Absolute nonsense; give it a miss- #BeBefikre!

Cast: Ranveer Singh and Vaani Kapoor

Rating: 1.5/5

Few days back, during the promotional interviews of Befikre, Ranveer said that the trailer wasn’t edited properly and so did not convey the message.

What was missing? It was sheer boredom and stupidity. And, guess what? The trailer only gives the film a benefit of doubt. Had they revealed the ‘predictable’ story of the film, there’d be nothing to hope from this utter disaster, YRF – the renowned Bollywood studio has recently released.

It is quite tough to digest the fact that ‘THE ADITYA CHOPRA’ who once wrote Bollywood’s iconic film DDLJ and many others, today sadly writes a film which makes absolutely zilch sense. Wonder what inspires him and where does he come across such thoughts and ideas. In the name of love and romance, if this is what yester year filmmakers produce, then I’m afraid the future of commercially successful, high-on-content romantic films, may soon come to an end.

Before talking about the story, I should warn you about the spoilers but trust me, reading this would save a lot - your money, time, energy and some pain killers.

So, one fine day, Dharam Gulati (Ranveer Singh) lands in Paris to join a bar as a comedian, which apparently is run by his friend. The new life brings out the desperate side of him and he sets off to a party to find a girl for the night, where he meets Shyra Gill (Vaani Kapoor). Shyra is Indian by birth, but French by thought. Raised in France, she works as a tour guide and instantly connects with this ‘desperate-desi-munda.’ She agrees to spend the night with him, provided he completes her dare successfully. No surprises, he does and they spend night together. There after the dares and nights continue, soon getting into a complicated relationship which doesn’t last long.

Years pass by and with time both grow mature. They start liking each other – more so for the similarities they share – but hesitate to confess. Their ‘not-my-type’ reason continues for some more time, until Shyra finds a man for herself and Dharam finds a girl. Director, writer Chopra once again recreates the ‘maa-beti’ moment (as that of DDLJ) with the same message of ‘listen to your heart and do what it says’. They realise their feelings for each other which leads to an utterly chaotic climax. But thankfully, there ends the story on the scripted happy note.

Despite the ‘not-so-Yashraj’ film, there are few factors that helped the audience to barely enjoy those 130 minutes. Ranveer’s character is almost the same as the one in real life – bindaas, fun chirpy, but here he seems too high on energy. It wouldn’t be fair to blame him for the character he’s asked to play. Vaani as Shyra is just about okay, but not appealing and remotely sexy. What impressed me the most about her is her French and the ‘Latin American’ style of dancing. Others from the cast have a decent role to play and not much to offer.

Music is good and may be on the loop for a while, but most of the songs are unfortunately forced. Dialogues are mediocre and some lines may crack you up because of sheer nonsense. Besides the actors, the other attractive element of the film is the location. Paris is captured beautifully, so much so that you’ll be forced to add it on your travel list immediately and Kaname Onoyama takes all the credit for the cinematography.

To be honest, Indian cinema is reaching a point where we are coming across some serious and impressive work. Amidst all this change, Befikre is painful to watch, especially when it comes from a well known film personality and a phenomenal production house. From the start to the end, the weak screenplay, mediocre dialogues, forced emotions have only resulted in a sheer disappointment - a maddening idiocy which might appeal only to the teens and college-goers.