Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani – Review

I JUST got back home after Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and am really excited as I type up my review. Also, I am going proof read this a couple of times just to ensure that I don’t let out any spoilers, but even then if I do, my bad.

Firstly, let me just get a few facts straight about the movie. The lead star cast comprises of Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Kalki Koechlin. The movie is produced by Karan Johar and story, screenplay and direction is by Ayan Mukherji (remember Wake Up Sid?!). The music is composed by Pritam and lyrics are penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

Review:

And begins the journey of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. The movie starts with Naina Talwar (Deepika Padukone) reminiscing about her past and the movie moves on to a flashback sequence 8 years back. Naina is studying medicine and is quite the “scholar”. Naina happens to be shopping with her mum (Dolly Ahluwali – remember Ayushmann’s mom in Vicky Donor?!) and both of them happen to meet Aditi (Kalki) at the supermarket. Naina, Aditi, Avi (Aditya Roy Kapur) and Kabir Thapar aka Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor) all used to be school mates. So there’s Aditi meeting Naina after years of high school, and through this meeting Naina comes to know that Aditi, Avi and Bunny have all decided to go on a trek to Manali. Tired of her monotonous life, Naina decides to contact the tour agency and enlist herself for the trek to Manali. And then begins the journey of four friends. After the trip to Manali, Bunny gets a scholarship to study journalism at the Northwestern University, USA and he leaves to pursue his dreams. After 8 years (back from the flashback), they happen to meet again at Aditi’s wedding.

Character Analysis:

Bunny – He’s the quintessential traveler. He loves to see different places, to take videos and pictures of every little detail of the places he sees. He dreams of travelling the world and seeing every place there is to be seen. He keeps a scrapbook and is a dreamer and a passionate explorer.

Naina – She’s the quintessential Indian daughter. She is the obedient child, topper of the class in high school and a topper in college. “Scholar” Naina is bored of her uninteresting life and dreams of venturing out, trying to change her introverted nature and to make good friends and create special memories with special people.

Aditi – She’s the tomboy of the group. She is the quintessential friend that isn’t afraid of foraying into new spaces with her closest buddies. Every group has the fun, chilled-out girl and Aditi is just that. She quenches for happiness in life and for a relationship.

Avi – He’s the fun lover of the group. He is the quintessential man-child that is present in every group. He’s the person that refuses to grow up, believes in having fun and values friendship above all else. He is the alcoholic and constantly looks for emotional support and strong friendship.

About the movie and performances:

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is about the journey of growing up. It is about nurturing your dreams but getting your priorities right in life. It is about sitting back and enjoying precious moments in life. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is a reminder that life moves too fast and sometimes we all need to hold back and enjoy and create moments with the ones we love. It is about friendship, it is about love, it is about dreams and it is about life.

Ranbir Kapoor – Oh, everything I say about this guy seems less than apt. He’s the superstar of today and nobody in his league of actors can match his on-screen persona. He has the looks, he has the moves, he has the charm and he has the talent. Yet again, he impresses immensely with Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. He emotes perfectly and delicately, his acting isn’t overdone in any scene and boy, can this man dance?! He’s clearly here to stay and proves his mettle again with Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

Deepika Padukone is stunning. She doesn’t need to wear bare minimum for people to appreciate her looks. From “scholar” Naina to the fun, best-friend Naina, she impresses with her charm and acting. She dances superbly, acts well and doesn’t look expression-less in the important scenes. Kalki is good as the tomboy Aditi, and she compliments her role quite well other than her abysmal dancing skills. Aditya Roy Kapur was good as the man-child alcoholic and played his part superbly. This guy is another talent to look out for. I love him in Guzaarish, he was superb in Aashiqui 2 and doesn’t disappoint at all in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani as well.

The movie however isn’t extra-ordinary. It isn’t something that you haven’t seen before in terms of story line. The story doesn’t have anything that will blow your mind away. It is a simple straightforward story but one that you can relate to at some point or the other. It is a long movie with a runtime of 160 minutes but you are promised to be entertained without a minute of boredom.

