A film trapped in its own cliches

Happy Ending

Hindi (U/A) **

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D’Cruz, Ranvir Shorey

Directors: Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK

He charms every girl he meets. He beds most of them. And he ditches all of them. Yes, he is commitment phobic. And yes, Saif Ali Khan is playing the dude-in-denial for the zillionth time.

So we have Kareena Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Kalki Koechlin and a dozen more women being unceremoniously dumped after all of them broach the subject of marriage with our stud. 

By the way, he is a writer with that block. He hasn’t written anything in six years, after his first book fetched him fame, money and women. 

Happy Ending shows promise in the beginning. It spoofs all the movies that have taken the conventional route to the altar.

Saif mouths a few ‘hatke’ lines, makes a few unorthodox moves with best friend Ranvir Shorey (who’s unhappily married), but the film refuses to veer off the beaten track.

Saif meets his match in Ileana D’Cruz, another writer who is allergic to marriage, but doesn’t mind a few romps between her book-reading sessions. Now, Saif shares a better che­mistry with Govinda — a superstar who approaches him for a “kickass” script. It has some great performances, but Happy Ending ends up being one of the films that it mocks.