Anjaana Anjaani

I had seen the rushes of Anjaana Anjaani about a month back. Had tweeted / FBed at that time that it did not inspire any confidence in me. The occupational hazard of being a movie critic is that one doesn’t have much of a choice in picking the movies that should be seen. Therefore, we land up getting our brains chewed every once in a while. Not that Anjaana Anjaani was a brain chewer. But it was only as good as the trailer. That I was seeing a 1050 show after a decent RomCom (Going the distance) didn’t quite help the cause of Sid Anand and company.


Arjun (Ranbir Kapoor) is a successful stock market broker (I can only assume coz I landed up a minute late into the movie) who is known for playing the high risk high gain game. But when the market crashes, he does too. Unbeknownst to his partners, he has already taken loans of over $12 million from the market. His partners were under the impression that it was only a million or thereabouts per head. Obviously they are up shit creek right now and have no clue how to pay the bank. Not to mention that their beautiful partnership is no longer beautiful. And how can I forget to mention that it is in times like these that your partners remind you about how self centred you have been all your life.

Nevertheless, a distraught Arjun decides to commit suicide by jumping of the George Washington Bridge - oops… did I forget to mention that the movie was set in the US. I thought you guys would have figured that out by now considering that I we can barely remember when was the last time a movie was set in India. Nevertheless, lets come back to the story. So our hero is going through the convoluted process of deciding whether to commit suicide or not and really boring the shit out of the audience when like a breath of fresh air, Kiara (Priyanka Chopra) enters the scene with her bottle of Vodka. But wait a minute. Our happiness on seeing Piggy Chops is short lived coz she is also here to kill herself. As such neither of them land up doing what they were there for. The cops come in to disperse the situation. Arjun throws himself in front of a car. Injures himself badly but doesn’t die. Kiara falls off the bridge – onto the road mind you – and twists her neck.

Both of them now find themselves in hospital and make a run for it together. They reach Kiara’s place where a guide book for “What not to do when you are attempting suicide” is being published. After several ridiculous attempts to end their life fail, they say it’s a sign to not kill themselves. So they decide to set a date for the event. I mean how morbid can it get. But morbid is what you have to live with here for the next few days (in movie days that is) till midnight on the 31st December 2010 – how poetic – which is the date set by our protagonists for the auspicious activity of moving into the other world.

I wouldn’t say you would watch Anjaana Anjaani at your own risk coz it is not really that pathetic. There are some saving graces such as the music. Vishal Shekhar belts out some peppy numbers and some softer ones too. There is a typical mélange that you have come to associate with Vishal Shekhar. One kind of knows what to expect. The direction however comes a cropper. I would have expected Sid Anand to come up with a better attempt. Although the trend line has been going south. There was some hope he had generated initially with Hum Tum and Salaam Namaste. But Bachna Ae Haseeno and then Ta Ra Rum Pum and not Anjaana Anjaani. Sid Anand – please take the curve upwards or you will definitely become Anjaana (such a corny line but had to put it in there :P)

Ranbir Kapoor flatters to deceive. Piggy Chops is below her best. And will someone please help me understand what qualifies that twit Zayed Khan to be an actor?????? Is there a paucity of reasonable actors in the market who are willing to play the role of a boyfriend who cheats on his girl who also happens to be the lead actress. The only reasonable performance from the support cast was from former Miss India USA – Pooja Kumar (Peshto). Probably coz her screen time was all of 2 minutes and 43.89 seconds. Surely she could lose the excess make up. She is good looking even without it. A bit of polishing in the acting department wouldn’t hurt either.

Disappointing as expected. AA gets 3 on 10 from my end. The review goes on air as I am listening to “Tere Aane Se” – as I said – the music is very nice indeed.