http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/criticreview/id/551319
Ever since I heard that Barun Sobti, who had quit his popular daily soap for better prospects, has signed a film - I have been eagerly waiting to see it. In fact, the telly actor is the only reason I agreed to review Main Aur Mr Riight.
What is it about?
The plot revolves around Ms Perfectionist Aliya Raj (Shenaz Treasurywala) who is a casting director in search of her Mr Right. Aliya is single and her friends constantly keep pressurising her to get hitched by shoving their perfect' relationships under her nose. Fed up of the constant pressure, she blindly picks a photograph of an aspiring actors from her purse and shows it to her friends as her boyfriend - who is her supposed Mr Right. Enter Sukhi (Barun Sobti) who in reality is the complete opposite of what Aliya is looking for in her man. Nonetheless, Aliya trains Sukhi to walk, sit, talk, eat and behave in public. When her friends meet him, they are impressed by Sukhi, who is now called Hredhaan from London. The end is as predictable is quite predictable.
What's good
Barun Sobti delivers an earnest performance. If he picks the right project, I am sure he will be taken seriously and be offered good roles. Every phase in the story is showcased by actors auditioning and narrating what will happen next - which is something that kept me in splits.Shenaz Treasurywala may not be a great actress, but is well styled. Keeping the relationships between all the couples as real as possible was one of the other things that I liked. At least the director - Adeeb Rais didn't sugarcoat the truth of relationships in the current times.
What's bad
Except Barun, every other actor in the movie needs to go back to the basics of acting, including Shenaz Treasurywala . The actress seems to be still stuck in her Ishq Vishk days (her debut film). The director seemed obsessed with skin show.. The songs weren't catchy and the choreography was amateurish. The inclusion of the yesteryear song Yaar bina chain kaha re from Anil Kapoor and Amrita Singh's Saheb seemed unnecessary and completely forced. They tried to lift the scene from the original movie and failed miserably. The whole story is predictable right from the start, but then again the makers had warned me that the movie is nothing new but just made from the heart.
Verdict
Without Barun, there is clearly nothing to see in the film and hence recommended only if you are a Sobti fan. If not,Main Aur Mr Riight is definitely not for you. And it should never be featured among rom-com movies.
December 12, 2014 sushlee |
Nothing Right About This Film- Except for Mr Riight'
Main Aur Mr Riight' is about Alia, a stylish, single & super rich Bollywood casting agent (in her own words, she loves her Louis Vuittons' and I don't know any casting agent who lives, breathes and yells in designer threads). She is Miss Perfect, who will reject a man because he had a grain of rice stuck on his teeth.
Her life is about her friends too - three robotic, coiffed and prim couples, urbane cool' people (I suppose that's what you call people who live their lives at Sunday brunches and fine dine restaurants), and mouth lines like a computer program. Despite their untold riches and urban cool origins, their prime focus is to force Alia to get hitched. Despite being her friends, they say things like "You will grow alone and be single, while we take our kids to school together." Friends like that, I would unfriend promptly, but Alia takes it all with a gritted teeth smile, and plans a way out - she will create a Mr Riight' to shut her friends up!
Enter Barun Sobti as Sukhi, a loud, brash, Punjabi Munda from New Delhi aspiring to be an actor; who Alia hasn't spoken to once; but whose photograph she just randomly pulls out of her designer purse, and shows off to her friends' as her Mr Riight'. Yeah, the writing's that immature. And the dialogues could impact you either way, they make you cringe or make you laugh hysterically.
Thus begins a journey of refining Sukhi to meet her standards, his hero like entry into her friends circle of urban robots, mixed signals amongst couples, and a forced plot point where everyone basically breaks up, and "it's all Alia's fault". I suppose teenage clichs are the best resort to lock and load a lame script that's headed nowhere. And in the end, the urbane cool quotient jumps up a notch, whereby one of Alia's friends chooses to be a single mom with lan, and another, divorces her husband to find herself (by the way, law courts are miraculously fast tracked in the film, the character will wrap up her divorce proceedings in a week! Wheee!)
Making a romantic comedy with multiple characters requires refined writing and sensitive execution onscreen with nuanced acting.
Main Aur Mr Riight' sporadically reminded me of, Four Weddings and a Funeral', an evergreen film that stands out for it's quiet, subtle handling of four friends who have entirely different beliefs about love & marriage. In this one, dialogues like, Enough is enough, now get back to being my wife', by a character actor who is less emotive than a dining table chair, only make you laugh. Issues like being a single mother, even for this (imagined) super urbane section of society, requires smart execution & convincing acting. That each robotic couple in the film argues before their friends only, and never at home, only reiterates my argument for refined writing & execution.
But in this amateurish film, one talent shines through. Barun Sobti is worth watching out for- he is natural, manages to escape the trappings of juvenile dialogues & an unimaginative script, and enacts Sukhi with flair. It's the only performance that redeems this otherwise lame film. The director seems to have forgotten to program expressions into Shenaz Treasurywalla. The artwork and styling are nice, if interior decoration's your thing for going to the movies. An interesting technique here are the hilarious auditions that tie up the (multiple) loose ends of the film as interludes..
