Barsaat Review

No, filmmakers don't have any rights to subject this to Bollywood fans time and again! That's the feeling you get half through the screening of a 'cliched love story' called 'Barsaat' that was tagged as a 'sublime story story'.

Much was expected from this Bobby Deol, Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra starrer. Why not? After all producer-director Suneel Darshan is the man behind one of the most successful film of recent times - Andaaz - and carries a strong reputation of coming up with family dramas that have touched Indian hearts. But alas, that's not the case with 'Barsaat' as the story of the film is so predictable and the execution such ultra-dramatic that you want to tear your hair in frustration, especially in the second half.

The movie begins with a young boy and a girl cycling in the rain and enjoying their moments together. Scene 2 and you have Bobby Deol as Arav Kappor on the frame who is fast minting money in the USA. You know at this very moment that the man is none other than the young boy shown in the first frame. Soon enters sweet'n'sexy Anna [Bipasha Basu] who falls in love with him at their very first encounter. But this doesn't necessarily result in reciprocation by Arav as he is a car designer and is busy working on his dream to get his BIG break.

Some cliched moments later, he gets a job at nothing less than BMW chaired by Shakti Kapoor, who also happens to be Anna's grandfather. All this while Arav is unaware about Anna's true identity and soon sees himself falling in love with her. No issue as a couple of scenes later, her identity is disclosed by the grandfather who proposes to get them both engaged.

Game, set, match for Arav who conveniently forgets that he has a past. Ironically though everyone in the auditorium remembered that the girl in the first frame would have turned into Priyanka Chopra by now and waiting for him in a Himachal Pradesh small town.

The fact is bigger than that as this girl [Kajal] was also married to Arav just 3 years back. Oh, now how are we expected to digest Arav ignoring this fact? Accepted that he fis orced to marry by his 'zabaan ke pakke' parents [Gajendra Chauhan and Beena] who had given a 'vachan' to Kajal's granny [Farida Jalal]. Though the glitz of making money in his country of dreams made Arav averse to an idea of marriage, since granny doesn't know how many more years she would survive, he relents only to leave back for USA on the very first night!

Well, now Arva has conveniently forgotten about the 'vachan' to 'desi' grandma and has said yes to 'videshi' grandpa. But then for remarriage, he also needs to first break his first marriage and hence flies back to India. And yes, this is where Priyanka Chopra as a grown up Kajal is also introduced with 'Aaja Aaja Piya', a rather lovely song. But little did she know that Arav is not here for taking her away. In fact he has come to break away from her completely by asking her to sign divorce papers.

Not to relent so easily, she tries to woo him to the fullest. But does she succeed? Meanwhile Anna and her grandpa fly India for a traditional marriage ceremony. What happens in the end? Well if you have seen 5 Bollywood love triangles in your lifetime and have sat through the first 5 minutes of the movie when the 2 kids are drenching themselves in rain, you absolutely know the answer !!

Predictable to the core, Barsaat offers nothing, apart from some real melodious music by Nadeem Shravan, that allows viewers to appreciate their outing to some extent. Being stuck to a formula is fine as more often than not it works, but if you do not disguise the formula with deft execution, chances are high that the movie may turn out to be utter run of the mill. This is what happens in the case of 'Barsaat'.

The first hour or so o