20131109: Bollywood Review--I Hate Luv Storys

I Hate Luv Storys

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Indian live action feature length film, 2010, NR, 134 minutes, spoken word is Hindi, subtitles in English.  Comedy, drama, romance.
2. IMDB: 5.4/10.0 from 3,594 user ratings.  Estimated budget, 100 million INR.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet...' and 46% liked it from 3,868 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.5/5.0 from 140,576 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Punit Malhotra.
6. Starring:  Imran Khan as Jay Dhingra, Sanom Kapoor as Simran, Sammir Dottani as Raj Dholakia, Samir Soni as Veer Kapoor.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Simran is the protagonist; I'm cringing already.  I did not care for Sanom Kapoor in Aisha, which she dominated to the point of drowning an otherwise sturdy film.


2. Simran has a Punjabi father and a Gujarati mother.  She works in Mumbai as a movie art director.  She is in love with Raj Dholakia, her fiance, whom her mother favours.  Veer Kapoor, Simran's boss, assigns Jay Dhingra to work in the same department as Simran; friction arises.  She's a sentimentalist, he loathes romance.


3. So, how will the love triangle proceed?


4. The project they will be working is on location in New Zealand.  Do we ever get there?  Jay is a dog, and tries to break up Simran and Raj.  That goes on for too long.  Jay should have been fired several times over for insubordination.


5. Jay makes Simran laugh, Raj does not.  After working together for a while, she invites Jay to have dinner at a restaurant with her and her parents.  He turns on the charm, as always.  Jay and Simran spend even more time together.  Raj tells Simran he's going to Delhi; he hopes his old Simran is present when he comes back.


6. Simran thinks she's fallen in love with Jay, but he's still a dog.  She is rather hurt when she catches him with another woman.  She tells him her feelings, and he tells her sentimental love is nonsense.  She agrees and gets rather depressed.  He finds that he misses her smile.  She breaks up with Raj.  She leaves early for the new project.  Jay has a lot of regrets with musical accompaniment.  He tries his old stomping grounds to pick up someone, but fails for lack of will.  Eventually he goes to the project in New Zealand, and starts seeing Simran again.


7. Oh, this goes on forever.  Raj shows up on set as well, just to make things interesting.


8. Jay goes direct to Simran, but she tells him she just cannot go through loving him again.  He tries indirect via Giselle, for the jealousy angle.  Liked the 'blah, blah, blah' scenes with Raj, Simran, and Giselle.


9. Raj and Simran get engaged.  Raj and her parents are happy, but Simran is not.  Ah, too bad.


10. So, how will this resolve?  With multiple cliches, of course.


3. Conclusions
1. References many Bollywood and some Hollywood films via posters, DVD covers, and the like.  Oh, the cliches.
2. One line summary: Bollywood spoof dominated by two mediocre stars and a dozen cliches.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Varies from competent plus to extremely beautiful.


2. Sound: 10/10 No problems.  Incidental music is a bit florid, but lovely to the ear.


3. Acting: 3/10 Imran Khan, minus four.  Sanom Kapoor, minus three.  The movie sinks or swims with these two, given the proportion of screen time spent on them.  They are irritating, while not entertaining.  Otherwise, dull but competent performances.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 This would have been a nice 20 minute short.  The film is low in content, long on making Jay look like an idiot.  He completed that task in the first three or four minutes onscreen.  Continuing to beat the dead horse is not helpful.  Raj is made out to be a placeholder punching bag, so the level of romantic tension is always underwater.


5. Musical Numbers: 6/10 First one (I Hate Luv Storys) was OK.  Second, Jay making fun of sentimental Indian films, not nearly as good.  Third (Simran and Jay spending time together) fine singing, but I missed the dancing.  Fourth (Simran and Jay dancing in public) singing good, but short.  Fifth (in movie dance and song) was rather nice.....'Lost and Lonely' was beautiful, as was the number where Jay is daydreaming during a shoot beneath the mountains in NZ.