Ramaiya Vastavaiya

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

The promos and the very beginning of the film itself reflects the predictability of the film which is the only negative point I saw in this film. "Ramaiya Vastavaiya" (taken from the song of Raj Kapoor's Shree 420) , as the title, is refreshing and feels like a fresh breath of air filled with hilarious, comical, and romantic moments which hold you to your seats despite the predictability of the story where we have a caring brother, sister, and a lover who needs to prove his love. The setting and the story feels like "Maine Pyar Kiya" meets "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya" but skipping the usual typecast villains of "Maine Pyar Kiya" or profanity of "Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya." You'll understand what I'm trying to say if you have seen those movies.

The film at times also succeeds as a slapstick comedy which very few Hindi movies dare to venture. There are villains but they are again normal people who help to make the movie hilarious. Performance wise, the new pair Girish Kumar and Shruti Hassan makes a marvelous performance. So can be said of Sonu Sood and Vinod Khanna, who appear in important roles. The music is good and the photography refreshing. So the biggest success of this film directed by Prabhu Deva is the sheer entertainment it provides despite the often predictability of the story.

Rating: 2 stars out of 4

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.

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

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.