STARRING: Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Jacqueline Fernandez
RATING: 2.5 Stars
You remember that topper in the class who would never give a straight answer even to the simplest question. You asked him how the weather was and he would start with South Westerly winds, precipitation, condensation, global warming, carbon footprint and end with depleting species in South Africa. Yeah that. The film is that kid. It looks intelligent but is so random that Kiran Bedi's recent delirious interviews begin to make sense.
Roy is a film about a flirtatious filmmaker Kabir (Arjun Rampal) whose life runs parallel with one of his characters Roy (Ranbir Kapoor) that causes enough turmoil in his love life. Finally, both the director's as well as character's lives merge and bring love back into the filmmaker's life. It's an interesting novel idea; alas, the debutant director Vikramjit Singh is unable to translate his own story on celluloid.
Jaqueline-Sallu-bhai-ki-daya-bani-rahe-Fernandez plays a double role, Ayesha and Tia, a filmmaker and an actor respectively. She has played both the roles so differently, for instance, the colour of her lipstick and her hair changes. If Ayesha is pink-lipped, Tia is red-lipped. If Ayesha has long tresses, Tia's hair is shoulder length. Such distinct traits lend such depth to both the characters.
The brilliant idea of fiction meeting reality is sadly lost in bizarre situations, random dialogues and clueless characters. There is an ageing, ailing father who hits on his nurses, loves cigars and gives Ted talks to an audience that consists ONLY his son. There is a detective who wears trench coats, smokes like a chimney, bears a pocket watch and does everything to look the palest version of Byomkesh Holmes!!
The dialogues don't help either. Picture this-
The Flirty Filmmaker: One who has guns is always in control.
The Pink-Lipped Lass: No, the one who has a heart, is.
Pause.
The Pink-Lipped Lass: You know I always wanted to be a ballet dancer.
And all this while I am thinking this will eventually make sense and will lead to something meaningful. It does. A ballet performance by the Pink-Lipped at the beach. I am sure there is some deep-rooted philosophy between guns, heart and ballet that my stupid silly mind can't comprehend.
Arjun-Milind-Soman-body-double- Rampal is extremely earnest in portraying the maverick filmmaker and his idiosyncrasies but earnestness doesn't always translate into a pathbreaking performance. He tries his best to show the characters' insecurities and vulnerabilities. Alas, I could feel none.
Ranbir-I-am-yet-not-engaged-to-Katrina-Kapoor plays a thief who has no history, no layers and no dimensions. He has a deadpan expression all through, while stealing, romancing, smoking or punching the baddies to pulp. We don't blame him. It's a badly written character. Besides, one gets exhausted dealing with eggzzaatic accents on a daily basis. Ghar mein Katrina, sets par Jacqueline and between the two of them we have covered the entire Rapidex English Speaking Course.
The film is shot beautifully. The screenplay is clever too. A story that keeps shifting between time and space from real life to reel and vice versa, life can be puzzling but the smart screenplay avoids any such confusion. I just wish they hadn't packed too much randomness in the name of art and intensity.
There is an instance when Ayesha comments on bad films, ''One should end the film if headed in the wrong direction.'' If only the director practiced what he preached!
Watch it for the debutant director's attempt at telling a different story with gorgeous actors that make enough eye candies!
comment:
p_commentcount