Heroine Movie Review – High Budget Boredom

Today I am sure of my strange equation with films made my Mr. Madhur Bhandarkar. I don’t think he likes me very much. I did not go to the cinemas to watch Chandni Bar or Page 3 and they turned out to be fabulous films. Post that I went to watch Traffic Signal hoping for another hard hitting film but I was so wrong. So next time logic got the better of me and I did not go to watch Fashion, which once again turned out to be an excellent film. Hope you guys are with me so far. In the morning I made up my mind (even though it was a last minute decision mostly coz I had nothing better to pass my time with) & went to watch Heroine, Madhur Bhandarkar’s take on a Bollywood superstar. As most of you would have understood, History repeated itself and bit me once again. Heroine is a painful watch with hardly anything new or even improved.

It starts of with one of Kareena’s most hard hitting looks from the film, tears rolling down her eyes, smudged makeup, red nose (a common site) going to the police station. However, I don’t think I can pinpoint where the film goes from there because it goes all over the place. The script has nothing new in it and everything feels like a dejavu of previous Bhandarkar films. On top of that my belief that Hindi cinema is also following the footsteps of Hollywood in coming up with edgy screenplays has been smashed. The screenplay of  Heroine is one of the worst I have seen in a long time. The film appears to be a series of broken down incidents with hardly anything holding them together.

I understand that controversies are a part and parcel of today’s creative industry but that does not mean Madhur Bhandarkar can just pick up any damn thing from the past, mix it up and put in front of us. The detailing that we saw in Chandni Bar, Page 3 & somewhat in Fashion has vanished altogether. What has replaced it is stereotyping of the highest order. Each and every character from the film either looks like a caricature of sorts (almost as if they are acting in a spoof ) or the characters are highly stereotyped, right from fashion designers to gossip columnists. You know you have got it all wrong when the audience starts laughing to scenes that have normal conversations with no humor. Music of Heroine also lets it down as there is nothing worth taking home here. Add to that the substandard artwork. Don’t make a film when you can’t shoot a simple scene inside a moving car without using effects on the outside. The set put up for the award function was a big joke.

There were only 3 good things about the film. One is Kareena Kapoor and even though she is extra-ordinary as the crazy, possessive, manipulative & vulnerable superstar, her performance is not enough to save the film that is surrounded by such mediocrity. The other two positive things about the film are the trailers of Talaash & Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khuraana. I had a blast while these trailers were playing.

Rating – 1.5/5