Bewakoofiyaan Review: I liked Ayushmann and Sonam’s performances in Bewakoofiyaan but the film needed more nuance.
Rating: ***
Director: Nupur Asthana
Cast: Ayushmann Khuranna, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor
Bewakoofiyaan is the story of a couple who love each other, dine together, party together with friends, help each other, support each other financially, make compromises and sacrifices, temporarily rift apart then confront each other, and lastly patch up and live happily together. But they rarely talk. Here are two intelligent, attractive, well-to-do (at least till one is fired for no fault of his own) individuals who could could’ve created a lovely chemistry with a tad more heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul talk. We had at least two love stories last year with candid, thoughtful conversations between the leads – The Lunchbox and Shuddha Desi Romance. How else can one convince that real, unbreakable love exists that despite the strains lasts the test of time? The audience empathises more with people who give an insight of their thoughts and feelings not just through expressions but also through words. I liked the couple in Bewakoofiyaan and so desired more nuance when they open up about their troubles instead of the direct, slightly canned rhetoric they are given to speak.
I don’t mean they offer nothing. In a blowup moment inside a car, both Mohit and Maanya, played by Ayushmann Khuranna (Vicky Donor, Nautanki Saala) and Sonam Kapoor (last seen in Raanjhana and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag) display through emotion and words discontent, dejection, helplessness, frustration, anger and regret quite effectively. Director Nupur Ashthana (Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge) and writer Hanib Faisal’s bewakoofi was to airbrush a bulky part of the film with a Bollywood coating when it could’ve been more. Both Khuranna and Kapoor seem comfortable with and committed to their parts, so why not hand them juicier roles? There are themes well worth exploring here, the first being impact of job recession. Both Mohit and Mayera have admirable work-life balance and earn sweet salaries. Like George Clooney’s Ryan Bingham and Vera Farmiga’s Alex Goran, they admire each other’s credit card status; he proceeds to impress her with his a Gold card only to learn she’s got Platinum. He receives a promotion and doesn’t shy from bragging about it co-workers. Too bad the Airlines he works for despatches pink slips to most of the workforce including him as part of a recession-fuelled cost-cutting measure. Now he’s unemployed while she’s working her way to the top. This imbalance wouldn’t rest well at all with Mayera’s impossibly obstinate, cynical, close-minded and protective daddy Mr. VK Saigal, a retired government employee who’s already conducting a painful 360 degree enquiry on the poor guy after he asks Mr. Saigal for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Hence the lying game begins.
It’s interesting to see father and prospective son-in-law binding over job searching, as Mr. Saigal requests (read ‘orders’) Mohit to look for a job for him online, an ironic situation considering Mohit’s own employment situation. We expect Mr. Saigal to go soft on Mohit, and indeed he does melt slightly. And yet when the cat’s out of the bag, Mr. Saigal’s back to his original, exaggeratedly uptight and vituperative avatar. His oddities annoy us instead of endearing when he continues to play caricature even after he’s required to get out of it and become a character, one with peculiarities, like Robert Di Nero’s act in Meet The Parents. The self-importance and distrust displayed by him could’ve been explored in a heartwarming moment of vulnerability between father and future damad. Remember the confrontation scene in Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots between Boman Irani and his two daughters, in which Kareena finally reveals to us the suicide of her brother? Bewakoofiyaan needs these – more talk and realer characters.
It’s the performances that clicked for me. There’s a point in the film where Ayushmann has to appear small and inferior in front of his partying friends who’ve retained their jobs, and he’s
more capable at conveying his emotions through his eyes. Sonam at least appears comfortable at tackling a greater range of emotions; in my review of Raanjhana on my personal blog, I’d remarked she only had two expressions. They try hard to retain their chemistry and make their love on-screen appear true, but they too can’t save the final, abrupt ‘It’s sunshine for all!’ portion. What I objected to most, as a ardent supporter of women empowerment, was Mayera’s immediate change of plans to choose love over work ; by supporting Mohit as he started from square one, she gives up everything she worked so darn hard to achieve. I guess her “You should only marry a man who earns more than you” dad won in the end indeed.
ourvadodara.in Rating Guide:
* = Avoid!!
** = Rent It / TV Premiere
*** = Book The Cheapest Seats
**** = Book The Best Seats
***** = Book The Best Seats + Buy The DVD!
[…] Review of Bewakoofiyaan, a 2014 Bollywood film Bewakoofiyaan, directed by Nupur Asthana and starring Ayushmann Khuranna, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor. Link here: https://www.ourvadodara.com/bewakoofiyaan-review/ […]
Moreover this movie has nothing new to offer. After the unique plot of Vicky Donor, I was expecting a little more innovation and a classic charm that Ayushmann Khurana offers.
Aayushmann has said in an interview that “even though the sketch of the film is very simple, the story is unusual and realistic. It is not one of the typical rom coms. It is about recession”. This film has three important characters: Mohit, Maayera and Mr. Sehgal. When the film has an ensemble, its harder to explore the dynamics of each relationship in depth. But a film like this could have easily done so, especially when it attempts to depict impact of recession on human relationships. I may not agree wholly with your plaint that there’s nothing new offered in Bewakoofiyan; there are in fact movies with shallow plot-line which work on the strength of other elements such as dialogues. For example, even though I was not a fan of the Hollywood film The Devil Wears Prada, I felt a couple of scenes really gave a good insight on a) how it really feels for a woman holding the top position at a highly competitive, evolving industry where any wrong move or show of weakness could be a career suicide and b) why fashion is important. There are two wonderfully written scenes that uplift the tepidness of the otherwise predictable film.
I think Habib Faisal, who has written the scripts of Tara Rum Pum and Do Dooni Chaar, again films that deal with money crunch, has not put enough work into his character or dialogues to make Bewakoofiyaan stand out among other YRF films. Throughout the film, these characters seem to be itching to be more than what they’re asked to be by the makers. I think they lost opportunity by focusing on promoting Samsung computers throughout the scenes between Aayushmann and Rishi Kapoor, which could have further explored the uniqueness of this father-in-law -son-in-law relationship, in which the former is hunting for a job and seeks the help of the latter who isn’t getting a new job himself. Don’t you think they could’ve had a scene with the two of them drinking and chatting and really gushing out their thoughts? I think with three characters, a filmmaker has such freedom to explore character psychology that its criminal to see them wasted on middlebrow comedy.
BTW here’s an article by Indian Express Critic Shubhra Gupta, in which she expresses her concern for Yash Raj Films’ deteriorating movie offerings:
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/losing-the-plot-6/99/