Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan is a romantic comedy from Yash Raj productions.Which is a well known production house all around the globe. Kush (Imran Khan) goes on a bride hunting spree for his brother Luv (Ali Zafar) and stumbled upon many a wrong girls finally narrowing down to Dimple Dixit (Katrina Kaif). Comes a flashback of five years, Dimple and Kush met each other during their college days and then went out of contact. Back to present they Dimple demands celebrating 48 hours of her live the way she used to back in college days before she gets tied down by marriage. Kush agrees. So there's song and dance and the twist that Kush falls in love with his brother's Dulhan! What happens next? U Know. Having begun his career as assistant director under Yash Raj banner, debutant filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar (Do not mistake him for being Ali Zafar, the actor) did a fair job.although the film is very predictable,but still entertaining. there's a bhaang consuming sequence with a huge Dabangg poster at the backdrop and the dialogue goes like, "You're Da Bhaang boy!" Funny.The character-sketch of Kush is completely awry as Imran Khan definitely falters in pulling of a small towner's way of talking calling his elder brother "Bhai Saahab". Both Imran and Katrina meticulously maintain just one expression on their face and that alone is enough for emoting various expressions such as that of happiness, sadness, anger etc. Katrina looks ravishingly beautiful but only if that alone was enough. Her consistent problem of dialogue delivery commendably remains consistent even in MBKD. An actress who finds it hard to enact a sober girl is given a 10 minutes long sequence of a drunk girl where she mouths the cult dialogues of Sholay. Funny again. Ali Zafar is the most saving grace of the film and holds the screenplay tight whenever he comes on screen. However, he alone finds it hard to salvage the Average scripted film. Music of Mere Brother Ki Dulhan is very good best with ISHQ Risk and Madhubhala.Katrina Kaif is one of the leading ladies of the industry. Ali Zafar has track of the much acclaimed Tere Bin Laden as his last film. So there are definitely reasons enough in this film other than its story or script to watch it. Ali zafar was really good in the film and it is a must watch.

Decades ago, there was a time when good movies and successful movies meant the same thing. Content was the king and filmmakers made good movies in order to be successful. But then things changed. Commercial success and good quality cinema became distant from each other. Chak De India and Company became less and Ready, Om Shanti Om and Tees Maar Khan started defining success.

This overdose of commercialism also results in films like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (MBKD) where the corporates decide on the cast first and script comes later. Is script important to filmmakers or to the masses? Probably not. The success of Ready and Bodyguard assure that it's not. Then why fuss about the story of MBKD? Masses in the 100% occupied theater in the late night show were giggling and laughing. The guy sitting next was literally rolling on the floor. It doesn't matter if 10% of the people sitting in that theater did not like the script because they will not decide the success or failure of the film.

MBKD is a love triangle, pretty much a love rectangle, of Imran Khan, Katrina Kaif, Ali Zafar and Tara D'Souza. Ali, who breaks up his five year long relationship with Tara, assigns his younger brother Imran the task of finding him a bride in India. Imran finds Katrina and falls in love with her much to his own dislike and the trouble begins. Along come extremely unnatural dialog delivery, roughly cut sequences and superfluous song placements. As promising as the premise of the script sounds, it's the extremely unpersuasive first hour that makes the film a drag. Every actor is trying to defeat the other in overacting. On the plus side, the film has pretty good choreography especially in the title song where Chaiyan Chaiyan has been replicated in a very creative way and Madhubala which gives a new life to Jai Jai Shiv Shankar. Bosco-Ceaser, good show, boys.

The second half gets much better after a relatively mundane start and does get funny in a few segments. A big reason for this turnaround is Ali Zafar who has much more screen presence in the second half than the first.

Speaking of Ali's performance, it does have its shortcomings; however, it still remains the best act in the film especially in the second half. His comic timing is much better than Imran's although not as good as it was in Tere Bin Laden (TBL). He was pretty good in his scenes with Tara D'Souza in the second half. He has a pretty special talent in voice variations which excelled in this performance and saved grace in the second half. Most of his shortcomings could be attributed to the director's weak treatment. From Ali's perspective, it was a good movie to sign. With TBL he grabbed the attention of filmmakers and he needed this to grab the audience too and it makes sense for his future in the industry. He needs to improve his dancing skills though.

