In the present Hindi-movie scenario, if a director decides to make a film talking about young boys and girls in schools, colleges or re- unions then he or she is directly competing with an enjoyable fantasy world already established as the benchmark by the likes of Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar and more. So anything less than that is sure going to look pale unless it has something extremely important or novel to offer to its audience. And since PURANI JEANS neither takes you into that over the top glossy world nor has anything new to say with the same old 2 boy-1 girl storyline executed incompetently, it miserably falls flat and is not able to take any advantage of its few soothing songs too composed melodiously.
Strangely opening with a sad sequence and a song right away, the film steps on the wrong foot in the beginning itself, confusing the young ones expecting an energetic start as promoted. Next it keeps moving at a very lethargic pace with no interesting build up, twists, tensions or great sequences to pull you in. Talking about a group of boys who call themselves 'Kasauli Cowboys', it has a sub-plot of a disturbed mother and a clichéd subject wherein the two lead characters fall in love with the same girl. As usual one of the boys is vocal about his feelings and the other is not leading to further complications with a sudden twist.
Hence it has nothing which we haven't seen before and that too presented quite casually by the debut director Tanushri Chattrji Basu,who questionably chooses such an overused theme for her first movie.
Actually certain scenes in the film force you to rate it as a immature attempt. For instance, the story is supposedly based in Kasuali but there are several Punjabi characters thrown in just for the sake of it, with a particular one even reminding you ofFUKREY's Choocha. The boys are taking sick oaths on sex, making comments on blondes and then also refusing to take the responsibility of a pregnant girlfriend, forcing her to abort. The amateurish approach can also be strongly felt when a voice in the song doesn't even match the character singing it on the screen and yet the young actors try hard to do their best in the given roles. However the truth remains that they still have to learn a lot in this particular field including the pretty girl, Izabelle who has got the looks but lacks the skills. The veterans do their job as required but cinematography and background score fail to lift it any higher despite being decent.
In all, Ram Sampath as the music composer is the only winner in the film, offering some fine tracks and therefore its once again the same story like in the few weeks old YAARIAN which also had some good songs and nothing else. Yet to give the director her due, this is certainly one step better than YAARIAN not falling down to the level of being silly.