Watch if you are a Barun Sobti fan, and you won't be disappointed. Otherwise, rent a dvd of a classic romantic comedy like my favourite Four Weddings and a Funeral', When Harry Met Sally', or Notting Hill' instead. Now those are true blue romantic comedies!
Edited by harith25 - 9 years ago
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Main Aur Mr Riight review
Star Cast: Shenaz Treasurywala, Barun Sobti
Director: Adeeb Rais
Miss Perfect looking for Mr Right: standard rom com schtick gets played out in Main Aur Mr Riight, with a couple of nice touches, but it never lifts off the screen.
Aliya (Shenaz Treasurywala) is a Bollywood casting agent with not a hair out of place, nor a crease in her dress. Her search takes her through fruitless dates with artless men to no, as they say, avail.
Clearly, she is ripe for the opposites attract' cliche, and when struggling actor Sukhi (Barun Sobti) shows up in her office with a hearty Punjabi accent and crude sense of humour, we know where this is headed.
This takes more than two long hours which leave us impatient. In between there are conversations between Aliya and her pals " couples going through commitment issues, incipient fatherhood issues, and so on" but except for a few sequences, everything seems scripted, and silly.
And the film takes the leading lady's job description a bit too seriously, by giving us endless takes of strugglers trying their hand at acting'. We end up, like her, grimacing and clutching her head.
I liked that Shenaz Treasurywalas character is allowed to have a little thing with a guy in their group, and that a lonely wife moves on with a former love, leaving the always busy-busy spouse to his devices. Sobti gets the hungry-actor look right, but the smiley Treasurywala needed to be deeper.
So did the film.
One and a half stars
Ratings :
There have been many Hindi films where a hero is hired by the rich heroine to play her lover or husband in order to fool or convince some family members. Films like 'Manchali', 'Agreement', 'Ghar Ho Toh Aisa' and a few more are perfect examples of such type of films. The recent released 'Main Aur Mr.Right' film's promo has a striking resemblance to the above mentioned films but, in a contemporary manner. So let's find out, whether 'Main Aur Mr.Right' will be another typical contract based relation type of film or might surprise us with something fresh, unique and original.
'Main Aur Mr.Right' is story of a casting coordinator Alia (Shenaz Treasurywala) who is looking for her perfect life partner. Her best friends feel that she will never find one and thus, in order to prove them wrong Alia hires a wannabe actor Sukhwinder (Barun Sobti) to act as her perfect boyfriend. Will Alia and Sukhwinder pull this act or might get exposed in front of their friends is what the entire film is all about.
The story has high references with films like "Manchali', 'Agreement, or even films like 'Manpasand', which were inspired by 'My Fair Lady'. The screenplay is weak and super lethargic. The film starts with random auditions of struggling actors and such scenes keep hopping frequently. The movie instead of being a story between Shenaz and Barun, keeps narrating the unwanted tales of their friends, which seemed totally forced and out of the track. There are so many long never ending discussion types of scenes where all the friends keep talking on and on until they bore you to the fullest. One might enjoy the random dates of Shenaz or Barun's stupid antics, but besides these few entertaining moments, there's absolutely no fun in this predictable and boring film. The climax and end credits are like the final nail in the coffin trying to test your patience. The unwanted scenes and tracks dilute the film to its fullest. The camera work is average and unwanted shots of cleavages are portrayed in a shoddy manner. Editing is very lame and looks like the makers must have shot the film with keeping the camera on and thus the scenes bores you to its best.
The music should have been much better and placed properly in the film. There is a song sung and composed by Bappi Lahiri from the film 'Saheb' (Yaar Bina Chain Kaha Re), which will put the original song in a shame, due to his super hamming style of singing.
Director Adeeb Rais brings up a film just like the old wine in a new bottle, where the story if focused only on its lead characters would still have the opportunity of ending up as a decent romantic comedy. Sadly, the overacting by the supporting actors, weak screenplay and even weaker direction makes this movie quite tough to watch. The movie seemed like a television serial where the scenes are super dragged and stretched to its fullest.
Barun Sobti looks cool and does his part with total grace. If this actor is offered a better film, he will do full wonders in it. Sadly, out here due to his weak characterization, he ends up delivering a medium level of performance. Shenaz Treasurywala looked super cute and charming, wished we could have said the same for her character. She slips easily in her character, but due to half baked script, fails to do proper justice to it. Kavi Shastri, Danny Sura and others are wasted. Cameo by Eijaz Khan, Makrand Deshpande and others were fun to watch.
Dum? Well on the story level this movie has a decent story line, but in terms of execution the movie fails to its fullest. This movie has lots of unwanted tracks along with some terrible scenes, due to which the Mr and Miss perfect ends up being Mr & Miss boredom, as that's what the entire film is all about.