Tuesday, April 22, 2014

2 States (2014) - Drama / Romance



I will call it a way below average drama and unfortunately the Director is the culprit here – a story of this caliber should have got a Director like may be Adi Chopra or someone from Rajshri banner to do justice. Fortunately what works big time in this movies case and still keeps it watchable is the excellent cast – in that department this movie is Superb! Barring of course the man in lead (Arjun Kapoor) who kept precisely two expressions on his face during the entire narrative – Happy and Confused.  I assumed after a couple of movies (good ones) to his credit – he should’ve matured enough to take up this fundoo character which he isn’t able to do justice to (my personal opinion). Alia Bhatt fortunately is in superb form right from her first movie – now I can definitely say that and I must confess that I am hopelessly falling in love with her right like the way I was madly in love with her sister Pooja Bhatt while I was graduating. The rest of the cast is simply outstanding in their respective roles, like the two mothers played by Amrita Singh and Revathy respectively are simply too good. And so are the dads – especially Ronit Roy as Arjun’s dad was simply terrific – he continues to play the same character he enacted awesomely in “Udaan” – and was simply Terrific! I kept looking for an opportunity to see his smiling face at least once but no ways – he lived that character till the very end. Songs as per me were totally unwanted in this movie – I guess they should have skipped the songs and rather adjusted a little more drama but it’s a love story after all so I think songs are justified. Overall it qualifies as a good drama for sure and I will definitely give it an average 3/5 but I am sure some people will find it too long to their taste. If you have seen it – do let me know if you liked it? And by the ways – did you notice the movie starts with Arjun narrating his story to a psychiatrist but where does it end? Did I miss anything?

Comparison with the Book: Again, I guess it’s the same story every time they make a movie based on a book and the audience keeps on expecting justice which unfortunately never happens. Of course it’s a tough job to adjust a book of 270 pages into a two and a half hour long movie and still keeping it watchable but is it really that tuff? I am sure Chetan Bhagat could have done more justice to his superb story (in the book) while adapting it into a movie – but let me tell you – it isn’t half as good as the book was. The problem I feel now is that if you have read the book – the movie is never at par with it but if you haven’t read it and you plan to read it after you watch the movie – it becomes futile as you already know what’s going to happen next and how it all ends. In this particular case – in comparison to the book – movie is totally haphazard – it goes from one chapter to another just like that and there was so much left behind untold. Take that very first scene of the movie where Ananya takes Krish out for lunch – on their very first meeting and she is shown keeping her hands on his while asking if he was from IIT too? I mean, c’mon – that was a little superfast for a girl from anywhere to do that. No mention of his Boss at Yes Bank, No mention of Manju (Ananya’s Bro) other than that Krish teaches him, not much background on his father either and totally no nothing on the girl he sees on his mother and her cousin’s insistence. So in the end – I can say the book was way better, if you haven’t read it – I will say – go ahead and read it, you are going to love it more than the movie.

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