What's Your Raashee?

Whats your Rashee is a good movie..............................;;;;;;;; very enjoyable It Gets you involved---------------------------------- in it and you wont Get up from your seat until the very end............... There are some Funny moments and the songs are treat to our ears,,,,,,,,, they are very------------------------------------------------------------ good!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Both priyanka and Harman have done good acting.. On the whole nice one go watch it... ignore other comments ! ! ! !!

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.

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.

I've been following the films made by Ashutosh Gowariker, who has helmed huge epics and worked with the biggest names in Bollywood today, such as Lagaan with Amir Khan, Swades with Shah Rukh Khan, and his previous film Jodhaa Akbar starring Hrithik Roshan and Ashwarya Rai Bachchan. And it's a fact that his films have runtimes of about 3.5 hours, which goes by real quickly as he keeps the story engaging, and the production values for this films are nothing less than magnificent. So naturally my interest was piqued as the auteur has now turned his sights on a romantic comedy, and I wonder exactly how a filmmaker such as he would be able to tackle this mass-appeal genre.

Based on the novel "Kimbali Ravenswood" by Madhu Rye, What's Your Rashee? (or translated as star sign for the English speaking audience) has all the ingredients that would allow for the runtime to stretch to a typical Gowariker length, but that's only because the challenge is to present all 12 female characters representing their respective star signs with attempts at equal runtime for each, with a song being inserted during the whirlwind courtship, clocking 13 tunes when the typical production averages 5. Think of it as an extreme speed dating where we get to know the opposite sex in some detail, with some travelling involved as the production showcased different districts in Mumbai, which of course is an eye-opener for one who has never visited India, yet.

The story's actually nothing sophisticated, and by romantic comedy standards quite predictable at times. Basically Yogesh Patel (Harman Buweja), an Non-Resident Indian living in Chicago has been summoned back to India because his parents learnt of his multi-million dollar inheritance from his grandfather should he get married, and the family now needs that kind of money to pay off his brother's debts. He reluctantly agrees of course, and sets himself up to meet initially hundreds of girls, but inspiration struck and he decided that he should be 12, one maiden under each star sign.

The main draw of the film is of course actress Priyanka Chopra, who has taken on possibly her most challenging film to date, playing 12 characters with more than 12 personalities. Why I say this is because some of her characters are putting on a facade, thus allowing more room for Priyanka to showcase her acting chops, which she did, with the help of stylists decking her out in beautiful dresses, varying make up, wigs, contact lenses and prosthetics even. That's only the physical outlook – you would be amazed at the physical presentation at how chameleon-like this ex-Miss World can be – and she takes her roles on with gusto to make you feel with some, laugh at some, and endear towards some through some wonderful pieces of acting. Not to mention that she broke the record set by Kamal Hassan, who tackled 10 characters in his movie Dasavatharam.

Unfortunately for Harman Baweja, who's in need for a booster to his fledging career after the flop Love Story 2050 (which incidentally also co-starred Priyanka), and the lacklustre Victory, his role as Yogesh, quite obsessed with doing the right thing each time, finds himself constantly upstaged and overshadowed by Priyanka's performance. It's a little pity of course, given that if it's anyone who can help him it'll likely be Gowariker given the director's strengths, but this was not to be as it's pretty much the leading lady's vehicle. But that's not to mean that Gowariker's film here is without flaws. Amongst his works to date, I feel that this was perhaps the weakest of the lot, suffering from a number of subplots which provided nothing more than a distraction to the meat of the story, such as that involving the infidelity of his uncle and marriage-consultant (Darshan Zariwala), and that of the loansharks who pop up now and then for unnecessary comic relief.

However, its strengths more than compensated for its drawbacks, such as how Priyanka just ran with her opportunities to shine, 12 times. The story also provided some insights into how arranged marriages, with dowries and all, are still conducted and quite a cultural thing, and the plights that some family face with having too many daughters, and wondering how best to have them married off. As the encounters with the different women were rather stand- alone, each allowed for the examination of traits and characteristics that will make you love, or loathe, and generally applies across the board, which allows you to identify with such instances.

But for all its narrative twists in secrets that cannot be kept, for its fleeting discussions on honesty or lack thereof, what I enjoyed most was the quasi-explanation of why the females that Yogesh meets, all share a striking resemblance with one another, which other characters don't seem to agree with, but only to the male protagonist. I liked how it was mentioned that we all have this preconceived idea of how our soul mate would preferably look like, and from then we tend to project this thought onto whomever we think would have a chance with, or at least tend to take those physical bits into consideration, only for their inner character, when revealed, to be anything but adhering to our dreams.

What's Your Raashee? for the romantic in me, worked wonders, and will leave you guessing at the end just who Yogesh would end up with, since Gowariker deliberately kept you hanging in suspense for as long as he possibly could. I'd recommend it as a date movie anytime if you're looking for something different from the usual Hollywood fare. Just remember to empty your bladders before the show starts, or you'll have to plan to hit the loo just about the time Leo gets introduced, for that inbuilt intermission.

I saw this movie at it's Toronto International Film Festival premier. Having watched the hilarious promos, I was very excited.

For the few who don't know the plot, I'll give a brief outline. Yogesh Patel (Harman) is a MBA student at the University of Chicago. He is supposed to inherit his maternal grandfather's wealth once he gets married. In order to pay back his brother's huge debt he is forced by his family to get married and being the emotionally sensitive that he is, he gives in to his family's plead. He then decides to see 12 girls (all played by Priyanka Chopra), one from each Rashee (sun sign) in 10 days and decide the one he likes the most.

Okay, now to the actors. Each of the 12 characters's stories are unique and well detailed. Priyanka does a fantastic job at playing each role to perfection, well almost, there are some hiccups here and there. But, one has to really commend her growth as an actress. Harman was okay and still showed signs of immaturity as an actor. Though it was big improvement from the horrendous Love Story 2050.

The movie is 192 minutes long and you can feel it. Ashutosh really needs to make his movies shorter. The direction otherwise is top-class. The THIRTEEN songs are not that bad, but nowhere close to the expectations one would set for an A-list movie. I personally only liked the title track.

What let's it down is the storyline. The story gets slightly boring at times but it picks up and manages to keep you hooked and laughing for 180 minutes. It's what happens in the last 10 minutes is what ruined it, the ending is one of the worst I have ever seen. They build up such a suspense through out the move and it is perfectly poised for a big climax... and nothing. It ends in a lull.

I definitely recommend the movie for Priyanka's hilarious and outstanding performance and romantic comedy fans will surely love it. But, it was definitely not worth the $45 I spent on the premier, I would have preferred waiting for a week and watched it for 1/4th the price.