Break Ke Baad

Debutant director Danish Aslam serves us disappointing fare in Break Ke Baad this weekend - a crisp first half followed by a damp and soggy second half. The teekha first half has Deepika's sizzling act as Aaliya - bringing some life & vitality to her usually expressionless face. Imran plays the chocolate boy lover Abhay – a role he has done admirably in the past and is the likable meethi chutney. Together, against my expectation, they both produce a very likable dish and have a crackling on screen chemistry. However, that spark between them is completely doused by the insipid writing in the second half.

The opening credits are a montage of two six year olds falling in love as they grow up, with a shared passion of Hindi movies. The girl grows up to be the impetuous Aaliya who is full of life, but sometimes does not care about anyone but herself. Abhay is the ultra-sweet guy who tolerates all her tantrums and still adores her. Maybe because he realizes he needs her more than she does. However, when Aaliya decides to fly off to Australia to study, the relationship cant take the strain and the 'break' happens.

This is where the movie goes to dogs – as it starts focussing more on other characters and side-plots more than the lead pair. Sharmila Tagore as Aaliya's mother heads a useless track about the ills of the world of showbiz. She also seals my belief that yesteryear's charming heroines lose their expressive faces in the process of ageing (maybe to botox). And hence are better staying alive in old movie reruns rather than acting in newer movies. Jaya Bhaduri, Hema Malini and now Sharmila Tagore – their faces struggle to convey different emotions – and end up looking almost similar in all scenes.

The movie meanders along for quite a while before becoming a coming-of- age movie for both Aaliya and Abhay. And this is the movie's biggest failure – since the scriptwriter clearly doesn't have the maturity to handle this topic as much as he has a handle on romance. The climax is stupid even by the low standards of rom-coms – and which is where you write the movie off as a failure

PS - Something struck me a couple of days after I watched the movie – when you watch the movie, you can tell me if I was wrong or right. I thought Aaliya's character and idiosyncrasies were heavily based on Jab We Met's Geet . None of the Bhatinda Punjabi madness, but a calculated effort by the makers to use that quirkiness and happy-go-lucky nature. But then again, Geet was a million times better than Aaliya would ever be.

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Break ke Baad is not a movie that many people will be able to relate to but some definitely will. It is not particularly entertaining but in a juvenile way it does deal with some situations that are probably relevant with a lot of Gen Y couples. Aaliyah is a girl who wants everything in life without really bothering about anyone around her. This fact is shown by some irrelevant details like making her smoke a cigar, talk trash and get drunk in cinema halls but then bollywood movies have never been subtle. Diametrically opposite in personality is her childhood boyfriend who is sensitive , caring , selfless to the point that he spoils her completely - of course it was necessary to show his inclination towards cooking because businessmen are rarely sensitive. A very genuine rooftop scene reveals their very skewed relationship. Eventually Aaliyah wants to pursue with her ambitions so we know a break up is evident. She wants to move on he wants to hold on...and so it goes on and on...and you know it is getting confusing. The director drives home a lot of points all summed up in intelligent dialogues by everyone who seem to know whats up with the two protagonists except they themselves... Finally they decide to grow up so that they audience can call it a love story and go home...

Danish Aslam's 'Break Ke Baad' is an average attempt, which tries to be super-cool, but falls flat. The characters appear confused after a certain point, the writing gets hyper, so hyper, that it even culminates unconvincingly.

'Break Ke Baad' is about a couple, who take a Break from their decade old relationship. It's the chick who decides to do so. From there on, it's just how the boy tries to bring back things properly.

The idea is fresh, and to give the writer-director his due, he even successfully starts the film. The first 30-35 minutes to hold your attention, and you expect the graph to just go upper. Sadly, the second hour, is a total mess. The writing isn't tight from there on, and even it's characters begin to bore. As far as the climax, it's the weakest link. It leaves no impact whatsoever!

Music by Vishal-Shekhar is cool, and so is Deepika Padukone's performance. Imran Khan, however, doesn't leave an impression. The supporting cast lend able support.

