Star cast: Vir Das, Vega Tamotia, Anindita Nayar, Kavi Shastri
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Director: Ajay Bhuyan
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What’s Bad: The frivolous treatment, Anindita Nayar’s acting and the poor direction.
Loo break: Far too many to count.
Watch or Not?: Despite a great concept, director Ajay Bhuyan cannot mount his story well. It is not entirely a horrid film but quite a disappointing film simply because the premise and the concept could very well have been furthered, but the director finds himself wrapped in warped storytelling. Rom-coms need a spin of freshness to sell; this film had scope for a lot, all of it wasted on a film that could not remain lucid.
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Following a traumatic break up, Amit Sahni (Vir das) enlists all the qualities he would want in his perfect woman. It is a proper written down list that is in his head every time he goes on a date. From educational qualifications to the common love for Sachin Tedulkar, Amit is seeking for more than just love. And finally when he falls in love, it is to realize that epic saying which goes ‘opposites attract’. Mala (Vega) woos Amit with her charming imperfections and the two get engaged. All hell breaks loose when he finds his perfect woman, the girl of his list two days after his engagement, in Devika (Anindita).
So will Amit go after the woman he has been looking for all his life or will it eventually don on him that love cannot follow any list!
Clearly by rom-com standards, the film did have a pertinent point. At a cue in the film Vir tells his jockey buddy (langotiya yaar) that we all have a list of the kind of person we want to be with, just that not everybody have it written. Vir’s character in the film was dumped ruthlessly by his first girlfriend. So that no one ever breaks his heart again, he lists down the features that his ‘perfect woman’ must come with. The film’s basic thought was rather interesting but what goes wrong is clearly the execution. The flavor of novelty about the list is probably new in Bollywood but any sitcom fan won’t find it hard to trace this back to F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
The novelty in rom-coms don’t quite perturb me as long as the final product is good, but the film fails to attain that. Though the ideas like two people who are too similar will end up being clones, it takes the naive protagonist almost three-fourth of the film to fathom the idea of ‘opposites attract’. The idea of Lovers-can’t-be-clones was portrayed in a more nuanced fashion in Reema Kagti’s Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. While the ideas retained in the film were indeed sewn well, the film went wrong in its execution and screenplay.
Amit’s perfect abode flew past too soon. Even before one could sink in the real perfection in their story, it was over. Not only was the dialectics of it left unclear, the writers did not thicken the plot. Luckily there were fewer signpost characters in the film especially the character of Mala who takes us by surprise. But the film in no way does any justice to the script and that’s the lamentable bit about the movie.
Vir Das is brilliant with his comic timing. Surely that is his forte. But when it comes to romancing and emoting, Vir doesn’t go too far. It isn’t bad but lacks a certain degree of effortlessness in it.
Vega Tamotia was a revelation in a film that is otherwise mediocre. She isn’t fabulous but quite worked as one of the more brighter elements in the film.
Anindita Nayar on the other hand is in dire need of enrolling for acting classes. As ravishing as she looks, her acting skills needs some serious brush up.
Kavi Shastri did not have a role big enough to get classified as memorable.
Ajay’s amateur work was evident 15 minutes into the film. The haphazard narrative and sloppy editing was enough to put me off. A scene where Vir breaks up with a girl because ‘Sachin was bowled out at 99’ and the girl could not match up Vir’s mourning is badly done. The story gathers steam in the first half only when Amit loses himself in Mala’s love only to dissipate in no time. Post interval, the movie is an utter bore. Amit’s dilemma to let go Mala for a woman who is closer to his list was done too hurriedly. In the second half, the feeling behind the film vanishes completely. The music of the film is easily missable and the screenplay is very incoherent. With a concept like this, the film could have come out so much better but all this could become was a convoluted mess.
Amit Sahni Ki List isn’t exactly some excruciating film to endure but it doesn’t bloom enough to qualify as a crackling film. The director’s slapdash work is evident and that mortally harms the film. I am going with a 2/5. This Vir Das show isn’t exactly his best work.
Amit Sahni Ki List releases on 18th July, 2014.
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