What's Your Raashee?

How many of you were waiting for this one from Gowariker? i know many! Sadly for all Gowariker fans, What's Your Rashee is absolutely disappointing. Based on Madhu Rye's novel Kimball Ravenswood, WYR's script is as flat as it can possibly get.

What's Your Rashee's story revolves around Yogesh Patel(Harman Bhaweja) an MBA student studying in Chicago, who is forced to return to India after receiving a message about his father's deteriorating health. On reaching India is when the family of Yogesh let out the actual reason. Yogesh is then told about the share scam committed by his brother and the family's huge debt. He's also told about the solution offered by a astrologer according to whom, If Yogesh gets married on the 20th, huge wealth is to follow the family on the very day. He's given a mere 10 days to decide a girl and get married. It does not take long for his family to convince Yogesh and he's then out looking for brides. After a lot of confusion about the brides shortlisted by his uncle, Yogesh comes up with a bizarre idea of meeting one girl from each of the 12 zodiac signs. And the plot leading upto Yogesh deciding his soul mate among the 12 is for you to watch it yourself.

Gowariker seems to have failed miserably with WYR provided the quality of movies that he

made previously. The movie fails to take off and the plot of the movie does not really convince you at any level. The one and the only thing that is impressive with WYR is Priyanka Chopra's impeccable performance playing 12 different characters. She's absolutely mind blowing with each of the 12 characters and probably the only thing that makes you sit right through the exhausting 3 hours 15 minutes. Harman Bhaweja is good and tries his best to make an impact with his honest acting supported well by rest of the cast. The funnier parts that were supposed to be funny are not funny and it just frustrates you more.

The music by Sohail Sen is ordinary and the 12 songs used for 12 the different characters are not impressive either.

Reviewed By- Raghav Ramaiah

Originally Posted at talkingpopcorns.com

Ashutosh Gowariker has become a brand over the years, he has made milestones like 'Lagaan', 'Swades' & 'Jodhaa Akbar'. Expectations are bound to be there, reading his name creates a excitement in a cine-lover, and I being his die-hard went & watched his latest outing 'What's Your Raashee?'. Sadly, The Ace Filmmaker misses the bus this time!

On the whole 'What's Your Raashee?' is long, boring and complicated. Accomplished filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker disappoints big time with his latest outing. Plus, the excessive running time will prove to be a major disadvantage. 13 good songs {though they appear very boring in the film}, good performances & decent camera-work can't save, when a tacky screenplay is aside. As a fan of Gowariker, I am hugely disappointed. The Academy-Award-Nominated Filmmaker makes his weakest fare in 'What's Your Raashee?'.

Pluses: The first hr, to an extend is entertaining. Music by Sohail Sen is fantastic; but looks forced in the film completely. Camera-work is decent. Performances are good: Priyanka is remarkable. She plays the very first character & the part of the doctor exceedingly well. Harman is likable. Darshan Jariwala is superb, so are Anjan Shrivastav, Dilip Joshi & Rajesh Vivek.

Minuses: The screenplay. The film is very very lengthy, and the songs are a major bore. In fact if some songs were deleted, the movie could've been a bit better. Plus, the Darshan Jariwala-Anjan Shrivastav-Rajesh Vivek track seems forced.

Let's hope that the next time Ashu returns as the captain of the ship, he makes a hell of a good film.

The Bad: -Length. Film is nearly 3 1/2 hours long. They could easily have done away with 4 of the songs (e.g. Maanunga Maanunga, Saloni, Su Che and Dhadkan Dhadkan), the whole Devukaka cheating and Bhai subplots, and the film would have lost nothing. In fact, it would have been much more enjoyable. -Editing. Renu Saluja should have challenged her director about the worthiness of some of the frivolous scenes. -The lengthy Bond style interpretive dance intros for each female character got annoying real quick. Yeah, Priyanka looks smoking, but the device wears its welcome quick.

The Good: -Priyanka Chopra -Priyanka Chopra Oh and did I forget to mention, Priyanka Chopra? A few years ago, I would have never believed the awkward side heroine from Sunny Deol's miserable Hero would grow in to such a Fine (in more ways that one) actress. She grabs you the second she walks in with her first role as Anjali, and you'll be hooked all the way to the end of the Jhankhana act. Songs are almost all great (and only downside is some are unnecessary in the movie).