Imran disappoints. After an entertaining Delhi Belly, this looks like a hasty effort from the actor. Utterly artificial scenes with his childhood friends and no chemistry whatsoever with Katrina. Romantic scenes between the two looked amateurish to say the least. It was another one of those Break Ke Baad and I Hate Luv Storys types of performances by Imran. Katrina Kaif surprised on a few occasions. In fact, in the first half, she was probably the best of the lot mainly because others were pretty bad. Poor bike scenes and poor rock concert song where she could not control her overacting but decent otherwise. Her role was very badly conceived. A 27 year old acting like a 13 year old is never funny.

Tara D'Souza did well in her brief role; however, she was again portraying a confusingly written character. Other supporting cast was a drag except for Zeeshan Ayub who played Shobit.

A huge frustration was the cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee. I'm still struggling to understand what he was trying to do. One of the worst displays of camera works I have witnessed in recent past. 60% of the film was in extreme close-ups with only the actors' faces visible on the huge screen. Camera looked as if it was going to go inside their noses. Sudeep has an impressive career record with Chak De India, Kaminey, Guzarish and a fairly impressive Road. I believe he was probably working on a brief from the director for that completely not-so-innovative camera work.

Which brings us to probably the biggest culprit of the film, the second Ali associated with it i.e. Ali Abbas Zafar. He wrote and directed the film and more often than not failed on both. A very weak script which depended a lot on acting and dialogues, hence, succeeded at some places and failed at others. The story was half cooked and a mixture of several films previously seen like Tanu Weds Manu, Jab We Met etc. Direction was flawed, full of unnecessary sequences, unplanned songs and even continuity errors like shoes changing from within scene.

Overall, MBKD could have been and should have been a much better film if, and a huge if, it had a better script, better direction, better acting and more prominent role for Ali Zafar. It still might be a successful outing on the box office, because as I said earlier, commercial success has new definitions in this day and age, however, it's pretty far away from being a good film.

MBKD is a pure breed of Bollywood movie. There is a lot of dancing, songs, celebration, over-acting, a few good jokes (again: very few), masala... If you like to watch such movies where you don't have to use too much of your brain after a hard week's work, you might enjoy this.

Watching MBKD is insult to intelligence and a boring experience. You know you are in the wrong theater when you get up and see people around you in deep sleep. I just couldn't wait for the movie to complete. Any movie that produces that kind of effect can only be hit because of its stars, great advertising and distribution.

The movie is flawed at many instances, but for me the most important thing in a movie is 'the story'. The story has nothing innovative or even interesting. The overall story is predictable and illogical. However, the story has a small twist at the end, which was not predictable (bad news for people who wanted the movie to end soon). You won't predict how unwanted 'the twist' at the end is. For some reason our film industry forgets that making a 'funny story' doesn't mean making a 'stupid story'.

The good thing in the movie is Katrina and her dancing skills. She can make any song look good with her size-zero body. Katrina looks good in any movie until she opens her mouth. Katrina's acting in this movie is childish and 'not cute'. Katrina's character was supposed to be of a cute and chulbuli girl, similar to Kareena Kapoor's character in 'Jab we Met'. But a combination of 'Bad acting' and inability to speak proper Hindi made Katrina look stupid.

Acting of Imran and others is equally artificial. But Imran doesn't look as bad as the overacting of 'Ali Zafar' who is Imran's brother in the movie. For some reason everyone in the movie have stopped working and are behind getting 'Ali Zafar' married.

