‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ review: A stale love saga!

Mekhla Singh

After a series of unconventional love stories like ‘Raanjhanaa’ and ‘Lootera’, here is a typical romantic flick which has a storyline seen in many, many movies before. After watching the movie for merely 20 minutes, the audience will be able to reminisce the Kajol-Salman-Arbaaz Khan starrer ‘Jab Pyar Kia Toh Darna Kya’. The movie revolves around “love” – brotherly love, sisterly love and love between two people who are attracted to each other. Sonu Sood – who plays an over-protective brother – takes care of his sister Sona, played by Shruti Hassan, after their mother dies. Raghuvir – played by Sonu – educates his sister and never lets anything or anybody hurt her. All he desires is to find a down to earth guy who can keep his sister happy in their own village. However, as luck would have it, she falls in love with an NRI, Ram – played by Girish Kumar - whom she meets at her best friend’s wedding. Then starts the typical love-hate relationship, which actually culminates into proper head-over-heels, let’s grow old together kind of love. Sadly, this doesn’t stay for long and then comes the clichéd separation and the guy’s desperation to prove his love. After having delivered “macho” movies like ‘Wanted’ and ‘Rowdy Rathore’, Prabhu Deva has done a fair job with ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’, but it has nothing new which has not yet been seen before. Alas, there is one thing that has not been seen ever before – a villain who speaks just one sentence in the entire movie. There is a lot of commotion because the bad guy wants to marry the good and beautiful girl, but the bad guy never mouths these words himself – not once! As for the actors, Shruti Hassan fails to captivate the heart with her performance and delivers her dialogues at the same pace and with the same emotion no matter what the scene is. As for Girish Kumar – who has debuted with this movie – India may have literally found a “jumping jack”. Whether he’s dancing, or flirting or just walking, he is always “jumpy” about it. Sonu Sood, on the other hand, does manage to portray a farmer to perfection – from his clothes to the way he speaks. Poonam Dhillon - Ram’s mother – plays a woman obsessed with money and her status, while Randhir Kapoor – Ram’s father – doesn’t have much of a role apart from playing a husband petrified by the very look of his wife. Paresh Ganatra – who plays Bijli - walks away with the cake for his comic timing. He manages to make the audience laugh each time he makes an entry – be it a light hearted scene or emotional. Sadly, Satish Shah – who had made bellies hurt with his sense of humour in ‘Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai’ - plays a sort of mean and dark role, which is not pleasing to watch. One more thing that might be slightly different from all the other movies is the new icon of love used in this one. After the smashing success of ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’, pigeons were epitomized but this movie uses a horse – a mud horse. The costumes and the cinematography are few of the things to watch out for – the bright colours, the beautiful yellow flowers and the lush green valley transport you to an all together new world. As for the songs, they will make you want to tap your feet but the dance steps incorporated in them are more than quirky and not meant to be copied even when dancing all alone in the shower. Watch ‘Ramaiya Vastavaiya’ if you have nothing else to do this weekend, want to give your brain a complete rest or want to genuinely laugh at some of the comical dialogues and characters. Lastly, the movie – which is a remake of Prabhu Deva's directorial debut Telugu blockbuster ‘Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana’ which in turn was inspired by ‘Maine Pyaar Kiya’ - is not for everybody, it is only for those who believe in magical love stories and feel that love can change and melt anybody. Here’s one and a half stars from me and a half more for Paresh Ganatra.