Befikre

First it was Karan Johar with Ae Dil Hai Mushkil now Aditya Copra comes with one of the worst movie for this year Befikre. Let's put simple the movie does not have any story and is about 2 people who are crazy and are having sex wherever they want. Aditya Chopra who has made such classics earlier this was not expected.

Positives – Some good location and average music

Negatives- Not to be watched with family audience though a UA certificate (I wonder what happened to Pahlaj Nihlani) Bad acting poor script , dialogues are cheesy not humorous & equally bad direction.

Bottomline Please do not waste your valuable time and money

Aditya Chopra has issues with understanding love and relationships. He first started throwing up his ideas in 1995, and it took him close to two decades to finally get the people to understand that his interpretations are awfully wrong. Clearly evident in this ritzy romance drama.

Shyra (Vaani Kapoor) is a young, carefree, and promiscuous French woman born to Indian restaurateurs while Dharam (Ranveer Singh) is a comedian from Delhi who has final-stage satyriasis. They bump into each other at a rave party in Paris and immediately indulge in wham bam thank you ma'am. Dharam hopes that he can maybe start scoring, starting from Shyra, but is internally crestfallen to learn that the fun they had the previous night was just a one-time thingummy for Shyra, a professional travel guide who moonlights as garcon at her parents' rotisserie. The 2-hour game-play between these youngsters misrepresented as today's youth is what the film is essentially about.

Viewers are ushered into the film with a montage of various couples kissing and groping each other in the beautiful locales of France. As we move further in the non-linear story-line, Singh comes in as this joker, summoned by his Indian friend to add elan to the latter's comedy club-cum-cafe. But, we mostly see him as a nudist trying to get it on with Shyra, who has terrible taste in fashion, considering her nationality. The story-line tries too hard to showcase the youngsters' mentality when it comes to romance in the free world, but forgets to take all aspects into consideration. If the first half is foreplay followed by carnal knowledge, the second half is post-coital clean up, which is both gross and non-pleasurable.

Dating in the 21st century is everything NOT like one sees in Befikre. Instead, the film is a personal diary of director Chopra who chose to market it as something about no-strings-attached relationships. There is, however, some humor in the drama, contributed mainly by Singh. Albeit, there are too many improbable situations here, which makes the whole shindig slightly unbelievable for the viewers. Dharam shares an apartment with two homosexual women, while Shyra observes licentiousness while living with her parents. Convenience looks good in a store, not in a film. So much, that it flip flops from one idea to another, and often churns out dialogues pinpointing certain stereotypes and gives out critiques which do not pass muster. Today's youth are impulsive, which is not a novel thing about them, but writer Chopra thinks of it as a paradigm shift as we move ahead in life.

With very less background data about the protagonists, the film largely engages in differentiating them as Dilliwala and Pariswali, as if trying to tell that the film may not be universally relevant. Which is true to some extent. The makers also try to bridge the gap between how romance is perceived in India and elsewhere in the West, but falls through, because there is no consideration of the complexities and stigmas that come with it. They fail to realize that casual relationships are not just practiced in Paris and New York, but also in Connaught Place and South Bombay. Also, I'm surprised how the Indian CBFC even cleared the film for the morally-virgin Indian consumers.

Sort of a reverse primer for marriages, the film can most relevantly be described as the less faithful version of Karan Johar's exaggerated snooze-fest, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016). While that took a distorted look at relationships, this one here take the on-off approach. It refutes its own claims of how romantic relationships nowadays are - proclaiming that they are fleeting at one point, and then describing it as a bond at another. All in all, it blows its chances at depicting how hook- ups affect people's lives, because while love takes the backseat, lust hops in to take care of the wheel.

Singh marginally steals the limelight with his stronger performance, while Kapoor is let down by her costume and a weird air. Their mannerisms may be a reason to ignite vanity, but their glossy performances fail to ante up the narrative. For a moment, one may even think that the actors are starring in a ridiculously long advertisement by the France tourism board, but then chuck that thought because a French ad would have more French in it than Hindi.

Of course, there are some minor takeaways from the film, which I am leaving alone for your individual capabilities to grapple. Nonetheless, there is one dialog from Shyra's parents that Chopra gets right: "These days parents don't bring up their children, it's the other way around." Don't get excited, because even this is spoken in Hindi.

BOTTOM LINE: Aditya Copra's fourth film, "Befikre" is like a fancy boutique situated in a romantic city. It sells everything from horseplay to foreplay, targeted at the YOLO generation and endorsed by good-looking people. However, by the time you fill your cart with one or two good pieces and go to the counter to check out, you take a glimpse at the backside storeroom, and repulse in fear because you realize you have been duped by men and women who want to set bad examples. Skip for life, or use as a travel guide when you visit Paris.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? NO

'Befikre' is a Slog. There's not other way to put it up. Writer-Director Aditya Chopra fails to deliver a tale on Modern Love. Too many dares, very few laughs & a dragging second-hour, play a spoilsport.