EXPECTATIONS ---- Yash Raj, Ali Zaffar, Imran Khan & Katrina Kaif - now that's a pair that can drag audiences into cinema halls. MBKD is a brave attempt to compete with a tornado flowing these days named 'BodyGuard'. So, just to change the taste from Action to comedy, MBKD works for a big time. Imran Khan, the most successful teen in B'Town, Katrina, the most successful popular actress and Ali Zaffar, the heartthrob of many gals. MBKD is the biggest surprise that can come with three crackers. Also, the super-successful music is also there. What does one want more?

MBKD is a rom-com based on a new tragedy as it claims itself in teasers. And, so it is. We have seen this type of story in Onir's SORRY BHAI or MY BROTHER'S WIFE (or A BEAUTIFUL WIFE). But MKBD is totally different from them. It's entertaining, funny, clumsy & is filled with strong performances.

Kush Agnihotri (Imran Khan) is looking for the ideal Indian bride for his brother Luv Agnihotri (Ali Zafar), who stays in London. In his quest, Kush goes through an array of wacky encounters with several families until he finally finds that perfect girl in Dimple Dixit (D)(Katrina Kaif), the craziest / wackiest girl he has ever known.

Both the families meet. Formalities are completed. Preparations proceed in full swing. And just then Kush falls in love with Dimple... his brother's dulhan. Dimple is also in love with him. How can their love overcome in this society? That's when a wacky plot with wacky incidents take place.

MBKD deals with a very heavy plot in a funny and light manner and changes the whole mood where a calamity is occurring. Director Ali Abbas Zafar has a dream debut fulfilled by this. His smart direction and handling every scene with good humor shows that he's different from most other directors debuting nowadays.

Imran Khan does a commendable job this time also. Unlike Delhi Belly, Imran achieves such a role this time that has been focused on him entirely. And also he lives with it more than good. Some people call it 'Reserved' and some call 'Fattu' Imran had to do work in such a role and does it bloody good. The dulhan herself, Katrina Kaif was gorgeous and pretty and a powerhouse entertainer this time. But she still needs to work on her Hindi and acting skills. Ali Zaffar was a joy to watch. A dashing, handsome, wild, cool & aggressive player, just opposite to his brother's nature. Ali Zaffar had delivered a far better performance this time than 'Tere Bin Laden' by giving some giggles. Kanwaljeet Singh as Dimple's Daddy & Parikshat Sahni as Colonel Agnihotri (Luv & Kush's Dad) were tremendous. Imran's friends were cool. Debutant Tara D' Souza (as Piyali) was fine. The man who acted a s Dimple's brother gave a bad performance trying to imitate SRK from My Name Is Khan.

Music by Sohail Sen was the major plus point of this movie. Every song was situational (after a long period) and vibrant and excellent. Background Score worked fine too. Next comes screenplay which somehow covers up the flaws and immaturity of the script. A cool and pacy script, we can say. Cinematography by Sudeep Chatterjee, which mostly covered Agra & Taj was fine. Costumes were fabulous. Editing could have been much better.

Allover, MBKD tries to be something different in clichéd rom-com movies but for a so-so plot and some clumsy moments, it stays afloat. Forget beating Bodyguard's records, it is somehow a nearly good competition to it. But some funny moments, Imran Khan & a spectacular music score make Mere Brother Ki Dulhan far better than most other movies of this type came in this year. It's lightening, joyful, honest & a bit introvert. So, just go to theaters, pop up the corns and forget stress and tension.

Having said that, I do not mean that I liked it. I almost dozed off while watching the first half. Sole reason that I gave it 6/10 is because it should not be rated below Ready.

Most of the talent has been wasted in the movie due to a lackey script. I had high expectations of the movie after watching the trailer and it all landed in a dash. Ali Zafar was a delight to watch in Tere bin Laden but is totally wasted in this movie. Imran khan has utterly failed to impress with his sole expressions. I was confused if he was John Abraham I was watching. Only delight to watch if Katrina Kaif and I am not talking about her performance. Its her sheer exuberance that got me through the movie.

Plot is wafer thin and is highly predictable. The movie has it moments but if you have watched the trailer, you have it all. Go watch it if you have NOTHING to do at all...