<p>Heroine remains loyal to its title. As meant, it is a Kareena Kapoor film and she performs beyond herself as Mahi Arora. The effort is self-evident but unfortunately, the film pans out rather blandly. <br /><br />Madhur Bhandarkar stays true to his style of sharing — yet again — a woman’s vulnerabilities and insecurities, except that the sets have now shifted a notch higher than the dance bars and fashion world. <br /><br />Bhandarkar’s woman continues to be exploited until she learns to manipulate herself — with some help from a very aggressive public relations person Pallavi, played by Divya Dutta. Incidentally, Divya truly deserves her own film now. She is too good to be wasting herself in character roles. <br /><br />Mahi is not just insecure, she is also desperate — desperate to retain her position in the industry; to hold on to her lover (Arjun Rampal); to stay in the limelight; to be appreciated as an actor despite being a star. Underneath all the make-up, gloss and pretence, Mahi slowly goes under and willfully loses support — whether it is a man who loves her as she wants to be loved (Randeep Hooda); her loyal secretary (Govind Namdeo) who stays with her until… or even Aryan Khanna (Rampal) who makes a belated comeback into her life. <br /><br />The tragic story of a confused and troubled Mahi touches you but in parts — like when you realise that she is manipulating when there is no need; when she agrees to any random endorsement and appearance because roles have stopped, when she takes on a film with a ‘new wave’ director (Ranvir Shorey) just to prove her mettle as an actor and is completely at sea in her new scenario. But it fails to touch you overall — the missing link stays missing till the end — and unlike Tabu in Chandni Bar or Priyanka Chopra in Fashion — the voyeur in you is not satisfied with the easy way out in the end. <br /><br />As for the other characters, it is a pity that when there are so many good actors like Randeep, Shahana Goswami (who portrays a successful heroine of a small budget film), Sanjay Suri (playing superstar Abbas Khan) and Govind Namdeo filling the frames — Bhandarkar would use them as mere props to highlight his heroine’s pain rather than expand their roles for character evolution which would enrich the film further. <br /><br />A one-time watch, if you can stand Kareena crying all the time. <br /></p>
<p>Heroine remains loyal to its title. As meant, it is a Kareena Kapoor film and she performs beyond herself as Mahi Arora. The effort is self-evident but unfortunately, the film pans out rather blandly. <br /><br />Madhur Bhandarkar stays true to his style of sharing — yet again — a woman’s vulnerabilities and insecurities, except that the sets have now shifted a notch higher than the dance bars and fashion world. <br /><br />Bhandarkar’s woman continues to be exploited until she learns to manipulate herself — with some help from a very aggressive public relations person Pallavi, played by Divya Dutta. Incidentally, Divya truly deserves her own film now. She is too good to be wasting herself in character roles. <br /><br />Mahi is not just insecure, she is also desperate — desperate to retain her position in the industry; to hold on to her lover (Arjun Rampal); to stay in the limelight; to be appreciated as an actor despite being a star. Underneath all the make-up, gloss and pretence, Mahi slowly goes under and willfully loses support — whether it is a man who loves her as she wants to be loved (Randeep Hooda); her loyal secretary (Govind Namdeo) who stays with her until… or even Aryan Khanna (Rampal) who makes a belated comeback into her life. <br /><br />The tragic story of a confused and troubled Mahi touches you but in parts — like when you realise that she is manipulating when there is no need; when she agrees to any random endorsement and appearance because roles have stopped, when she takes on a film with a ‘new wave’ director (Ranvir Shorey) just to prove her mettle as an actor and is completely at sea in her new scenario. But it fails to touch you overall — the missing link stays missing till the end — and unlike Tabu in Chandni Bar or Priyanka Chopra in Fashion — the voyeur in you is not satisfied with the easy way out in the end. <br /><br />As for the other characters, it is a pity that when there are so many good actors like Randeep, Shahana Goswami (who portrays a successful heroine of a small budget film), Sanjay Suri (playing superstar Abbas Khan) and Govind Namdeo filling the frames — Bhandarkar would use them as mere props to highlight his heroine’s pain rather than expand their roles for character evolution which would enrich the film further. <br /><br />A one-time watch, if you can stand Kareena crying all the time. <br /></p>
