happy ending is a romedy (to borrow a term from the film, and yes, it means exactly what it sounds like it means). the film centres around yudi, played by saif ali khan who is a writer - what kind i couldn't tell you as that's a detail the film couldn't be bothered to go into. what we do know is that he is a one book wonder living off his fading fame, money and good looks in california. when his slick red car gets towed away and his cable tv gets disconnected for non payment of bills he is jolted out of his splendid stupor and the only work his agent can find him is writing a half plagiarized screenplay for an ageing bollywood superstar. enter armanji, played to hysterical perfection by govinda, who wants to leap frog from single screen stardom to multiplex glory. somewhere along the way, yudi's path crosses with aanchal, played effortlessly by ileana d'cruz, the hottest success story on the writing scene. at first they annoy each other and then the rest is... come on it's bollywood, there are no prizes for guessing!
the film is a young, supposedly contemporary take on relationships, with lots of comedy thrown in to keep it light. the style of a film within a film, with yudi narrating and talking directly to us the audience and the appearance of scene numbers and silly formula film descriptions like "airport wala scene," i liked, but didn't love, because it didn't go far enough. the scene descriptions are too few and the twist the scenes intentionally take away from the original formula are not twisted enough. and now i've put my finger on the crux of the problem that was preventing me from truly digging and connecting with the film and not merely passing time in a somewhat pleasant manner. this film is not in sync with the times it's claiming to reflect, although it has all the outward flourish. in spite of all the cool styling, location and modern lingo i found it's heart dated.
yudi is a philanderer and a commitment-phobe who is having a whale of a time with everyone, although he is kind of in a relationship with vishaka, played by a very funny kalki, who is desperately in love with him. she is, at more than one point, referred to as psycho and i really didn't get that. so she wants to track his movements with an app - at least 75% of people out there would like to put a minute to minute trace on their partners. i know my husband would if i let him! i highlight this because it was the oddness of the time we live in that were missing, which, i think, could have spring boarded this film into a truly cool zone. the idea of a bestselling romantic writer illeana being totally cynical about love was a brilliant one but again went unexplored. yudi also has a partner in crime, a reluctantly married best friend / confidante, played by ranvir shorey, who lives vicariously through yudi's escapades. ranvir with his pot belly, self pitying moan and cliched lines steals all the laughs from saif. as does saif's ketchup guzzling, vernacular alter ego, yogi, also played by saif. the scenes of yogi and yudi together were some of my favorites and, i thought, added the quirk factor so needed to save this film from a crippling sense of d��j� vu, but again, the duo directors were too stingy with these. and every time saif played the charmer who was reacting without listening, it invoked hum tum, salaam namaste et al except a decade later. it didn't help that you relegate a female colleague from that decade, preity zinta, to an ex-girlfriend turned pretty aunty, it only speeded up my memory of how many years have passed and the story hasn't.
and what's with govinda being the scene stealer in two back to back films and not being given enough scenes to steal. his ability to laugh at himself full throttle meant i couldn't look at anyone else when he was on screen. more of him and the slobbish yogi and i'd be recommending this film. in it's current state, go see it if you've seen all the hollywood offerings because it is meant purely for us mul
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Updated on Saturday, November 22, 2014 | 2:27:47 AM
