Review: Anjaana Anjaani

Originally for nowrunning.com 

By Noyon Jyoti Parasara

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra

Director: Siddharth Anand

Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala

Music: Vishal Shekhar

Rating: **1/2

Anjaana Anjaani

There has been much talk about Anjaana Anjaani being a copy of The Girl On The Bridge. However after watching the film I can vouch that it’s not true. Anjaana Anjaana is not a copy of any particular film. Rather it is a mish-mash of ideas that may have been borrowed from various movies. Hence though the story is not something we have seen in Hindi cinema before, neither does it seem completely fresh. At various moments through the film you will feel you have seen it before.

The film is about a boy and a girl who meet for the first time on a bridge – where they had reached to commit suicide. Both fail repeatedly at ending their lives and come to a conclusion that probably these are signs that they are yet to complete something in life. A deadline is set – 20 days from then, on the New Years eve they will commit suicide and till then they will live together and help each other fulfill their wishes.

No it is not a Bucket List or a Dasvidaniya where they go about tick-marking their to-do list. Rather it’s a journey to understand life and love and also each other better. Anjaana Anjaani makes an out and out love story. And it has a fair dose of comedy to keep it going. The wish however is for the going to have been faster than what it was. The film on the whole has loads of winning moments but the first half does not see the story moving anywhere. It only gets moving later in the second half. The screenplay is not consistent.

Among the good parts include some super song, great cinematography and visuals, cool dialogues and effective background score. But the real highlights of the film are the Anjaana and Anjaani – Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. It probably is a dream for any actor to get so much of screen time. And this film is almost entirely meant of them. And they excel. Ranbir Kapoor proves yet again why he is being termed as the next superstar. It is really hard to look at anyone else when Ranbir is on screen. But this time he will have to accept that Priyanka took away the eyeballs – mine at least! Priyanka Chopra, who has come up with memorable performances in the past, reminds again that she is indeed in contention for one of Indian cinema’s best actresses. The only problem I had – she comes out of the sick bed in complete make up. But then again is a directorial blunder!

Siddharth Anand has given us Salaam Namaste and there is no doubt that he is capable in telling a story telling. But there are certain liberties taken in the film which deducts from his ability as a storyteller. Anjaana Anjaani works for the die-hard romantics and fans of the lead stars. For the rest it is an average storyline with good amount of repetitiveness embedded with superlative performances.