Andhracafe.com- BACHNA AE HASEENA: Starring Ranbhir Kapoor, Minisha Lamba, Bipasha Basu and Deepika Padukone. Direction: Sidharth Anand.

Mendel cannot go wrong.  So scream this young and promising dude who is showing all the signs of taking the female fan following by a storm.  Ever since he did the suggestive nude scene for Sanjay Leela Bansali, this young promise has drawn the attention of the filmgoer for the confidence he brings on stage .  There is a grace that he brings to his suggestive nudity that most stars have hitherto failed and this in itself makes him a class apart. 

    Beyond a point every star is but a product of the script he is called upon to handle and thus even great actors fall a prey to scripts that do not get the attention they deserve.  Scripts have never been the strong point of our main stream cinema.  The film maker and the script writer is committed to  too many pre determined factors required to be packed into a script and hence a tight and relevant script is the last on the check list.  In fact a loose script and a meandering fashion of narration is as much part of our cinema as songs and music are.

    The story line is simple and unpretentious: Raj( Ranbhir) the protagonist goes through the three faces of love: the romantic; the  sexual and finally the emotional.  At each of the stages he overlooks the rest . In the first phase he meets up with a young romanticist Mahi (Minisha Lamba) in Europe.  After going through a typical Yash Raj romance he spells out the flippancy in the  relationship.  Mahi looses faith in love.     

  He then moves on to a living in relationship with Radhika (Bipasha) an aspiring film actress. ON the way to the altar he develops cold feet and understands that his emotion for his partner does not transcend the physical.  Not man enough to tell her he chickens out without even informing her.

Now in Australia, he runs into a lady taxi driver who is an intelligent young self sufficient lass who does not believe in the institution of marriage and thus has a heterodoxical view on love.  Hurt by rejection the protagonist now revisits his earlier relationships and goes about correcting them. Despite the advice that the correction is not going to be easy and apologies do not erase hurt, he finds the going all too simple. It is in this part of the film that the narration is very filmi, lacking in punch and in sincerity. Especially the third part of how the rejection turns to acceptance is but a simple scene of declaration. 

The film is not altogether  bad.  It has spirited performances.  Minisha Lamba is very dignified and brings a lot of class to her half baked character.  Bipasha has the best role and she makes good use of it. One only hopes that our cinema gives such talent better recognition.  It is Deepika who fails.  She turns out looking too plain Jane in   floral costumes making no sense what so ever.

    Ranbhir has tremendous screen presence and is loveable.  It is easy to fall in love with him as a character.  He also displays a touching vulnerability.  Truly a chip of the block.  Watch the film for him if nothing and for the young audience the tile qua the central character is a guarded message

L.Ravichander