I started out with a pretty bleak expectation, to be honest, but it was not all that bad after a 2+ hours.
Though I was very impressed the ad-man Pradeep Sarkar's first outing, Parineeta. It was one of the best of that year. I began with expectations of good cinematography. But as the movie unfolded, it was hard to disregard the story to watch each and every frame! Certainly the frames, esp the Benaras ghat scenes were very artistically done. One can be pretty much sure of artistic delight of Pradeep Sarkar's penchant for visuals.
Acting wise, it's Rani Mukherjee's solo movie. I don't remember seeing her in a pivotal role in any film. So much so that, her co-star Abhishek Bachchan almost seems a gust appearance in the movie. Kunal Kapoor does good job in his role. (Why does every working professional hero/heroine in the Hindi movies have to do a job in ad-industry?) Konkana SenSharma - the only character I thought was a miscast. A big fan of her, almost all her movies - but her role in this movie looks sorta fake! Its not matter of the middle-class-family daughter in Benaras or working professional (ad-industry, of course) in Bombay. For that matter, last year, Vishaal Bharadwaj shot her beautifully in Omkara! I just think she is not commercial-movie-type. She seems very fake, when trying to dance or sing.
Shantanu Moitra's music is passable. 'Hum to aise hain bhaiyya' is hummable by the time you finish watching the movie, because it keeps playing in the movie throughout. This is a typical filmy album, with few happy, a dance number, a sad song, the usual fair. The only song really stands out is the sort of hip-hop number with Mita Vashisth's voice with Shubha Mudgal's rendition of Manna Dey's old classic, 'Laaga chunari mein daag'.
Lastly, I am truly happy for Pradeep Sarkar. Here's a man, who came to the industry very late in his career, but I am glad he did. In fact, I think going to Switzerland for Yash Chopra's movies is a must, so he does! But really, he doesn't need to go abroad to make his visuals appealing, he has enough colors in his desi palette to fill the canvas!
