BizAsia Movie Review: ��Baar Baar Dekho�۪
��Baar Baar Dekho�۪ is one film that had generated a lot of hype online with many people calling it the next ��Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani�۪ (2013). Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif make an attractive pairing off screen and their youthfulness meant this film was made to appeal to young love. The trailer for the film showed the preppy pair in Thailand and Malhotra�۪s character travelling through time and waking up at different points in his life. The music of the film was being remarked upon with Kaala Chashma, Sau Aasmaan and Nachde Ne Saare become firm favourites with the audience.
Jai Verma (Malhotra) and Diya Kapoor (Kaif) are both childhood sweethearts who meet on the first day of school and fall in love. As they grow up, both of them find their own passions with Jai becoming a mathematical genius with dreams to go study and work with his guru in Cambridge. In contrast, Diya becomes an artist who loves being around her family and dreams of having a family of her own with Jai. Diya proposes marriage to Jai using mathematical logic saying that they are already like an old married couple anyway so nothing will need change. However, confronted with a big fat Punjabi wedding headed by Diya�۪s father (Ram Kapoor), Jai gets cold feet and having been offered the job of his dreams at Cambridge University argues with Diya and turns her away. In drunken stupor, he falls asleep and wakes up on his honeymoon ten days later with Diya in Thailand. Hereon, Jai continues to wake up at crucial moments in his life showing him the consequence of his present actions of leaving Diya in the future.
The concept of the film is a simple one, if you could change one moment in your past to affect your future, what would you change? The thought is interesting and at times beautiful but the reasoning and logic behind is flawed. You can�۪t really see what Jai has done so wrong chasing his own dreams to begin with, in order for him to end up the way he does. The film has too many points in time where it stops and you could remove most of the scenes as the film focuses on one particular day in the end to get to a conclusion. Jai�۪s character being a mathematic genius comes across as rather pointless and he does a few formulas here and there on window panes, he could have been an average man on the street and still reach the same conclusions.
The characters are a big part of the problem. They are never well developed enough for the audience to feel anything for them. Jai is a bore as character so when he does rile up the enthusiasm to be the devoted lover or the maths professor that the girls moon over, you don�۪t really feel anything for him. Diya, the self proclaimed ��driver�۪ in their relationship comes across as clingy and rather immature at times so you can�۪t have any sympathy for her either.
This film does show how far Malhotra has come in his acting abilities though as he is believable as Jai and he does try to get the different nuances of his character across, it is the script that lets him down. Kaif in comparison fares worse as this film shows time and time again that she needs to develop her emoting skills more. Though Malhotra does pull off the complexities of his character, Kaif does flounder and struggles in the emotional scenes. They don�۪t have much chemistry on screen and though they cosy up, it seems fuzzy and forced. Both of them are easy on the eye to watch on screen but the stunning locations do hold more appeal to the audience.
The supporting cast of Ram Kapoor and Kapoor as the respective parents of Diya and Jai, both fantastic actors, are wasted in this film. The concept of time travel needs to be well done and that is this film�۪s main flaw. A few CGI scenes here and there do not create a futuristic film.
Dharma films have glossy cinematography and an appealing music score and on both those factors, this film delivers. Visually this film is beautiful and you really do wish you could be in Thailand exploring with the characters too. As the trailers showed, Sau Aasmaan, Nachde Ne Saare, Kaala Chashma and Khair Mangdi are visual treats on screen and will be memorable for years to come.
So could this be the next ��Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani�۪? This film is miles away from that in story, characters and their complexities. It tries hard but the story-line coupled with some undeveloped characters lets it down in more ways than one.
BizAsia Showbiz Rating: 2/5