Have a feeling some audience members who are obsessive about their belief in astrology may be offended by Ashutosh playing on the characters. But my wife and I thought it was cute. If only the film had repeat value in the cinemas.

Looking at the project as a whole, I had my doubts on whether Ashutosh will be able to create the same magic with Harman Baweja, as he previously did with Hrithik Roshan in the role of an unimaginable Akbar. With a shaky subject in hand and mediocre songs on air, I was not sure of another polished product from the director with a big stature in the Industry. And all my doubts proved right as "What's Your Rashee" came out to be just a below average movie with an unbearable long length, not so impressive content and many unwanted ordinary songs.

Said to be based on the novel by Madhu Rye, the story (which is quite predictable) moves around a young NRI boy who is here in India to marry a girl within a week. To make a good choice he decides to meet a girl from each sun sign and then take a decision. Unfortunately, the interesting idea, fails completely in its uninspiring screen adaptation. Other than the twelve different girls brilliantly portrayed by Priyanka Chopra, there is no particular scene in the movie to rave about. In fact if you see the movie, ignoring the truth that it has been directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, then you will just take it as a debut project of any budding director and nothing more.

The biggest disappointment in the movie is its extra long length and completely uninspiring music. The length is fine when we are watching a movie like "Lagaan" or "Jodha Akbar", but you cannot make every project close to four hours of duration just for the sake of it. Ashutosh could have easily edited out most of the songs in the movie as they are not anywhere a part of the progressing storyline. The run of the mill soundtrack stands nowhere, if compared to the scores of Gowariker's earlier projects. Yes, he had the great A. R. Rahman on his side in all those musical masterpieces, but there were also good hummable songs in his "Baazi" too, which proves that he indeed has a good choice of melodies. Surprisingly in "What's Your Rashee" out of more than 12 songs, we don't even have one particular track to stay in our mind except the obvious title number.

Apart from its length and music, the monotonous act of seeing girls again and again becomes quite boring and annoying after a while. There is a very silly explanation given about the similar faces of all 12 girls in the start which puts you off straight away. The completely avoidable and poorly written detective angle in the script fails to make an impact. It also does not reach any conclusion since Ashutosh simply forgets about this added sub-plot towards the end and moves on. There is no proper justification given about how & why Harman makes his choice in the climax as everything just gets sorted our very easily and quickly.

In few words, it's a Priyanka Chopra movie all the way, where she acts, dances and emotes in 12 different ways in a fantastic manner. Unarguably, it's one of the best performances of her career till date. On the other hand, I really feel sad for Harman Baweja, who is a true hard worker, but still hasn't got the lady luck smiling at him. When it came to Harman's turn, even the man with a midas touch, lost his golden stroke and failed. May be it's all destiny that whatever the boy does, he always gets compared to Hrithik Roshan, because of their naturally similar looks.

All other character artists in the movie have simply performed their allotted roles as a duty towards the director. Cinematography serves the purpose well and visual graphics are nice to see on the screen. Especially the graphical presentation of all the sun signs at the start reminded me of the famous James Bond opening credits, known for their brilliant graphics and girls.

A few decades back we had a T.V. Serial called "Mr.Yogi",where also a young NRI selects few girls to meet before his planned marriage. In each episode he used to meet a new girl from a different family and background. And I still remember, that I enjoyed the T.V. serial many times more than the current "What's Your Rashee". In all, a big disappointment from the director who's all last 3 movies, are there in my "Movies To See Before You Die" list.

First of all, WYR is based on a pretty interesting premise - the 12 zodiac signs. It has universal appeal as almost everyone has read their daily horoscope and is familiar with the sun signs. However, the interesting part stops right there and the movie is treated in a very banal manner. Every girl in the zodiac gets a song of her own - quality and brevity suffers as a result. Perhaps a better idea might have been to have just one-verse songs - it would be innovative while not taking away from the film-maker's vision. For some reason Gowariker sticks to the tried and tested. What we end up is a 200-minute movie. I looked up at my watch at least 5 times, and that is never a good sign.... The best thing about the movie is Priyanka Chopra who is able to create 12 distinct characters and essays contrasting roles be it a simple Gujju village girl or an uber-cold professional with relative ease. Harman has his moments especially when he is empathizing with other characters and remains understated. The rest of the cast is real and authentic for the most part and keeps moving the story forward unlike the songs. All in all, WYR had the potential to be a rom-com with small sub-plots - almost a la PG Wodehouse. However, it turns to formula and ends up in the mediocre realm.