Anjaana Anjaani (2010)

Live each day like it’s your last. Enjoy life to the max. Live with a no regret policy. Yeah yeah yeah, we have all heard this time and again and that’s precisely what Anjaana Anjaani is all about. Directed by Siddharth Anand, starring Priyanka Chopra as Kiara and Ranbir Kapoor as Akash in the lead, Anjaana Anjaani is a story about two strangers who meet on a bridge, wanting to commit suicide.  Of course, they end up with unsuccessful suicide attempts and decide to die together. After a couple of failed attempts, they realize there’s probably something that they have left undone. That’s when they mark the New Year’s Eve for another suicide attempt and decide to spend the remaining 20 days doing things they have always wanted to do but couldn’t. What ensues is a 20-day road trip that takes Kiara and Akash over scenic locales throughout America.

If this rings a bell and reminds you of The Bucket List, let me just clear it out right away, Anjaana Anjaani is not an adaptation or a copy of that movie. However, there’s no denying the fact that the concept is clichéd and has been done over and over again. It’s extremely predictable. Ten minutes into the movie and you can already predict the end but what’s interesting is the way they take the story to the end. You still want to watch it despite the fact that Anjaana Anjaani doesn’t have an anjaana plot.

The reason you want to watch it is that it’s a simple, light hearted love story which is predictable but different in its own special way. Ranbir is the finest actor of this generation and his performance in Anjaana Anjaani proves that yet again. With every new release, Ranbir raises the bar higher and looks charming and absolutely stunning!

Priyanka has performed her role with great ease and looks natural. She has perfect comic timing in the comic scenes. She is emotional in the touching ones and rowdy during the drunken scenes. But even though she looks young, preppy and fashionable in the Manish Malhotra outfits, I believe she could have looked much hotter. Somehow she didn’t have the wow factor like she did in Dostana.

Priyanka and Ranbir are superb and they complement each other. It’s the first time that these two actors have come together and their chemistry is fantastic.

The movie takes a while to settle in the plot as Akash and Kiara’s bond blossoms but after a while you fail to understand why they still want to commit suicide. And just when their lame attempts to commit suicide start becoming annoying, they make you laugh like there’s no tomorrow. Watch out for the swimming adventure scene between Akash and Kiara. It is hilarious to say the least! Also, the scene where Akash is forced to pole dance at a gay club is uproarious and left the crowd in stitches. Kudos to Ranbir for pulling it all off so well without being called gay!

The initial scenes of the movie show a very carefree, fun loving, happy go lucky Kiara, which makes the audience question why she was on that bridge? But oh I forgot, the audience is not supposed to ask questions. Nevertheless, another question that kept popping in my mind was how Kiara and Akash could afford trips to Vegas and around America considering one of them was bankrupt and the other was jobless. Oh well, I guess everything is possible in Bollywood.

Another flaw apart from these unanswered questions in Anjaana Anjaani is that the entire movie focuses on only two characters basically. I am not forgetting the fact that Zayed Khan has a cameo but his performance is completely forgettable. Also, there are parts where the movie seems stretched. That’s when you wonder why Akash and Kiara didn’t jump off the bridge in the first place. But it’s not all that annoying. The locales shown are beautiful and make you feel stunned while seated in your chair gazing at the screen. Every frame is amazing. You can’t help but appreciate the cinematography. The music by Vishal Shekhar is foot tapping and easy on the ears. There’s a kind of song for everyone and the background score complements the movie to give a great effect.

All in all, Anjaana Anjaani is a predictable story with great performances, nice music, superb cinematography and light moments that bring a smile to your face. It makes you want to stop and think about what you really want to do in life. Oh and it teaches you the same lesson all over again, live each day like it’s your last but this time it convinces you a whole lot more – Hafsah Sarfraz

Rating :- 3 out of 5

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2010, Genre – Drama/Romance, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Sajid Nadiadwala, Director – Siddharth Raj Anand, Music Director – Vishal Dadlani, Shekhar Ravjiani, Cast - Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Zayed Khan, Anupam Kher

Priyanka Chopra

This is big for Priyanka Chopra. Let’s admit it: the dusky damsel is going places. News is that a two-part film is being made on the life of Indira Gandhi. Initially the uber beautiful and ultra-talented Madhuri Dixit was approached for the part. But after she declined the offer citing her mother-in-law’s illness, the makeup artist on the film, Jenny Shircore, flipped through a lot of stills of Indian film stars and put her finger on Priyanka Chopra.

According to Jenny, Ms Piggy Chops is the one who can resemble Indira Gandhi after some ‘prosthetic touchups’ to her face.

