Noticed the new 'trend' in 'movie premiers' on entertainment channels these days? They play the same movie twice on the same day - 12 pm & 8 pm or some such. Strange? Not quite. If (huh?) there is a movie you would really want to catch, it's not a bad idea at all. Snatch half of it in the afternoon until siesta time and the rest in the evening well before sleep time if you may (the best of both worlds - ha!).
I'd read a few good words about Band Baaja Baarat and watched the movie (in the fashion noted above) last Sunday. Well. Tell you what, not a bad effort at all, especially from a debutant director Maneesh Sharma! In fact, if the actors (Anushka, Ranbir) were slightly more than the amateurs that they are in this flick, it would've deserved an extra star rating. I liked the way the movie flowed (no flashbacks, no side-kicks, no inserted humour), I liked the practical, believable characters and the well written dialogues. (I particularly liked the exchange between the two in the last-but-one scene). I liked how convincingly the wedding planning industry is depicted. Some unnecessary songs and a few over the top heroics notwithstanding... Bollywood has to survive after all!?
The female protagonist (Anushka/ Shruti) is an urban, independent sorts with the courage to pursue her dream confidently. Endorsing her cause is the rural, not very sophisticated young man (Ranbir/Bittu) who wins the partner's role in her venture and her heart too. Anushka, the menacingly annoying off-stage gal (if you were patient enough to see the 'extra shots' you would realise how Anushka didn't let Ranbir complete a single sentence) actually played a sweet girl, though I wish her dialogue delivery wasn't so slurred and hurried. Ranbir's rural touch was way better than his namesake's in Ajab Prem....
How the love angle comes up is how it would normally happen in real life - no melodrama, emotional outbursts and filmi-stuff here. Eventually it had to have that predictable happy ending, but it didn't happen in the predictable sort of way. There were a few surprises - a few directorial surprises at that. The lack of the usual climactic run-up to the end made it more enjoyable for me.
I often find that liking a movie on television is a bit more difficult than liking it in the cinema hall where there are so many parameters installed to make it an 'experience' for you. You also don't judge the movie in the same way - in a theatre you mostly look for value for money - at home you may just look to relax on a weekend with something passably watchable.
Catch it if you missed it last weekend. I'm sure you'll get plenty of opportunities to do so - I bet its going to be television's next Jab We Met.
My verdict - 3.5 out of 5
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