Befikre seems a perfectly reasonable film for a studio like YRF to make. It’s an out an out genre film; made like a true blue Hollywood romcom. That was undoubtedly the goal, and the execution to get there is more or less flawless. What is surprising is that it is made by Aditya Chopra.
On it’s own, Befikre is a perfectly acceptable film. There is not much to look at in the script, but that is deliberate. It is a story we have seen and heard many times in different guises. Two free-spirited individuals fall for each other. They promise never to use the L word – too much responsibility – but are unable to survive even that. They break-up, become friends, almost get married to other people, only to realize they still love each other. That is it. Clearly, the script was never meant to be the mainstay.
What it does have is a breezy, quick screenplay that is befikre in its own way. It does not pause for any depth or deliberation. The story moves rapidly from one scene to the other, flitting from witty lines to songs to kisses, jump-started by the simplest of ideas where each one of them dares the other to do something stupid. The film does not strike a false note in all of this, and that is credit to the director for sustaining it all the way through.
Most of it largely works thanks to the lead pair, who are able to pull off the visible effort to look “cool” by a filmmaker who may not be as clued in to this generation’s pop culture as much as his actors and his team would be. And of course, there’s Paris.
On it’s own, Befikre seems a perfectly reasonable film for a studio like YRF to make. It’s an out an out genre film; made like a true blue Hollywood romcom. That was undoubtedly the goal, and the execution to get there is more or less flawless. What is surprising is that it is made by Aditya Chopra. It is a film that could have been directed by anyone else from his stable, and the difference would not have mattered. It is such a template movie. There is no challenge attempted or created with this film. What could have made a director, who has given India it’s most enduring love story, want to make Befikre? To that, there seems to be no perfectly reasonable answer.
Hindi, Romance, Color