On the whole, An exciting idea gone wrong!

After watching numerous mediocre romantic projects releases recently, here is one more similar kind of lifeless product from the house of Kunal Kohli. Once again coming from a debutant director, Danish Aslam, the film raises a valid question that why a first time director decides to make his debut movie on such boring, uninteresting and sleepy kind of script which has nothing new or fresh to offer to its viewers.

Apart from this I made two conclusions after watching "Break Ke Baad". One, that Imran Khan has stopped taking any advice from his perfectionist senior Aamir Khan, who earlier reportedly used to take a keen interest in his career. Imran's choice of projects after Aamir Khan's produced "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na" clearly gives us the indication of his understanding and judgment of various projects & scripts. With no Hit Project post his debut movie, Imran now really needs to sit back and review his career seriously.

The second conclusion is about the leading lady Deepika Padukone, who I think is there in the industry only to make some quick money and then walk on to her marriage plans. With a lot more to learn in the acting department, Deepika looks almost the same in her every new movie and also has the same kind of act to offer. In fact its quite silly of both Imran and Deepika to sign "Break Ke Baad" which more or less revolves around the same kind of theme exploited in their previous movies such as JTYJN and LOVE AAJ KAL. So, after watching BKB one can only assume that either both the lead actors signed this movie without reading the script or they don't have any kind of script sense at all.

Apart from the completely outdated, overused and a routine storyline, the film hasn't got a single good scene to impress the viewer. Progressing at a very boring pace right from its first reel, the characters keep moving on the screen in their cool revealing dresses but you feel nothing for them till the end. The direction itself has so many flaws in it, which even allows you to have a little nap on your seat in its second half. For example, the story is set in Delhi and the lead pair reaches the mountains to have their adventures rides just in few hours and then return to their home in the same day itself (as if Delhi was a two hour drive from the mountains). And Deepika calling her mother by her name seems completely out of place and is quite irritating too.

Actually Danish Aslam has made the film keeping in mind the western culture and its casual relationship styles prevailing between a boy and a girl. But his attempt falls flat when it comes to the subject of sex between his two lead characters. His script shows a boy and a girl being friends from their childhood days. Even when they transform into a young boy and girl they still enjoy the same kind of cool relationship between them without any kind of shyness. Ironically both Imran & Deepika talk, walk and behave like two mature lovers throughout, wherein they can even touch, kiss and cuddle each other any moment as they like. But yet as per the Indian Tradition they still haven't gone physical. Now that was plain unbelievable considering the setting, background and narration of the movie. Had it been an English movie, they would have done that in the first half itself and that too without any guilt or regret. But since it was a Hindi movie, they cannot do that.

The point I want to make is that our directors are walking on a dual path today which doesn't allow them to come up with some bold and intelligent movies close to the reality. In the current BREAK KE BAAD, the director is OK with showing a western kind of relationship between a young boy and girl but at the same time he is not ready to show that they can even go physical. So at one end he wants to copy from the West, but on the other also wants to make a film for the Indian audience, keeping their cultural tradition alive, which is not an easy path to walk on. Falling in the same dilemma, BKB is a complete washout and has no relief moments even in its few songs. Vishal-Shekhar deliver an average sort of soundtrack which lacks the melody and is disappointing. Though the film scores fine in its Cinematography but in the casting department it fails to take advantage of many talented people such as Sharmila Tagore, Shahana Goswami, Lillete Dubey and Navin Nischal. Yudhishtir also overacts as the sex driven housemate.

As far as the lead pair is concerned I didn't find anything to write about the acts of both Imran and Deepika. They gave me nothing fresh or better than their last films. As a matter of fact in BREAK KE BAAD, the actors on the screen look as confused as the director and the writer standing behind the screen. Hence everyone should essentially take a break from watching this underworked venture and if you really want to see Deepika in her cools shorts then do watch it but at your own risk.

Good editing, and transitions, the song were quite lovely and Imran Khan as well. ;)

A bit unrealistic but a goooood watch nonetheless.

Okay good. Can watch it.