BAH Review by Indya.com

It is the story of Raj (Ranbir Kapoor) who enjoys the cool life. He loves having fun with the girls but one word about marriage and he runs for cover and BAH spans his life over 10 years where he meets not one but three girls – all more gorgeous than the other and all are madly in love with Raj.

Rating: 3/5
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Bipashah Basu, Deepika Padukone, Minissha Lamba, Kunal Kapoor, Hiten Paintal
Director: Siddharth Anand

Bachna Ae Haseeno (BAH) in man terms can be termed (and rightfully so!) as Ranbir Kapoor’s debut film. It shows the young actor in the romantic lover boy image which suits him to the t. And that’s what BAH is all about.

It is the story of Raj (Ranbir Kapoor) who enjoys the cool life of hard at work and even harder at play. He loves having fun with the girls but one word about marriage and he runs for cover and BAH spans his life over 10 years where he meets not one but three girls – all more gorgeous than the other and all are madly in love with Raj.

It starts with Mahi (Minissha Lamba) in 1996. The story with Mahi is DDLJ re-visited. Travelling through Switzerland, Mahi is a young girl from Amritsar who is on the lookout for true love. But she finds Raj who is on the look out for some fun in his trip to Europe. Playing with her feelings, he has his fun and then dumps her without thinking twice.

In 2002, in walks Radhika (Bipasha Basu) – a hot and aspiring model and actress. The two lay eyes on each other and sparks fly. Before you know it, they have moved in together. One and a half year later, its time for Raj to move to Sydney from work and he assumes that his relationship with Radhika will close thereby giving him free reign in Sydney to find some new girls. But obviously Radhika has other plans. She assumes its time for marriage and for her to join her hubby Raj as he pursues his career. Unable to straight away dump her he goes along till the date of their court marriage arrives. On that date he conveniently takes the flight to Sydney leaving her at the altar.

Fast forward to 2007 and its time for Gayatri (Deepika Padukone) to enter Raj’s life. a supermarket cashier and taxi driver by night, Gayatri is working to pay herself through business school. She loves Raj but makes it clear marriage is not something she is interested in. Raj is overjoyed to find a woman like that finally. However, sadly for him his priorities change. The young, handsome casanova now wants marriage, family, kids and every after. So when he proposes to Gayatri, he is in for rude shock as she turns him down and walks out of his life.

Suddenly finding himself at the other end of the sticks, Raj realizes what Mahi and Radhika have gone threw and so he sets about trying to set things right with them. Will he succeed? And will that bring Gayatri back is what BAH is all about.

So is it worth the trek to the cinema this bang holiday weekend?

Yes if you love Ranbir Kapoor. Yes if you love the mushy Yash Raj films. But beware that is all there is to it. While the first half leaves you in splits and the credit for that goes to a tightly held script and Hiten Paintal who plays Sachin – Raj’s best mate. The second half gets a bit slow and drags on in places.

Another thing that works for BAH is the scenic locations. The cinematography is excellent and it shows that Siddharth Anand as director has spent considerable time selecting and scouting for locations.

In terms of acting, Ranbir and Hiten come out on top followed by Bipasha and Minissha. Deepika leaves you disappointed. She is unable to convince the audience with her street smart taxi driver role. (And if driving a taxi at night, working in the supermarket in the day and attending B-school as well still allows you to look as good as she has then I think we all should consider immigrating soon!)

And as far as the superhit song Bachna Ae Haseeno is concerned, unlike the current trend its not something that plays at the end of the movie when the credits role but right at the start which makes you believe that the rest of the movie will be as good.

Whether you love or hate Bachna Ae Haseeno, one thing is for sure that suddenly travel to Europe especially Italy is definitely going to see an upswing!


Harshita Kohli, Hill Road Media
Friday, August 15, 2008

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