Daawat-E-Ishq

The weekend is here and it begins with an invitation from Yash Raj films.  An invitation to love / romance.  I know. I know.  That is a corny translation and I should have thought of a better one.  But Daawat-E-Ishq is exactly the kind of RomCom that deserves a corny opening line like this one.

Habib Faisal is in his fourth movie and he seems to be a typical case of a flash in the pan.  The only room for hope could be that Bewakoofiyaan (his last one) was horrid in comparison to this one.  But the fact remains that the person who gave us the magnificient Do Dooni Chaar, 4 years ago, remains nothing but a pale shadow of himself today.  Or at least his movies seem so.

Gulrez Qadir (Parineeti Chopra) is a Hyderabadi girl of marriageable age – if you consider someone who is barely 20 to be marriageable.  She is well educated but is completing her B.Com. through a correspondence course while she works.  Her father earns only about 30K per month which is apparently not sufficient to run the household.  Gullu doesn’t have a mother.

As the pleasantries are being done with, Faisal introduces Section 498A that deals with Dowry.  Apparently a person is killed every hour in this country (something I don’t find hard to believe at all).  Ergo, the build-up over 10-12 minutes of Gullu rejecting potential suitors and then out of frustration.

The frustration then leads to the most absurd of ideas.  Lets invest part of the hard earned and saved 15 lacs that papa dearest has into a scheme that is nothing but a sting operation on the next suitor who asks for “help”.  And after that, use section 498A to reach an out of court settlement and use the money to study shoe designing in the US.

So the comedy part in the RomCom has been addressed well by Faisal simply with the absurdity of the entire concept and the shenanigans that follow.  The Romance part is addressed by the owner-in-waiting of Haidari Restaurant in Lucknow – Tarik aka Taru. No points for guessing the rest of the story.

There are some points to be given for sure.  The music is reasonable.  Nothing out of the ordinary but definitely worth listening to and enjoyable.  Parineeti continues to reinforce her position as one of the, if not THE best actress in Bollywood in recent times.  But nothing beyond that.  Overall, a 4 on 10 at best.  Watch on TV if you have nothing better to do.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtsHlYO6TUc