Raanjhanaa

It’s an effort to show the selflessness and sincerity of that immature first love that most of us don’t really understand or care about. Director Anand L Rai’s latest venture Raanjhanaa is a variety in its romantic angle but a little too much when you look at the big canvas he created to present the idea. An entertaining first half and a drastically different second half makes this movie somewhat fresh.

The story is basically about the first love of a tamil boy Kundan who was bought up in Banaras. He falls in love with Zoya in childhood itself. In their teenage Zoya is forced to go to Delhi as her family found out that she is in love with a Hindu boy. The story here revolves around the events that happen at the arrival of Zoya after many years, completing her college education. Zoya’s reaction towards Kundan’s love for her, how he handles it and the dramas that happens later which take their lives into a grey zone is what Raanjhanaa all about.

It’s just a preview I have shared as the movie goes on to a bigger canvas as it moves forward. What is interesting is that it’s not that conventional Hindi love story you see in bollywood. To make us feel non-typical about it even after using the “first love” idea deserves some appreciation. With those friendship sequences and humorous dialogs, first half manages to keep us engaged to the content even in its upset tones. Where the movie starts to make us itchy is in the second half where the Banarasi boy starts to grow in an unconvincing manner.  The screenplay couldn’t really pull off any interesting scenarios to show the charm of Kundan to convert him into a political hero. It cannot be termed as unnecessary as the climax was really connected to Kundan’s rise and Zoya’s ego. The political foul plays and a twist that depicts the sincerity of the guy’s romance makes Raanjhanaa end on an impressive knot.

In the performance side, it’s not really a challenging role for Dhanush when we look at his style and track record. The actor has done the part superbly and the character will remind us of his previous works. Sonam Kapoor was impressive as both the enthusiastic teenager Zoya and the more matured and slightly egoistic leader Zoya. Abhay Deol’s character’s screen time is pretty less, but he manages to bring in the charm that character demanded. Two actors who really impressed me were Swara Bhaskar who played the role of Bindiya and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub who played the role of Murari. Their performances were really memorable.

In the making, the duo Anand L Rai and Himanshu Sharma have taken a good leap in terms of content as their first venture Tanu weds Manu was a quite simple rom-com. Direction is good and he has tried to keep the movie less melodramatic. The screenplay is engaging in the first half and the transformation wasn’t that smooth. As I mentioned earlier, the script fails to put Kundan convincingly in that political backdrop and that will create disturbances in our minds. The dialogs are good. The chartbuster songs of almost all types are there from madras Mozart A R Rahman and that really adds to the movie’s entertainment value.

Overall, Raanjhanaa is an interesting take on sincere romance in a not so used background. It has its flaws, but manages to put a smile on our face at the end. I am giving it a 3/5. Some quality performances are guaranteed.