage at the behest of the hero). As a male he can ignore a girl of his own background (who's love is more selfless and ingenious than his love for the heroine) and fall for a girl from a better background, better educated and sophisticated, but if the same thing when a girl does it is wrong and she ought not to do so in the eyes of the writer of the movie. How bigoted is the thinking. No wonder the incidence of acid attacks and murders of the girls who refuse to reciprocate the love is on the raise when movies like these actually inculcate such a line of thinking into the young minds.  

Thus story wise movie falls well below par with unnecessary detour into student politics in the second half increasing the irritation quotient further more. Pace of the movie is maintained throughout with good dose of humour sprinkled throughout.    

Despite all the negatives with the story and subject matter what makes it watchable is Dhanush and his superlative acting. He gets into the skin of the character with ease and has delivered a memorable performance. His dialogue delivery is surprisingly good. (To the makers of "Chennai Express", this is how Tamilians speak Hindi when they learn it, not the gibberish you people try to showcase in your movie). 

Sonam Kapoor is a spontaneous actress and she once again proves her talent in a very casual portrayal of Zoya. Inspite of the  inherently biased nature of her characterization she has managed to pull it off in a dignified manner. Abhay Deol is delightful in a powerful cameo. Swara Bhaskar steals the show whenever she is onscreen which is not a simple thing considering most of her screen space is shared with Dhanush, who himself is a powerful actor.

A.R.Rahman's songs are another reason why one can watch the movie. Background score is very good (more than what the movie deserves) while most of the songs are used to take the story forward.

Natraj Subramanyam and  Vishal Sinha have shared the burden of cinematography of the movie. They have done fabulous job. Movie can be highly rated as per as the technical side is concerned.

On the whole, "Raanjhanaa" is a sinking ship due a shoddy captain rescued by the performance of Dhanush and music of A.R.Rahman. 

Bottomline: Misogynistic love story. 

2.5/5