How do you take a story that's been told over a hundred times at least in 100 years of Indian cinema and still make it relevant and reasonably engaging?
Writer-Director Habib Faisal succeeds to a great extent in crafting an unpredictable first half full of spunk and spirit, but plays it boringly safe in the second, offering no new solutions or fresh perspectives in a story that has been done to death. You can't help being disappointed with the limited ambition of this film that succeeds in creating characters who alternate between love and hate for each other.
While Arjun Kapoor works his smile to make up for the rawness in delivery, he has the firebrand Parineeti Chopra to thank for ensuring that our attention is on her all the time.
Reminding us of Rani Mukerji in her early roles, Parineeti is a feisty bundle of zest and vulnerability, rage and love. The filmmaker takes the rather dramatic premise of love blooming in the middle of two warring families and treats it with a sense of realism and keeps the mood light-hearted for most of the film's running time. And that's quite a commendable task in itself given the darkness in the problematic middle.
Lest we ruin the film for you, suffice to say that the makers throw in a twist that is totally sexist, one that ensures that the characters can never be equals and that's really unfortunate in a film that requires its leads to be capable of loving and hurting each other equally. This is something that cannot be undone and ultimately leads to the film going downhill in the second half, robbing the fiery Parineeti a lot of the scope the character promised.
Faisal is not afraid to make his characters cross the line, which is why it is a little disappointing that the film doesn't go all out in letting the girl settle a score.
In fact, all the women in the film get a raw deal and one certainly expected the writer of Do Dooni Chaar and Band Baaja Baarat to be more sensitive in handling the gender politics of the film in small town India without resorting to regressive gender types under the pretext of realism — a wife with no say in the family, a widow dependent on the men in the family, a selfless prostitute with a heart of gold and a girl who forgives the guy who ruins her life. And none of them are given a chance to strike back or redeem their lost pride!
On the bright side, it's good to see rural India presented with such fondness and style (cinematography by Hemant Chaturvedi), there are many moments that will bring a smile to your face and rarely a dull one (Edited by Aarti Bajaj) in its 113 minutes. Plus, it's always great when a film set in the heartland of India doesn't make a big deal about a passionate kiss.
The twisted ending probably sounded a lot better on paper but it only regresses this film further. Certainly not what Amit Trivedi's rocking title track promised.
Ishaqzaade
Genre: Romance
Director: Habib Faisal
Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Gauhar Khan
Storyline: Love blooms in the middle of two trigger-happy warring clans. Laila-Majnu, with a twist.
Bottomline: Watch it for Parineeti
