JODI BREAKERS: THE ODD COUPLE

                             (Also published in :http://www.fwa.co.in/SitePages/index.aspx)

 Instantly, while trying really hard to sit through the first half of the film, all sorts of bad puns come to the mind. But you want to keep in mind that this comes from writer and director, Ashwini Choudhary  whose debut  Haryanvi film “Laado” won the Golden Lotus award.

 So you hope for the best and brace yourself for corny lines(dialogue writer, Aakash Kaushik) like “An Old Monk once said you must keep the Black Dog within you under control..”  mouthed by strange-planet-accent boy with ‘unusual fracture’, Omi Vaidya. Followed by divorcee Madhavan’s now happy, now cynic attitude (maybe another ‘good boy,bad boy’- title of the director’s previous film) willingly drowning into Bipasha’s cute, dreamy eyed life views.

So here is a brief how-to list for all fizz, no drink, mock‘tale’.

First, put in a song named after the heroine.. “Bips you got the eyes, you got the lips;
now c'mon shake shake shake you hips.. Aaja main sikha doon pyaar ki bhasha
Bipasha …Bipasha..”
Next, make a good promo that promises to deliver something interesting and different like a couple out there helping other couples break up.

 Next, cast an odd couple and tweak some more interest. So far so good.

 Now that’s done and one doesn’t know how to take this forward, give a twist to the story by bringing in an ex as the vamp to break our cute teeny bopper jodi. Rope in another hot couple, add one more love story, add some butt jokes (the heart is the new bum), potty jokes, repeat speech jokes from “3 Idiots” (Omi Vaidya as Baba Kaamdev), add a car named ‘Horny’ and make Bipasha sizzle in a song “Main hoon Bipasha” and there, a romantic comedy is ready for the box office.

Sid (Madhavan) has just got divorced and is happy to be a free man though he has to pay a fat alimony. To get the required money, he starts a business that helps others divorce. He and Sonali (Bipasha) get together at a bar (what’s with drunk couples in every movie), and form a partnership. Some rapidly easy Jodi breaking deals later, they go to Greece and expectantly fall in love. A phone rings dramatically at the interval point and here comes  the real jodi breaker. Enters sexy Ms Vamp, the Ex factor, Mrinalini Sharma who keeps you distracted with her heavily fringed wig. Post interval, you hope against hope that the film will engross you more than the popcorn. Sadly, it  simply takes you from Greece to Goa and moves to juvenile jodi making methods that make you  wish that the makers had remembered a Hindi line, “shaadi koi gudde guddiyon ka khel nahin”. Then comes one redeeming factor that eventually shines out like the diamond ring on Bipasha’s finger, especially when you are reeling under oh-so-clever climax scenes of HIV positive blood reports. One line that  makes  you sit up and take notice, right in the end. There is an interesting dialogue from Madhavan that says that innumerable flings, “6 relationships aur ek galat shaadi ke baad mujhe apni soul mate mili hai.” There lies good material for a story with much to be explored. The idea that a good relationship doesn’t come by easily and should be worked upon, is pretty relevant today.

The core problem lies in the lack of a strong central conflict. The appearance of a blackmailing ex wife and Bipasha’s objection to Madhavan’s mistake doesn’t seem to be convincing enough to keep them apart. It might have worked if  Madhavan as completely cold and heartless and Bipasha as a die-hard romantic, went beyond stereotypes. Too much time devoted to Milind’s love story also takes away from the central romance.

There are several alternatives the story could have followed. The story starts with the couple believing that divorce is a better option than living in a marriage. If  they had stuck to this, it would make for a very interesting  and relevant plot for today’s times. Instead, it decided to play safe and placed its bet on the marriage card and turned the characters from jodi breakers to jodi makers. Or perhaps it might have helped if the story, taking on from the premise that involves divorce, could have focused on the value of commitment and what it takes to keep a marriage going. When the film turns the protagonist, Madhavan into wanting to be a better man by helping a couple patch up, it might be interesting to explore his own character and role in the failure of his marriage rather than giving a convenient stereotype label of a rich society, status conscious, gold digger to his ex wife. Instead the film takes a simplistic course of him trying to salvage his conscience by coming up with juvenile ideas like  giving Maggie Noodles mixed with medicine to Milind Soman to induce vomiting and hence bring out concern from his hurt and uncommunicative wife. If the intention of the film was to simply take a comical dig into breaking marriages and Madhavan’s character being involved in it, it could also take some tips from David Dhawan comedies and go all out in making this a harmless fun ride. It tries to do so in the beginning with the help of Omi Vaidya’s cheesy  character but changes its tone from comedy to romance to drama and ends up losing what could be a perfectly good plot.

Madhavan, Bipasha and Milind Soman deserve a special mention. Not because they have done any kind of outstanding work but because they have really tried and it shows. It’s easy to act well if you have  well fleshed out characters to play like the ones in “The Dirty Picture” or the recent “Ek Main aur Ekk Tu”. It’s not easy to do teeny bopper, long drawn out cute boy-girl pouting scenes discussing a kiss for more than 10 minutes when you are well into your 30s. So here goes a teen kiss award to Madhavan and Bipasha. Next, the sincerity award goes to Milind Soman who with his sun kissed skin and intense eyes, makes his presence felt not just with his chiseled looks but also with his acting. He manages to look sufficiently in love with the wooden Dipannita Sharma, who fails to compete even with your cane or teak furniture. Having delivered extremely fine performances in Marathi national award winning films like Gandha, it’s not surprising to see Milind in his element here. Finally, a Miss Stunning award to Bipasha Basu who probably looks her best in the film and has done a shade better in the acting area.

Besides the more popular ‘Bipasha’ number, Salim-Sulaiman along with lyricists Irshad Kamil and Shabbir Ahmed come up with mildly pleasant song tracks, especially “Nahi maaloom hasrat hai, Yaa tu meri mohabbat hai..mujhko teri zaroorat hai” which sounds better in the remix version sung by Rahet Fateh Ali Khan and is written well situationally.   

To get an eyeful of beautiful Greece locales watch this half baked film  that needs more than Helen, a marriage vow scene and an odd couple as a savior.

 The film ends up as monotonous and mechanical as a regular, lackluster marriage that could do better  with a good dose of maturity, passion and energy.