Review: What's Your Rashee?

I entered the movie hall with the memories of Lagaan, Swades and Jodha-Akbar playing on my mind. But sorry to say, this time Ashutosh Gowariker does disappoint, and that too for a full three and a half hour. Has he taken a liking for making long movies? The duration of his last direction was justified with the amount of content it had and the treatment of the subject did demand length to be told in perfection. But maybe he took that a little too sportingly, maybe that’s why throught the movie there seems to be a lame effort to elongate the length by adding not required song sequences which actually act as speed breakers to the already crawling storyline. The first half is good but it’s actually the second half which clearly suggests that now the director has run out of steam as well as creativity and is merely trying to complete the movie.

The story is about the son of a well-to-do Guajarati family whose elder son has got himself caught up in a huge loan that he has taken from some business men and a comical don who seems to have a fetish for fingers and keeps giving the hero and his brother warnings to chop off their fingers if they don’t cough up the loaned amount in time! Pathetic try at humour Mr. Gowariker! The family is trying to find ways when suddenly they come to know that the maternal grand-father of the hero has named him in his will which will come to force the day he gets married. The family in the name of sentiments forces him to marry. Emotional Atyachar with a dash of humour- gulp it down with a glass of water! The obedient son relents but only with the condition that he will not see any girl but only twelve, each having a different astrological sign. Here the movie does manage to catch some attention with the audience wondering what he might get to meet. The uncle of the hero decides to help him in this endeavour. Then starts the strings of rendezvous with each girl with some humour, drama or melodrama thrown in to make each one different from the other. Juxtaposed in-between is a stupid extra-marital affair of the uncle of the hero, an idiotic astrologer cum detective, idealist beliefs of the hero against dowry and unwanted confusion. Finally, the hero, not being able to decide which one to choose leaves the task to his uncle. It’s the climax which is really the loosest part of the movie. The whole gathering seems stupid and so does the suspense of the hero marrying which rashee girl? But the only silver lining is the fact is that the torture does come to an end after a mammoth three and a half hour.

The acting though is good. All actors, and that includes Harman Baweja as well, do live up to their roles. But it’s Priyanka Chopra who walks with the accolades. One might wonder what her rashee is by the way after her great performances in Dostana, Fashion and now WYR! Even though the movie was a real sucker, it was Priyanka’s rendition of twelve different girls which was something to watch. And although through all this Harman had a very little screen space but surprising it might seem, he does satisfactorily! One ends up feeling bad for him. Has it something to do with his rashee!

The music is not at all at par with what the Gowariker camp had treated us with before. Truly speaking, it was never going to be easy for one movie veteran Sohail Sen to step into the shoes of A. R. Rehman who had earlier composed for all previous Gowariker flicks. But barring two-three songs, none seem to appeal. Add to it the task of composing thirteen different soundtracks, it was bound to get stale at some point and it does!

All in all, the movie is not at all a “go and see it in a theatre” stuff. If you really are a Gowariker fan, better wait for it to come in the market. My rating for it is a meagre 2.5 out of 5. The 0.5 being for the different subject. Wish you could have made it a little shorter and a bit more interesting Mr. Gowariker! Better luck next time- both you and Harman :P