Now pretty Priyanka hasn’t been asked for the part yet, but knowing that names like Tom Hanks, Albert Finney and Emily Watson have been rattled off for some other important characters in the film, chances are that Priyanka will nod in the affirmative as soon as the producers of the film say ‘hello’ to her. If you’ve seen Fashion, you’ll vouch for it.

Pyar Impossible (2010)

When you see trailers of a movie which falls under the Yash Raj banner, with beautiful locations such as Singapore and Priyanka Chopra showing off a new hairdo and her long and lean legs, you can’t help but expect something trendy and funny. This despite the fact that the plot seems generic, where there is the nerdy geek who falls in love with the popular babe. Therefore you take out time (two hours to be exact) to watch a movie in hopes of being even mildly amused, if not largely entertained, and instead you’re left with a bitter taste of how-you-have-wasted-your-time in your mouth. It is not unusual for Yash Raj Films to produce meaningless love stories. However, those meaningless stories have a purpose: to make the audience laugh or cry. Mostly, these movies manage to do that successfully, therefore stealing top positions at the box office (although the last few years have seen YRF films struggling to attract audiences).

Pyaar Impossible falls short of any such expectations, which is rather unfortunate, as there were certain elements in the movie which could have worked. Let’s start with the leading lady, the National Award-winning actress, Priyanka Chopra. Priyanka has come a long way indeed, from the innocent looking girl-next-door in Mujhse Shaadi Karogi to the fiercely ambitious model in Fashion, by not just polishing her looks, but by improving her acting skills as well. Therefore the most alluring factor of the movie was definitely this dusky beauty. Secondly, the cast and crew were made up of many young talents. For instance Jugal Hansraj, actor-turned director, started off his career as a child. Being young and bursting with experience, he brought along a unique perspective and a refreshing feel to the film. Also, Uday Chopra, the writer of the script, comes from an incredibly talented family which has maintained its name and reputation in the industry for the longest time, thus bringing further talent to the plate. Or so one hoped.

However, the movie still doesn’t work, for so many reasons. Firstly, there is absolutely no chemistry whatsoever between Priyanka and Uday. In fact, Priyanka looked better with the antagonist in the plot, who is trying to lure her towards him. Secondly, even with a clichéd plot and a predictable ending, the writers could’ve added some seriousness to the script, making the dialogues slightly more mature. There were some scenes where the characters kept talking to each other and you’re staring at the screen, thinking WTH? For instance, when they’re showing a million dollar deal being made between two big shot companies, they are seen sitting discussing the deal as if it’s two five-year-olds talking about who gets to eat the bigger piece of cake. The adorable child star did not help either. I mean is that how 6-year-olds talk nowadays? Really? Though she was extremely cute with her light eyes and straight hair, why did she have to be such an over-smart brat who killed the innocence by being ‘intelligent’ enough to come up with the conclusion that she should somehow set her ‘nanny’ up with her mother. At one point she actually goes to sleep over at her friend’s house so that Uday can get some alone time with her mom. Also, another absurdity in the film is that everything seemed unbelievable. For instance, the kind of clothes Priyanka wears when she is in the office. We understand that the filmmakers are trying to cash in on her smouldering looks, but come on! Making her wear hot pants the size of boxer shorts, and tops which one would think twice about wearing even when going to a club, just doesn’t make sense.

Another funny thing that comes in notice is that even though the second half of their lives in the movie has been shot entirely in Singapore, there are Indians everywhere! The CEO, all the top officials in the company where Priyanka works, the janitor, the nanny who comes to look after Priyanka’s daughter while she’s at work – none of them is a Singaporean, or any other ethnicity. So maybe, at a subconscious level, the movie is trying to send out a message that Indians are taking over everywhere. Whatever the reason for that may be, it’s clear that there are many things that are overlooked. And as a consequence, Pyaar Impossible is plagued with flaws. Maybe the credit of all this ‘childish-ness’ goes to the young new director. Or maybe the script was so flawed that it could not control these small things that added up to something large: A big failure. It’s slightly sad to see Priyanka picking up films such as these after entertaining and successful films like Kaminey and Dostana. It’s also disappointing to see no charm or grace emitting from Uday either even though his character did require him to be somewhat of a loser. However, being the male lead of the film, he should have been able to own the screen in any shot, rather than blend in the background. In conclusion: Skip this Yash Raj production. Don’t bother – Manal Faheem Khan

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2010, Genre – Drama, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Uday Chopra, Director – Jugal Hansraj, Music Director – Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant, Cast - Priyanka Chopra, Uday Chopra, Dino Morea, Anupam Kher, Saidah Jules