Bachna Ae Hasino

What would the quintessential lover boy Raj, immortalised by Shahrukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge, be in this new milieu with its changed sensibilities and a whole new meaning of love? After all it was over a decade ago that Raj and Simran swept the entire nation off its feet with their invitation to “come fall in love”. Much water has flown since and the Raj who fell in love and kept his promise at the very first instance is replaced by the new age Raj who takes over 10years and three broken hearts, one of which is his own, to realise the meaning of true love.
Ranbir Kapur gives an impeccable performance as the “killer” Raj with his “rajgiri” and manages to sweep not only the three leading ladies off their feet but the audience as well-The prankish 18 year old who models himself on his namesake from DDLJ to win over the heart of the starry eyed Mahi(Minissha Lamba) but also unwittingly and irrevocably breaks her heart. Or the 20 something self involved techhie who is in a live-in relationship with a small town girl turned model, Radhika (Bipasha Basu), but neither mature enough for a commitment nor brave enough to acknowledge the same. Or his final avtar before redemption as the grown up Raj who falls head over heels in love with the fiercely independent Gayatri (Deepika Padukone) only to be turned down and thereafter feel the pain of a broken heart. Ranbir Kapoor does full justice to Raj and portrays the character with élan even in the second half when the tone becomes a lot more sombre.
While our new age Raj needs to be shaken out of his rakish ways to see love in its all its splendour, the romantic Simran of DDLJ finds her reflection in all the three leading ladies be it in a very overt manner with Mahi, whose only dream in life is to have a perfect romance a la DDLJ, or Radhika who might be living in with Raj alright but to whom it doesn’t even occur that he will move on to Sydney without her as his wife. With Gayatri it takes a separation for her to realise that below her feminist stance is a woman who craves for love and that there need not be any contradiction between the two. All three ladies do full justice to their characters and display a striking on screen chemistry with lover boy.
As the movie pays homage to the all time great DDLJ, good performances, toe tapping music, a taut script that does not falter, idyllic locales from Europe to Australia make this breezy romance a must watch quintessential Yash Raj film in a packed month of August, that has big names slated for release every week. After a much hyped but big letdown “Singh is Kinng” this tale of new age romance comes as breath of fresh air. “Phoonk” slated for release this week has me scared already not because of the horror movie tag attached to it but because Ram Gopal Verma has given us quite a few horror movies even without meaning to. The other big thing to watch out for “Rock On” is still some two weeks away. In the mean time it’s well worth the time to fall in love...thrice!