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Bewakoofiyan
Hindi (U/A) ¬
Director: Nupur Asthana
Cast: Rishi Kapoor,
Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor
Walking in to watch a film whose title translates to “follies”, you can very well expect the lead pair as well as the chief supporting cast to commit quite a few of them.
But nothing prepares one for displays of major folly, such as giving Sonam Kapoor a role she could, and should, have hit out of the park, but she somehow manages to deliver a below-mediocre performance. Neither for an interesting story and plot going a-begging for want of better direction from debutante Nupur Asthana.
Of course, the story is nothing new. Boy, girl are in love. Girl’s father objects to marriage because boy earns less than girl. Girl somehow manages to convince daddy dearest to give boy a chance. Boy loses job. And then begin the titular “Bewakoofiyan”. Boy spends beyond his means, taking regular vacations and going on frequent night-outs, while not enough attention is paid to job hunt. Boy runs up debt, borrows money from girl, gets upset by his own situation, commits more “bewakoofiyan”. And all the while he is trying to hide his unemployment from would-be father-in-law.
The film is watchable, but only in parts, and that too solely because of Rishi Kapoor’s V K Sehgal, “classmate of the Union home secretary.” Indeed, his is the only act that stays with you as the end credits start rolling. Otherwise, Ayushmann has little scope to show his comedic prowess, Sonam is as flat as ever, and even Raghu Dixit’s music is forgettable. Indeed, Dixit seemed to have done a better job with a jewellery store TV commercial than this film!
Add to these the elements that make zero sense. Like how quickly a computer-illiterate senior citizen starts playing a first-person shooter game, when seconds ago he didn’t even know where the alphabets on the keyboard were. Or the lead character, an MBA, and a class topper at that, blatantly blaming recession for his job loss, when there has nothing of the sort in India. Sure, there has been an economic downturn, but where are the two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth that should signal a recession? You would expect an MBA to know that, right? Also, why is he so bad with personal finance?
As for why the names of the characters aren’t mentioned here: They simply don’t matter. What matters at the end of just about two hours is a mildly entertaining end to a film that otherwise disappoints.