A Bollywood movie revolving around only two major characters with its major scenes emphasizing only on their verbal conversations was surely a brave subject to choose for the director Siddharth Anand. But sadly this time too, he follows his same old path of inspired themes and copied scenes and comes out with a film which is tailor made only for the multiplex and college going audience.
Right from the release of its first look, the film gave out few negative signals as its initial poster was straight away a copy of "An Education" (2009) with the genders changed, which was later pulled off due to its criticism. And today on its release, when the movie started on the screen, it's very first scene was exactly a copy of the French movie "Girl on the Bridge" (1999) with again the genders changed. The moment I saw this exactly similar execution of the scene as in the French film, my whole excitement to watch ANJAANA ANJAANI vanished into the thin air and I simply felt like cheated.
I agree 90% of the audience would surely be not aware of this truth and neither would they be interested in knowing about it. But it does affect my watching experience of a movie when I see an entire sequence simply lifted from another source of World Cinema, without any kind of courtesy note or acknowledgment. So for me, ANJAANA ANJAANI failed from that very moment and it is simply made on the same formula of Siddharth Anand, which more or less remains dependent on ingredients taken from its VARIOUS SORUCES. Though after its opening lifted scene, the film moves on to different path talking about the relationship between the lead pair. But undeniably its main subject and theme is quite close to the original "Girl On The Bridge" on the whole (with also a reference to "The Bucket List").
Moving ahead of this inspirational angle, ANJAANA ANJAANI does try to incorporate something fresh on the screen, with only the two lead characters in its script till the end. But the problem is that along with its novel theme, the director still keeps clinging to the ages old love formulas of Hindi Cinema, wherein the realization of true love comes towards the climax and the movie ends as usual with a rushing airport sequence. Now this raises a logical question that if we are intelligent enough to get inspired from such beautiful masterpieces made in the other parts of the world, then why we keep on adding our own rotten and overused formulas into it which totally ruin an otherwise good project in the end. The process simply takes away the beauty of the subject and results in a poor project in comparison to its worth watching original.
On a positive note, ANJAANA ANJAANI has surely got some original entertaining moments showcasing few bold discussions going on between the couple. But these moments are not consistent throughout the movie and there are several dull moments too which spoil the spirit of the movie as a whole. The second half is a bit lengthy and should have been edited severely to leave a more solid impact on the viewers.
Musically, the film has only two tracks which score above the rest and as I felt the background music was more enjoyable then the whole soundtrack. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's song has now become a must for every good budget movie irrespective of the fact that whether his voice suits on any character in the film or not. But still he somehow manages to score in his most of the tracks, which is remarkable as an artist. Cinematography is one of those rare aces in the movie along with its eye catching costume designing.
Collectively, ANJAANA ANJAANI can only be watched for Priyanka and Ranbir alone as they remain the soul of the film, with their brilliant, realistic performances of the Losers. The first half certainly is more entertaining than the second having the few worth watching moments for the youth. Both Priyanka and Ranbir once again prove their mettle with this movie and confidently declare that they can easily carry off a project on their shoulders alone without the help of any major supporting cast. But in absence of an adequate, strong and emotional script, their performances unfortunately just remain floating on the surface. As a surprise package, Zyed Khan is also there acting seriously in some scenes along with Priyanka.
However, the film once again made me think that when the directors choose an inspired subject for their films or when they shoot an exactly similar sequence, secretly taken from another source, then do they inform this truth to their leading stars or they keep them in dark forever?
Anyway, ANJAANA ANJAANI couldn't impress me a lot as it was not based on an original thought and lacked a fine execution but you may like it if you are a fan of Priyanka and Ranbir.
