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Half Girlfriend: A non-seasonal Valentine's Day tearjerker (Review)

Director: Mohit Suri; Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor; Rating: *** 1/2 (3 and a half stars)


You can accuse Chetan Bhagat's novels of being lots of things from silly to shallow. But you can never fault themA for their entertainment value.

Director Mohit Suri known to make cinema on compulsive love ("Aashiqui 2", "Ek Adhuri Kahaani") takes the theme of self-annihilation in a romantic association to the extreme, bringing out his hero, a Bihari non-English medium type in Delhi who falls for a girl much higher than her heels and his social status, as a love-struck wimp obsessed with his object of adoration to the point of complete self-ruination.

This was how Chetan Bhagat meant his novel to be. The man-woman equation was seen in the light of status and social standing and then judged within the parameters of a heart-to-heart connection. Director Suri amplifies the theme of love between unequals.The complications are frail and far-fetched.

Rustic Bihari Madhav Jha (Arjun Kapoor, uninterrupted in his sincerity) is not only incurably in love with socialite Riya Somani(Shradha Kapoor, cool in her designer clothes), he will follow her to the end of the world or to New York where she shows up in a most unconvincing finale.

But I don't think Chetan Bhagat and Mohit Suri intended "Half Girlfriend" to be a real and obtainable look at life and relationships. In fact I am pretty sure their take on love is as distanced from reality as Mohit Suri is from Anurag Kashyap.

"Half Girlfriend" moves in a head-in-the-clouds fog of satiny sensations. It is fetchingly shot by cinematographer Vishnu Rao who sees the romance through a filtered haze. Arjun maintains a gaze of steadily fixed state of adoration on Shradha. The gaze occasionally lusts over, but no damage done.

Arjun Kapoor helps give his character the aura of an urgent sense of obsessive love that is needed. It's a capable performance underpinned by a sense of unspoken anguish that takes the lover-hero through many levels of change and acceptance.

Shradha shines when she has to express the tragic boredom of being over-privileged. So unabashedly affluent is her character that the backstory of a troubled childhood almost seems like an afterthought. And when she takes off for New York you know her designer existence, replete with tragic delusions of singing dying songs in a jazz bar of NY, is complete.

The love story works because the two Kapoors play the adoring and the adored with a hangdog heft and a haughty grandeur, respectively. The rest of the cast gets swathed in a scriptural haze thatA they don't deserve. I wanted to see more of Vikrant MasseyA and Seema Biswas playing Madhav's best friend and mother. And I certainly wanted to see more of the stunning Rhea Chakraborty who shows up at the end as Madhav's blind date. It's the role of the woman who loses love even before she finds it.

What I didn't want to see are all those strenuous attempts to build a social conscience and toilets in rural India,into what is predominantly a pop-romance. "Half Girlfriend" is a gorgeous-looking film with no real relevance beyond its Valentinian boundaries, with plenty of unspoken chemistry between the lead pair. It could have done with less schmaltz and more raw passion, less cuteness and more real emotions.

But here is the thing. It delivers exactly the charming confection that Chetan Bhagat's novel attempted to be.

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Seema Biswas Thumbnail

Seema Biswas

Anurag Kashyap Thumbnail

Anurag Kashyap

Mohit Suri Thumbnail

Mohit Suri

Vikrant Massey Thumbnail

Vikrant Massey

Chetan Bhagat Thumbnail

Chetan Bhagat

Shraddha Kapoor Thumbnail

Shraddha Kapoor

Arjun Kapoor Thumbnail

Arjun Kapoor

Rhea Chakraborty Thumbnail

Rhea Chakraborty

Half Girlfriend poster

Half Girlfriend

Comments (5)

Over all movies is nice.its totally based on novel.

6 years ago

It is a beautiful love story movie but the movie fails to hold the attention of audience but i really enjoy this movie and Arjun and Shraddha Kapoor's chemistry is amazing.

6 years ago

IF, you never cease to amaze me... so this movie is better than Baahubali 2.. you gave BB2 just 3 star and for this movie it's 3.5 star...

6 years ago

Actually novel is much more better than the film
I really didn't like shradha must say she is bad choice for riya
Songs are good

6 years ago

Yes you are right.

The best thing in this movie which I like is the song Main Phir Bhi Tumko Chahunga

6 years ago

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