The things to watch out for:

1) Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone’s pairing. This pair is here to stay. They share beautiful moments in the movie and they have an incredible chemistry. For a change (remember Bachna Ae Haseeno?), their pair is one of the biggest highlights of this movie.

2) For all the girls, Ranbir Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur are to watch out for. Ranbir looks his best, acts with aplomb and dances like a dream in this movie. Aditya Roy Kapur is the new heartthrob in town after Aashiqui 2 and doesn’t disappoint.

3) Ayan Mukherji’s direction – The moments captured and the locales captured are stunning. The way the movie is shot seems to flow effortlessly and there isn’t a moment of dullness or boredom and so a thumbs-up for the screenplay.

4) The music of the movie. Pritam has given some mind-blowing music to this movie and the songs are picturized beautifully. The choreography of Batameez Dil is absolutely marvelous and big big props to Remo D’Souza for that. It was beautiful watching Madhuri Dixit dance like a dream after so many years and a special mention for ‘Ghagra”s choreography. Farah Khan and Geeta Kapur have done a brilliant job. Kabira is beautiful and melodious and has become my new favorite. Balam Pichkari is already popular and is a fun song.

What’s not so good:

1) The story. It isn’t anything new, and we’ve been there seen that. Watch the movie not for the story but for the moments created.

2) The run time – I admit that the movie wasn’t boring at all, but what had to be said could have been said in a much shorter time than the 160 minutes.

In summary, the movie doesn’t have an exceptional plot or story, but the movie is worth a watch for the moments it captures, for the Ranbir-Deepika pairing and for showing that it is important to live life at the pace you are comfortable with and sorting your priorities in life.

Rating: 3.5+0.5/5 stars

(+0.5 specially for the Ranbir-Deepika pairing. It is absolutely wonderful and I hope that they start dating again. They make a lovely pair.)

Its fast, its furious.

Okay so originally, today’s contemplation led me to the topic ‘women’. I started thinking about different incidents and instances and those were going to form my post for today. But YouTube got the better of me and I got distracted. And also, I thought I have a lot to say on the topic of women, so I thought it would be better if I saved it for a day when I could dedicate the right amount of time to that topic. So today I write about my day.

I think that the IPL has an extremely loyal fan in me. I love anything that is related to the IPL. For instance, today I was watching the owner’s games. Apparently last year after some of the games were done, the two sides playing would battle it out again. Just it wouldn’t be their playing XI, but it would be the owner’s XI instead. I am sure there are very few like me that would spend 2 hours watching random cricket games. Also, for all the Gurunath Meiyappan speculation, in the following video he is addressed as the CSK owner (fishy, fishy).

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And then I saw a TEDx video where Anurag Kashyap was the keynote speaker. I am a big Anurag Kashyap fan also and there’s will definitely be another post about him. After that, I went to see Fast & Furious 6. WHAT A MOVIE! I absolutely loved it. It completely satisfied the action junkie and the car lover in me.

An interesting thing that I started doing 10 days back was take up the 30 Day Song Challenge on Facebook. To most people it may seem silly or pointless but it would actually be interesting to see everyone take it up at some point. The challenge each day speaks volumes about a person. I hope more people take it up, if not out of interest, then out of pure fun.

The “its fast, its furious” title seemed so apt because for the past two weeks that is how life has been. I’ve started doing so much more and am so occupied all day that its hard to keep track of the speed at which the days are passing by. Two weeks back, one of my best friends came from India and on the day before yesterday, she left. Time flies by so fast. So yeah, life’s fast and life’s furious but I keep reminding myself of the importance of taking a little bit of time out of that fast life and reminiscing. And this is my spot for doing just that.

And on a conclusive note, I have been on a movie spree. I saw The Avengers yesterday and Fast & Furious 6 today. I’m going to watch Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (I’ve been waiting for a while for this one) tomorrow, Hangover 3 day after tomorrow, and hopefully The Great Gatsby the day after that. I’m super excited. And the review of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is coming out either tomorrow night or day after morning. Until then, take care and be happy!