Heroine Review

HEROINE is a Hindi feature film which released today (on 21st September, 2012). It was one of the most controversial and much awaited films of this year. This film has been directed by Madhur Bhandarkar and produced by Madhur Bhandarkar, Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapoor under the banner of Bhandarkar Entertainment & UTV Motion Pictures. Madhur is known to make realistic films; but does it live up to your expectations? Read the review below.

Story : Mahi (Kareena Kapoor) is a film star - A Heroine! Rashid (Govind Namdeo) is her secretary. Her pair with another super star Aryan (Arjun Rampal) is liked by all. They are always in the news. She loves him and has also made intimate relationship with him despite knowing the fact that he is a married man and a father of a child. However, she thinks that he is about to give divorce to her wife and going to marry her soon.

But soon she realizes that he was going close to another upcoming heroine. She not only gets jealous and insecure but also angry. She pesters him to marry her soon but he makes excuses and she soon comes to know the bitter truth that he was not completely hers. He had stated that he was just friend and nothing else.

After parting from Aryan, her market goes down. Very few producers dare to cast her in their films. So she hires a very efficient PR manager Divya Dutta who assures her that she would get back her lost stardom. She tells her to do as she wanted. On her instruction, she goes closer to a cricket player Angad (Randeep Hooda) who is the vice-captain of India. Her PR knowingly sends press & media to click their photographs together. Soon Angad and Mahi are known to be something special for each other.

However, she doesn't get big roles even now. She goes to meet a Bengali film director Ranveer Shorey who was planning to shoot a Hindi film for the first time. He gets surprised to see her who was willing to work with him. He says that his budget was very low and there was time constraint too. Would she agree with all that! She agrees with whatever he wanted and gets ready for shooting. But after a few months the film gets shelved due to some reasons and she is nowhere again.

One day she comes to know about a big budget film for which a heroine (Mugdha Godse) was already final. At any cost Mahi wants to get that film and for that purpose she uses Angad. She also wickedly eliminates Mugdha from her way. Finally when she applies different cheap tricks, she gets that film in her pocket but due to some reasons her director gets unhappy with her and shortens her role which dissatisfies her when the film gets released.

One day Angad proposes her but she doesn't accept his proposal. He gets surprised and asks the reason. She states that she wanted to concentrate on her career. Thus due to her attitude and behavior, a split is caused between them and she ends her relationship with him.

Meanwhile she again gets a small budget film. This film gets completed but she feels that there was no noise about this film and the release date was very close. She wants her PR to make her film hot before the release but PR surrenders. She doesn't know what to do to make her film hot.

Meanwhile, Mahi & Aryan exchange glances one day while travelling on a plane. Aryan meets her later and says sorry to her and expresses his desire to be together once again. She comes to know that he and his partner Harsh Chhaya were planning to make a big budget film of 150 Crores. She wants to be the heroine of that film. Aryan promises that he would make her heroine of his film. But when he discusses this matter with his partner Harsh, he doesn't agree. In fact he is not convinced about Mahi and wants to cast someone else.

Somehow this news leaks in the media that Mahi was not acting in Aryan's upcoming film. When she comes to know it, she gets furious and goes in angry mood to ask clarification to Aryan. He gives clarification that he had told his partner that she would be the heroine so she shouldn't worry. However, he assures her that even if anything had gone wrong, he would make it right. But she doesn't believe him and leaves him in angry mood.

Aryan calls his partner and scolds him for spreading that news and indirectly compels him to keep Mahi as the heroine of that film. Harsh finds no option and agrees. When Aryan tries to inform Mahi on her cell phone, she doesn't pick up knowingly. Aryan keeps trying to contact her but she doesn't respond.

Now to gain publicity before the release of her low budget film, she gets her intimate scenes leaked in the media through her PR and everyone gets shocked and stunned to see the video clip. She had herself shot this video while making intimate relationship with Aryan. This makes her famous overnight (though negatively) and her film gets very good opening.

Performance : Kareena Kapoor has tried to do her part well but something is missing in her! You hardy get impressed with her acting or you hardly have sympathy with her. Ranbir Shorey has played a Bengali film director and he has done superb acting. In fact you can forget everything after getting out of the theatre but not his performance. Govind Namdeo is also very good as Kareena's secretary. Divya Dutta as a PR manager has also done her part very well. Arjun Rampal is also good. Randeep Hooda has also done very well. Helen also makes her presence in a very small role. She has justified her role but she seemed to have problem while speaking long dialogues. Mugdha Godse is good but has a very short role. Lillete Dubey in the role of Kareena's mother is okay. Sahana Goswami as Bengali actress had done well. Sanjay Suri as the director Abbas Khan has justified his character; though he has a very short role. Harsh Chhaya as a filmmaker is good.

Script : The story seems to be stale and repetitive. There isn't any freshness in the plot. The writers Anuradha Tiwari, Manoj Tyagi and Niranjan Iyengar haven't done good work. Screenplay is weak with many loopholes. Dialogues are just average. Some scenes are one sided!

Music : Music by Salim-Sulaiman is just okay. Only its two songs 'Halkat Jawani' and the title song 'Main Heroine Hoon' are workable. Rest of the music is not appealing; not even background music!

Choreography : Choreography by Ganesh Acharya of the 'Halkat Jawani' appears to be good but it seems that Kareena is unable to justify the steps. There is less flexibility in her steps. 'Main Heroine Song' comes when the credit rolls in the beginning hence you don't get time to observe the steps.

Cinematography : The DOP Mahesh Limaye has done his job in a well manner.

Editing : There are some loopholes in its editing part in the beginning (or it could be screenplay fault). Rest of the editing part is okay.

Direction : The direction of Madhur Bhandarkar is not extraordinary. It is just average. He has confused his characters and it also seems that he was himself confused about his characters. You don't know whether you had gone to see a heroine or a ……! Some shots are well taken but they are not going to work alone! The director has not utilized music properly. He has presented you almost what he had shown you in the past in 'PAGE 3', 'FASHION' etc.

Plus Points : Hardly anything

Minus Points : Weak Script; Stale Subject; Average Music; Average Direction; Confused Characters;

Conclusion : People were eagerly waiting for A Madhur Bhandarkar Film, but this is not that! You have already seen its parts many times in the past. Of course a few scenes are fresh, but they are not sufficient for it to live up to your expectations.

Verdict : A dull & boring film! A stale film without any freshness!