The movie starts with mocking the clichés of Bollywood romance, with the young urban commitment-phobic guy, highly unlikely to fall in love! And yet 'Happy Ending' is what all romantic comedies turn out to be – feel good!


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Saif Ali Khan plays Yudi Jaitley, a young writer who has struck a writers block after hitting the jackpot with his first book. He is also caught in a string of unsuccessful relationships with the characters of Kareena, Preity and Kalki, which is a nice enough way to bring in the star power.


Enter Aanchal Reddy, a best-selling romantic author who doesn't believe in the idea of perfect romance she herself writes about! The rest of the story is as predictable as romedies go!


Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru were not wrong in choosing Saif as their protagonist. He is urban, cool and suave without overpowering a relatively newer heroine. He also has been the most successful in this genre in the past decade. Be it 'Hum Tum'. 'Salaam Namaste' or 'Cocktail', Saif is very likeable as the flirt (not so) young hero. Ileana too is chic and is quite convincing as the no-nonsense practical girl, who knows what modern romance entails.


Kalki Koechlin and Ranvir Shorey were cast in the very same roles that we have seen them in before. As talented as they are, the audience is bound to expect more from them.


But the best part of the movie is Govinda. He does not have a lot of screen space but the 90s superstar has retained his comic timing to the 'T'. The director duo make fun of the hackneyed scripts and stories of Bollywood through his character, and boy he carries it off with elan!


The dialogues that the leads have are witty and the first half of the movie induces a lot of laughter. Unfortunately, the freshness of the film is lost after the first half, as it fast spirals into the very plot that it had set out to run away from. It pretends to be different for a while, and both the leads seem to have emulated the practicality of love. But at the end it feels as if it is just a reprise of 'Love Aaj Kal'.


As Armaan (Govinda) pointed out in one scene, families come to watch cinema to be entertained, a mere Rs 300 can not contain the meaning of life. It is almost as if with these dialogues the filmmakers are defending themselves – which is a disappointment. It gets predictable, but it will keep you smiling through its length.


'Happy Ending' is Saif's comfort zone and he along with the rest of the cast has performed well. The modern take of romance is definitely refreshing and the script has great one-liners for all the characters. The music compliments the feel of the movie. Govinda will make you nostalgic with the dancing in 'Nacho Sare G Phaadke'. The other scene which really stands out is when he consults a doctor to build his pectoral muscles look younger!


It is definitely a good watch, especially if you go with your loved one. It has clean humour, without any glaring sexual innuendos and would be a good film to watch with your family as well!