Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani

There was a boy and there was a girl and they were best friends. No, there were two boys and there was a girl and they were best friends. And there was some cross-crushing, but they did not fall in love and marry and let the third friend drop off like an unwanted appendage, thank god.
It helped that there was a Deepika Padukone to add an extra angle to what could have turned into a hackneyed and sorry love triangle, of course.
Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani is Bollywood candyfloss, lifted a little beyond average by a smart script and a strict check on tears. There are some of course, which romance comes without any? But like I said, director Ayan Mukherji kept his actors on a tight leash.

Mukherji is smart. Like with his last movie, he sticks to the generation he knows best and raises questions that are likely to rattle it the most. And he crushes that silly adage Bollywood has been tattooing in our minds for ages and ages, ever since a jilted Parvin Dastur yelled at a cowering Bhagyashree “ek ladka ladki kabhi dost nahi bann saktey.”

The chemistry between Ranbir Kapoor, Kalki Koechlin, Aditya Roy Kapur and later , Deepika Padukone reminds one of the ease and comfort we saw in “Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar”, but of course, the later was a different story altogether. But what a movie!

As for Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, we have it all: we have attractive women and attractive men who travel to exotic places, or don’t. As long as they all look good. We have money, we have love, we have friendship and we have lovely songs. Oh and we have some amazing dancing. So, we have a hit!

The movie isn't going to be remembered as Ranbir Kapoor’s best performance, but it will help him and the others make a lot of money. And, it should be remembered, justifiably, for his dancing. Kapoor’ll never be a Hritik Roshan but what Remo makes him do in this movie is nothing short of spectacular, be it his retro moves to Western (ok, inspired) beats or his perfect expressions while courting Madhuri Dixit to very Indian moves.
Speaking of, our lady never fails to charm, does she?
Nearing fifty, and still the most graceful heroine on screen today. Only, I wish she did not give in to that hand movement in the “Via-agra” song, The Dixit who is confident enough to sportingly dance with a male lead much much younger to her to “Tu sham ki tarha dhal gayi” does not really need vague sleaze to draw the crowds. All she needs to do is smile, we’ve known that since she took the stage as Mohini a very long time ago.

Mukherji throws her at us at the very beginning of the movie, gets us in the mood (thanks Rekha Bharadwaj and Pritam), makes us dance a bit with her (or jiggle in our seats, depending on how shy you are) and then takes us on a journey across the world, while raising some very pertinent-to-working-youngs-but-been-asked-two thousand-times-already questions.

The eternal tussle between home and the world, career and family. In the course of which, Koechlin, Roy Kapur and Padukone all help the distraught hero find his way. They are all largely being themselves: single, working city dwellers, and they are all good actors, so they do their job well. The acting is easy and devoid of any unnecessary drama, the chemistry does not make you cringe. Quite the opposite actually, it is warm and comfortable.

Padukone loses her glasses and turns into her gorgeous self in the process and Koechlin loses her grunge look and wears a very pretty “ghaghra choli”, but then, what else is growing up?

Which, however, I won’t say Mukherji did with this one, despite the movie being a decently good watch. I mean, he debuted with “Wake up Sid” and then slipped into kind of formulaic candyfloss. But then one understands the need to make money and get some fame. As long as that money (ours, from the tickets) is invested back into another Sid-like venture in the next.

In the meanwhile, romance and song and dance lovers (me included) will watch this one one more time and this year’s Diwali will have many stage shows of “Dilliwali Girlfriend” and “Balam Pichkari”.
But then if they spice up a movie with not one but three such numbers, can you blame the audience?