'Befikre' Synopsis: After a coincidence, Dharam and Shyra (Ranveer Singh & Vaani Kapoor) meet & indulge in impulsive, engaging series of experiences. Doused in the spirit of Paris, they celebrate love, sex and focus on living life to the fullest. But love is inevitable.....

'Befikre' begins in a fun way & watching the protagonists indulge in lust rather than love, is interesting. But sooner than expected, the dares between them come across as silly & their differences appear plastic. Despite these pumps, the first-hour still keeps the energy coming. Its the second-hour, however, that fails completely. The addition of a new man in the leading lady's life, is clichéd & the series of events that follow, are tiresomely predictable. In short, 'Befikre' makes an attempt to make modern love look daring & rather impulsive, but the result, is underwhelming.

Aditya Chopra's Writing is breezy initially & some scenes are fun in the first-hour, but as mentioned before, the second-hour is devoid of excitement. The Dialogue, are quite good at places. Aditya Chopra's Direction is just about okay. 'Befikre' finds him limping & that's sad. Cinematography & Vishal-Shekhar's Score, merit a special mention.

Performance-Wise: Ranveer Singh is the sole saving grace. He nails every nuance of Dharam & also delivers the best laughs. He keeps the narrative going! Vaani Kapoor is very natural & shares a nice on-screen chemistry with Ranveer. Both the actors have done well, but sadly, the script lets them down.

On the whole, 'Befikre' is high on hype, but low on substance.

DDLJ for me was a romantic benchmark in Indian Cinema along with Mohabbatein and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and it all happened because of one person who brought good mentality from his father and that is Aditya Chopra himself. I always admired his films by the writing, chemistry, direction, and music. But this is the only movie in Aditya Chopra's table which screwed every classic in Indian cinema.

The fantastic trailer and the music YRF put up made me excited but honestly, this film is a disappointment. I don't mind rom-com movies but when it comes to scripting, Adi should've been a bit cautious about what to write. A movie about carefree relationships is not one of them.

The performances in the movie were decent. An actor like Ranveer Singh can make a movie like this worth watching. He was very withheld and humorous in his respective role as Dharam Gulati who played a comedian/playboy.

Vaani Kapoor as Shyra Gill acted averagely well as a tour guide but I felt like she took coaching classes from Katrina Kaif like the way to seduce a guy and create romantic expressions in one way during the movie. That could explain the puffy lips she got after an excessive amount of kissing in the movie.

The direction and cinematography were absolutely spot-on. Aditya Chopra and his DOP managed to shoot Paris very realistically top to bottom with good resonance. The good thing that Adi managed to do was giving good Aesthetic shots in the movie, especially how he shot the kisses although more than 20 weren't needed. The first half was interesting especially the songs in the opening but the interval and climax made me cringe a lot.

His writing was not good because having a carefree relationship colliding with marrying someone else are 2 things which didn't make sense to me. The script for me is hard to explain because of some bit of confusion.

Good music can only come from 2 humble gentlemen and they're Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani. Nashe Si Chadh Gayi is a good track which I've been listening to on a loop as well as You and Me. Khulke Dhulke is the only song in the album which failed to pack a Punjabi wedding punch. Vaibhavi's choreographic skills are getting better and better. Better than Farah Khan and Prabhudeva.

Overall, if I want to describe this film, I would say that Befikre is a mediocre written blue film. The music and direction kept the movie tight but the poor writing and post-interval compromised it which is why this movie is worth a one-time watch or on a Netflix and T.V broadcast.

Aditya Chopra- I know how much you wanted to make a fun and sensuous movie but a script for that needs time. You're still a good filmmaker in my opinion but be careful.

2/5- Yash Raj Films have some damages to fix because of what the Box Office will be like.

Its a good movie .. Ranveer Singh once again did a great job. Light hearted with renewed Yash Raj movie formula. No over melodrama, Excellent acting by Ranveer, OK acting by Vaani, good and tight script and direction, nice and peppy music, beautiful locales. It has a one liner story but still bound you till the end. That's the trademark of a good director. A very good effort by Aditya Chopra. The trailers of the movie showed the lewd side which is not actually the prime part of this movie and so a bit misleading. Aditya Chopra should not have made the kissing focus in the trailers as movie has lots of other things to offer. Go watch it, you will not regret!!!