Schicksal oder Liebe

Watch the original with English subs, don't bother watching this one.

By garbage I mean the cliché here. If you've watched Maine Pyar Kiya, do not bother to watch this remake of a remake riddled with same old formulaic sequences, disastrous cast performance & stupid characters.

Every time I see a newcomer who is over-smart & over-acting at the same time, I assume he/she is some producer/director's son/daughter. In here, Girish Kumar is who I am talking about: his demeanor is extremely idiotic with foolish expressions & punch lines. He is aptly named by his co-star as "monkey." Speaking of the co-star, I still cannot believe she's Kamal Hassan's daughter. She acts foolhardy but is better than her co-star. Supporting cast induce humor but logic doesn't even touch their portrayal.

Sonu Sood is good but since the plot is hackneyed enough to spoil the experience, he doesn't help much. Music is of course lively, but it doesn't save the experience as well. The melodrama towards the end is unbearable. Poor editing, fine screenplay & mediocre use of humor forces me to rate this let-down film a merciless 3.7/10.

It defines how some people can ridicule the genre the film is based on. Is it too much that we ask for something new?

BOTTOM LINE: A huge disappointment from the guy who gave us "Wanted." Not recommended for sensible people! Others can go have a laugh!

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

Profanity: No | Vulgarity/Nudity: No | Sex: No | Violence/Gore: Strong | Alcohol/Smoking: No | Drugs: No

RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA is a romantic film directed by Prabhu Dheva, starring Girish Taurani, Shruti Hassan & Sonu Sood.

The film revolves around Ram and Sona. Ram is the son of a billionaire in Australia whereas Sona comes from a small village where her brother, Raghuveer, grows crops. The story is about how both of them fall in love and how Ram tries to convince Raghuveer by growing more crops than him.

When the trailer of Ramaiya Vastavaiya came out, I wasn't quite sure I wanted to see it; due to the fact that it had that clichéd romantic storyline and Girish Taurani's acting looking extremely unprofessional. But after a while, due to the promos and the grand soundtrack, I decided to give the film a shot only because of Sonu Sood and Prabhu Dheva.

Ramaiya Vastavaiya is, in the uttermost truth, a simple romantic film with a bit of mindlessness. Honestly, the plot is quite good upon execution and there does tend to be a few funny scenes only due to the fact that there are some mindless, crazy situations placed in the film. That, and Girish Taurani's acting. But even though the first half of the film tends to be a bit over-the-top, it settles down to be a normal romantic film in the second half; something we wanted in the beginning. Its like, in the first half, Prabhu Dheva decided to butter us up so that we get comfortable with the characters and then in the second half, he gets down to the real stuff. And honestly, I quite understand that; its a good execution, but then some people who don't like mindless films may be a bit annoyed.

The soundtrack is extremely good and it gives the film an even further romantic feel. Songs like "Jeene Laga Hoon", "Bairiyaa" and "Rang Jo Lagyo" suit the film's theme, whereas "Hip Hop Pammi" and "Jadoo Ki Jappi" are just dance songs.

Another topic to comment about is the film's item song, "Jadoo Ki Jappi". It was extremely unneeded but maybe Prabhu Dheva didn't want to keep it too serious, although, I feel the film wouldn't have made much of a difference without it.

The acting is quite alright. Its nothing grand, yet its simple. Sonu Sood's acting was very good, as usual. Shruti Hassan was quite good displaying her emotions from time to time. Girish Taurani's acting quite okay, I guess? I felt it needed a lot more work on his display of emotions even though his character had more of a joker feel to it. I really don't know, his acting didn't really stun me.

In the end, Ramaiya Vastavaiya is a simple romantic film. Go watch it to pass your time; it isn't a GRAND film but it does entertain you. Go watch it especially for the second half of the film... You'll have a great time.

A few months back, director Sajid Khan tried to play with the idea of recreating the 80s era on the screen with his HIMMATWALA. The film was rejected completely but perhaps Prabhu Deva liked Sajid's basic thought of incorporating the 80s feel and then used it in his latest film RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA which is also supposed to be the launching pad of GIRISH KUMAR in the industry.

