Bewakoofiyaan

An affable romantic comedy that slips out of your mind minutes after you leave the hall

This is an affable romantic comedy with three characters who could easily win popularity contests. The boy would win ‘Mr Congeniality’, the girl ‘Ms Agreeable’ and the girl’s father, with a bit of luck, ‘Mr Endearing’. Put together they give you a breezy, easy- to-watch film that slips entirely out of your mind half an hour after seeing it.

The sub-text of Bewakoofiyaan is the ongoing recession; about how thousands of jobs have been lost in India, particularly in vulnerable sectors like the aviation industry where Mohit (Ayushmann Khurrana) works. But you would never notice the seriousness of the subject, given its candy floss treatment in the film.

Mohit is with an airline’s marketing department and earns a little less than his girlfriend, Mayera (Sonam Kapoor), who is an executive at a bank. This doesn’t seem to hurt his ego, but when he is suddenly and unexpectedly laid off, he flounders. He keeps looking for jobs in his area of expertise, before it dawns on him that he simply has to take what he gets. His rent is overdue, his bank balance is down and he starts borrowing money from his girlfriend. This is where the film could have turned interesting—had it focused on money as a conflict area between a couple; how it dampens romance and affects the man-woman equation. Instead, the movie shifts attention to Mayera’s father (Rishi Kapoor), an IAS officer about to retire, and his amusing—though exaggerated—cross examination of his prospective son- in-law.

With all due respect to his performance, Rishi’s character is over written and cliched and distracts from real issues between the couple. Apart from one minor break-up scene in his car, when Mayera yells at Mohit about his irksome money niggling before she gets out and takes a rickshaw, writer Habib Faisal softpedals all discord.

The result is an easy-come-easy-go film that passes you by.

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Ajit Duara