Hasee Toh Phasee

There is a good looking young man who is engaged to be married an equally (if not better) good looking young woman. The two seem to be very much into each other and are really looking forward to getting married. In walks the mysterious, girl next door kinds sister who creates ripples in the still waters just by being present. Her presence is just about enough to create doubts in the mind of the groom to be.

Have you heard this story before somewhere in Hollywood or in Bollywood or in Kollywood. You can also reverse the roles to a girl about to be married and has to notice the groom-to-be's brother or best friend. A story that has been told a dime a dozen times and every time it is ever so slightly different. Sometimes the differences are so subtle that playing the movie at half the speed or maybe 1/4th the speed may still not reveal the subtleties.

Thankfully Hasee Toh Phasee falls in the ever so slightly different category and not the subtly different category (notice the sarcasm). Newbie director Vinil Matthew takes this very trite formula into a great Gujjabi wedding. Gujjabi - Gujrati + Punjabi. Gujju seems to be back in fashion in Bollywood these days. So what if half the actors are anyways Punjabi and can barely speak 2 lines in Gujarati without stumbling over themselves - the trend is Gujju and Gujju it shall be!!!

The Gujju part of this family is introduced with Meeta (Parineeti Chopra) whose father (Manoj Joshi) - coincidentally the only Gujju in the main cast - loves her to bits. He ignores all her pranks as a child and pampers her to no end - but in a positive manner. The Punjabi aspect is centred around Nikhil Bhardwaj (Siddharth Malhotra) who is comes from a family of IXS's (IAS, IPS, IRS etc.). But he is the rotten apple or as another recent movie calls it out - Kala Thabba.

Over 14 years the Kala Thabba gets bigger and our man is at a wedding (so what if his nth IAS attempt is in a day or two) in Mumbai. And guess who he bumps into there - other than Meeta of course - Karishma (Adah Sharma) whose saree is tied so low that any lower and it would get to where a micro mini skirt ends. Of course the saree makes little or no effort to hide her mediocre curves. Coincidentally, somewhere along the way, Nikhil helps Meeta run away - not knowing that Meeta and Karishma are sisters. 

7 years later, Karishma and Nikhil are about to be married over 7 days - talk about extravagance in an IXS infested home (and they expect us to believe that Government officers are underpaid). Nikhil is still floating around in his dreams with little or no future other than living off his now multi millionaire Father-in-law-to-be. Numbers like 5 -10 crores are thrown around like pocket change. To stir up this mess walks in - no points for guessing - Meeta!!!

So if u needed me to say all of this and are still reading this review then HTP is definitely watchable. If you skipped everything and directly jumped to this paragraph then you can watch HTP in fast forward mode. It is predictable like most RomComs. You don't need to be Einstein to call out the next scene. The first 10-15 mins are built up very well after which it moves into "snail mode" for an hour. The post interval experience is similar except the snail mode time is crashed down to 30-40 mins followed by 10-15 mins of acceptable pace.

The extent of irrelevant scenes and sequences are appalling. Like the purpose of showing Agneepath as Nikhil's obsession as a child. Of course I need not get into continuity or consistency as a concept either. It is a Dharma Production where costumes and good looks take precedence over quality cinema making. The story needs to be acceptable and in that sense, HTP manages to barely touch the bar.

Parineeti is superb except when she is under the influence of her anti depression pills that cause her to make some really wierd faces that are not remotely funny. Sometimes one wonders if she was actually having pills. Siddharth Malhotra does enough to retain his status in Bollywood. Adah Sharma looks hot so acting is irrelevant. The support cast is solid. The dialogues are great in parts like "waise bhi first ke upar koi rank nahin hota". But then there are the likes of "Mein idea aur tum technology. Hamari patang kaise mast udegi na"?

The music is good with a couple of tracks that will stay in your mind for some time - Drama Queen and Zehen Se to be precise. But at the end of the day, even if you are a sucker for RomComs like I am, you will give HTP a 5 on 10 rating. But if you are the practical cinema watcher then a 3 would be too high. It survives on the back of some good performances but the script and narration are just not upto the mark. I would recommend that you wait for the satellite release and watch it in the comfort of your couch.

Watch the trailer on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv5MG0LhaP4