Revealing the basic content of the film, it's an official remake of Prabhu Deva's own directorial debut in Telugu titled NUVVOSTANANTE NENODDANTANA released in 2005. But if this was based on the 2005 Telugu movie then the regional project itself was a highly inspired version of Rajshri's mega hit MAINE PYAR KIYA (1989) along with references of PYAR KIYA TO DARNA KYA (1998) too in its second half. So as far as its storyline is concerned the above mentioned names would clearly give you an idea of its pretty routine script with all seen before stuff served in the name of a new romantic film in 2013.

Hence from that angle there is nothing new to see in this movie quite frankly. Its begins on a pleasant note with an old time 80s feel and then keeps progressing just like a typical Hindi love story seen many times before. In fact such is the impact of its inspirations that many a times you feel like watching exactly same sequences as seen in those hit movies, like the one where Sonu Sood comes to the big mansion before the interval just as Alok Nath does in MAINE PYAR KIYA. Post interval a few scenes tend to go over the top, childish and lengthy too with some forced humour. But then it all ends on a happy note as usually seen in these kinds of predictable love stories regularly being made in Bollywood from ages.

Having said that, there still remains something likable, throughout in this film which strongly doesn't allow you to simply call it a trash as it may seem. And probably the trick lies in its fairly nice execution which keeps delivering the new insertions at a good pace and never lets you think about its outdated structure seriously. Both Prabhu Deva and his writers ensure the emotional as well as the entertainment factor to be there in the film, right from its first scene itself, even at the cost of going too loud in the second half. As a result, the viewers who might not have seen the two original films, do not get anything major to complain and remain seated.

Besides the film has a decent packaging, cool cinematography and some hit tracks which are evidently a must have for a Bollywood love story to win some hearts in the Indian market. "Jeene Laga Hun" is already popular in the masses and "Jadoo Ki Jhappi", "Hip Hop Pammi" & "Rang Jo Lagyo" sound fine while watching the film. So overall music director duo Sachin-Jigar have done a decent job here for the otherwise jaded love saga.

Girish Kumar in his debut performance shows the confidence, but also goes over the top in few sequences perhaps because his character was conceived in that way only by the director. Girish does almost everything in the film, what a Bollywood hero needs to do, but manages to impress only up to an extent, especially in the second half. Yet, the boy shows a decent glimpse of honesty and sincerity in his overblown lover boy act.Shruti Hassan adds to the likable feel with her innocent presence playing the leading lady. She looks gorgeous in all the traditional dresses and brings a pleasant kind of freshness in the film with her cool act.

Sonu Sood is simply excellent in the role of Shruti's elder brother and Vinod Khanna is lovable as the helpful station master. The supporting cast has some reputed names who all play it fine including Randhir Kapoor, Nasser, Poonam Dhillon & Satish Shahalong with Zakir Hussain, Mushtaq Khan, Sarfaraz Khan and Paresh Ganatra. Prabhu Deva makes a cameo in an item song with Jacqueline, but the song doesn't have any great dance movements from the maestro, which might disappoint his die- hard fans a lot.

Summing up, what Sajid Khan failed to achieve in his HIMMATWALA, Prabhdeva majorly succeeds in getting the same in his RAMAIYA VASTAVAIYA, i.e. bringing back that breezy feel of the 80s. So though the film has nothing new in the name of content, it still may work in the single screen and smaller centers due to its standard entertaining sequences & music, targeting a particular section of viewers. However, the other truth is that the producers have actually played it too safe to launch their son in such a simple and routine film. With a new age experimental project written around a loving couple, Girish surely could have impressed the viewers a lot more than this old-fashioned Bollywood love story. So watch it only if you are a true fan of that dated era of 80s and can still enjoy many exactly similar sequences once again.

Story is very simple. Nothing new in screenplay and in dialogues even. All emotional scenes fall very flat. Most of the comedy scenes are also fated like emotional ones. You will laugh in a few comedy scenes, i.e when Randhir Kapoor eats the chilli powder mix rice. His expression binds you to laugh. Every scene and climax is most predictable. Yeah, it is true that you can easily predict the climax of a love story but the way of approach towards climax makes audience engrossed but this movie fails in it. Metaphor of clay horse was not well established so when the lead actors feel the attachment towards it you won't. Movie reminds you always about Maine Pyar kiya but Maine Pyar kiya is gem. Performance wise nothing to shout about. Zakir Hussain surprises and makes you laugh with his performance. The fabulous part of this film is music by Sachin Jigar. Songs are composed, written, choreographed and shot very nicely. They suddenly picked up the film.