One Line Review: A breezy love-filled sepia-toned artwork sculpted in an avant-garde photoshopped style. Simply put, an age-old love formula presented in a brand new funda.
Positive Points: Freshly baked execution of the story, Peppy music with vibrant visuals, Excellent character performances, Story without a single melodramatic moment to mess it up, Great art direction.
Negative Points: Certain unrealistic sequences.
Plot: Sriram Venkat (Imran Khan) is a young, laid-back and self-centred lad living in Bangalore. This Tamil Brahmin guy has studied architecture in America and is a hardcore party lover, who loves to woo girls. Being lazy and aimless, Sriram is good for nothing. His traditional family plans to get him married to a beautiful girl called Vasudha (Shraddha Kapoor), who belongs to their community. On their first meeting, Vasudha requests Sriram to say no to this marriage, as she already loves a Punjabi guy called Kamaljit Singh. But, she cannot tell this to her family, as Kamaljit is not a financially well-settled person. But, the reluctant Sriram waves a green signal for the marriage and both the families begin celebrations. Frustrated by Sriram's decision, Vasudha discusses this matter with him in a hotel. During this, she makes Sriram to open up and in this way, he narrates his past love story to her.
Dia Sharma (Kareena Kapoor), a social activist unknowingly makes Sriram fall for her with her fearless nature and bold attitude. Born in Delhi, the Punjabi beauty Dia has the ultimate aim of her life to change this world into a better place to live. The casual relationship of Sriram and Dia soon takes a romantic mode. Initially impressed with Dia, gradually Sriram finds that they both have diverse ideologies and want different things from life. These differences of opinions half-heartedly make them part ways. Returning to present reality, there comes the wedding day of Sriram and Vasudha. The bride and bridegroom perform ritual with pale faces, both being unhappy with the wrong decision. During performing rituals, Vasudha makes Sriram realize his true love for Dia and speaks some sour words to make him sense the essence of his life. Vasudha tells Sriram to run away from the mandap, if he really loves Dia. Though confused initially, Sriram makes up his mind and he makes a great escape from the wedding venue leaving both families in puzzle. The further story unwinds with a new beginning.
Direction And Other Technical Aspects: The young director Punit Malhotra has offered an old wine into a new bottle. The story has nothing new to tell and lacks suspense, but it is bundled with fresh faces and the colourful chemistry between the lead pair. Nevertheless, the point to praise about the movie is that it is devoid of any melodramatic scenes and exaggerated situations. The first half of the film holds a good grip by delivering some fun and entertaining moments. The second half starts to narrate an altogether different tale that takes the film to a different track. The director has put some scenes like Kareena Kapoor showing fake baby bump to clear the traffic from the road, the actress going in red light area to make documentary on the life of sex workers and the brave lady giving a tough fight with the Jhumli village bigwigs for the betterment of standard of living of people living in the village, are the best remembered ones. Whereas, there is a scene in which Imran Khan runs away from his marriage place in traditional South Indian attire and comes to Dia's home in Delhi with his well-packed luggage and posh outfits. This scene lacked reality quotient and seemed unconvincing. The movie sounded as the blend of same age-old tales with a Casanova guy finally becoming a responsible man towards his duties and understands true love.
Imran Khan's happy-go-lucky and careless character seemed as somewhat similar to Ranbir Kapoor, which he played in 'Bachna Ae Haseeno' and 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani'. In a way, this narrative can be labelled as an ambitious social activist's fight against corruption in the nation, although this noble combat does not include any actual fight scenes and inspirational speeches. The movie gently unfolds the emotional chaos hidden inside each character that does not let them realize the treasure of their lives. The rural setting in which the movie is set in its second half, makes the film true to its title. The cinematography and editing is good. The background score is average along with great art direction.
Performance: The light-eyed guy Imran Khan has portrayed his part conveniently well. The only factor is he emits the same facial expressions like his earlier flicks and delivers dialogues in his own certain ways. However, the young lad provides great justice to his character. The Punjabi kudi Kareena Kapoor takes pride in her talent and seemed comfortable in her skin as a social activist in desi look. Her ethereal good looks worked as a great add-on for her courageous yet emotional character. Shraddha Kapoor got to play a short yet sweet role by being a vital thread between Imran and Kareena's love story. The rising beauty looks good in her character, yet she needs to polish her acting skills to get it right.
Anupam Kher plays a villainous village bigwig, but with comic shades attached to his character. The veteran essayed his role with utmost perfection like always. The other actors like Nizhalgal Ravi and Sujata Kumar shined very well as Imran's traditional parents. On the other hand, Kareena's parents Neelu Kohli and Manoj Bakshi enacted their parts in a great way by displaying perfect comic timing. The bombshell Esha Gupta, who appeared in a party song, set the screen on fire.
Music: When it is rom-com, the music forms the soul of the film. The music in this rom-com is composed by Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani. The movie contains vibrant party tracks like 'Dhat Teri Ki' and 'Tooh'. Both the tracks appeal the music buffs visually and musically. The song 'Moto Ghotalo' sounds like a satire on corruption, yet entertaining. The track 'Chingam Chabake' sounds good and is watchable with Imran, Kareena grooving on it. The other tracks like 'Naina' and 'Dil Duffer' are hummable with soothing tunes.
Final Verdict: It can be said that a bridge finally bridges the big gap between the two lovers. The excellent chemistry between Imran and Kareena serves as an oxygen tank for the flick. Albeit, it's not an oven fresh rom-com, one can watch it one time to get a quick dose of fun and entertainment. An ideal treat for the yougistan!