This movie has been a matter of excitement for me ever since I saw the first promo on TV, featuring the beautiful LKP lawns of the IIMA campus. As an alum who has never got the chance to visit campus after graduating three years back, I really wanted to relive the memories of those two years. Also, I’ve read most of Chetan Bhagat’s best sellers including the one on which this movie is based, and I find him an entertaining writer. His involvement in the creation of movies based on his novels has increased exponentially, from Three Idiots, through Kai Po Che, to ’2 States’. This made me happy for him, and also made me want to watch the movie as early as possible. And simply put, it did not disappoint me.
For the uninitiated, the movie is about a guy from New Delhi and a girl from Chennai who are in the same class at IIMA. They fall in love on campus, and decide to marry each other at some point. Because of cultural differences in their families, they realise that them loving each other is just the beginning, and there is a mammoth battle to be fought in order to get their families on board.
The first half starts with vibrant scenes of campus life. There are many comic scenes, and I liked both Alia’s and Arjun’s acting in this part. Of course the highlight for me personally was, glimpses of the campus – the library, the mess, classrooms, lawns etc, truly nostalgic! Just like in the novel, the love affair starts in a very straightaway manner, and I liked that fact that this part wasn’t elongated unnecessarily. Alia looks stunningly pretty in every scene, and is able to portray a Chennai girl well. There are few melodramatic turns in the first half, but on the whole, its a pretty plausible and enjoyable start to the movie.
After intermission, the story takes a much more serious and heavy turn. This is the part where Arjun Kapoor is not able to do justice to the character of the hero. The parents of both the guy and the girl, act well and convey strong emotions throughout this half. The pace is not too slow and not too fast, and keeps your interest alive. There are much more dramatic turns in this part of the movie, and some of them not too believable. If you’ve read the novel, you’ve already been through that feeling. Just like most of CB’s novels, the movie has a happy and somewhat cheesy ending.
I did not understand the need for interspersing the movie with a conversation between Arjun and a psychiatrist. If the reason was narration, it would have been much better to limit that to simple narration rather than a conversation. The psychiatrist thing just seemed like a failed attempt to do something, no idea what.
What I liked the most? Ronit Roy’s acting (he plays the guy’s father), followed by Alia’s acting.
What I hated the most? Arjun’s acting in the second half.
The music, by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, is pleasant and worth listening to.
To conclude, I would recommend watching the movie if you would enjoy watching a family flick with some good laughs that is slightly behind in time.
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