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Friday, April 26, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD LIFE PARTNER
EDITOR'S PICK
Govinda brings the house down in `Life Partner` (IANS Film Review - Rating:**)
Some of the writing invested into this not-bad comic look at the roller-coaster called marriage is surprisingly sharp.
For example, there`s this Gujarati family lorded over by a tycoon (Darshan Jariwala) in Cape Town who remains rigidly rooted to conventions that ended 50 years ago. Back home in Gujarat a modern business family run by a liberal patriarch (Vikram Gokhale) ends up giving his daughter (Prachi Desai) to the NRI tycoon`s mousy son (Tusshar Kapoor). The conflict that ensues is likeable and in a fully filmy way, believable.
Elsewhere this spoilt rich girl (Genelia) with a father (Anupam Kher), who never bothered to discipline her, gets herself a domesticated husband who does all the work while she attends to various disastrous hobbies.
Genelia as the destructive daughter gets to sink her teeth into a meaty part.
Witty and sometimes genuinely funny, Life Partner is a light bubbly take on the pitfalls of various kinds of marriages, arranged or otherwise, and how to avoid perils of getting into a marital alliance where the partners know nothing about the future.
While Genelia is happily over-the-top, Prachi in the rounded sensible part of a Gujarati girl standing up to her autocratic father-in-law does well for herself. Of the two young leading men, Tusshar as the timid believer in virginity as a gift to his bride suits his part and does at least one sequence when he bursts into tears after Prachi accepts his proposal with tonal correctness.
But it is Govinda as the frazzled divorce lawyer who brings the house down. Govinda gives the kind of tongue-in-cheek performance that once made him the number one choice for roles that required comic interpretations of social problems. He works well in combination with every actor in this film, wooden or hammy.
Rumi Jaffrey`s direction is most of the time even in tone. But the last half hour with its screeching sermonizing gets on to slippery ground. Nonetheless Life Partner is a decent inoffensive marital comedy mostly free of double-meanings.
Actress Prachi Desai, who has completed a decade in the Hindi film industry, says Bollywood does give due and credit to everyone at some point.Read More
Govinda: as Jeet Oberoi
The divorce lawyer extraordinaire, who has the knack to separate even two
stone statues, the ladies can`t resist his charm or his irreverent wit, He
does not believe in spending his life with just his loved one, he believes
in spending time with many loved ones. Single women are just not his style,
he would rather spend his time `consoling` the women he has just helped...
to get divorced! After all, they need someone to help them through this emotional
phase.
Fardeen Khan: as Karan Malhotra
Love marriage is the perfect bet... Karan believes that love marriages
are the way to go. After all, if you know each and everything about your partner
before settling down with her, how could anything go wrong? His lady means
the world to him.
Genelia D`souza: as Sanjana Jugran
Sanjana believes that marriage is just the official union between two people
who have already chosen to spend their lives together. Change in marital status
doesn`t signify a personality makeover for her. She would rather remain the
eternal girl-friend, even after marriage...
Tusshar Kapoor: as Bhavesh Patel
Dating? ... My marriage will be arranged and I`ll love my wife, no matter
what...
Bhavesh is an obedient son, who will never go against his family`s wishes. He staunchly supports monogamy, and has all his romance reserved for his wife. His belief - `Marriages are made in heaven and arranged on earth.` The one thing that he is absolutely sure of is the success of his marriage. After all, arranged marriages have had a proven track record in his family!!!
Prachi Desai: as Prachi Jadeja
Prachi is a girl with strength, dignity and poise. A home-maker who cares
for the people around her, she will always stand by the commitments she makes
and the decisions she takes. Her expectations from a life partner are that
he should be supportive, understanding and true to his words.
Synopsis
Companionship, togetherness, love... marriage; the phrase `Life Partner` has different connotations for different people. There is someone made for everyone, including Karan, Bhavesh and Jeet.
Karan (Fardeen Khan) and Sanjana (Genelia D`Souza) are madly in love with each other. Marriage is the next step to cement their relationship. But is `love marriage` the right way to be?
For Bhavesh (Tusshar Kapoor), his life partner, Prachi (Prachi Desai) comes with the approval of his family. But is `arranged marriage` the way forward? Is it right to prioritize family over marriage? Does Prachi have to prove herself as a worthy daughter-in-law to qualify as an ideal wife?
Jeet (Govinda) is an accomplished divorce lawyer who does not believe in the institution of marriage. He can`t be monogamous and is often responsible for his getting his clients divorced. But is `no marriage` the right policy? Will Jeet ever find a partner and accept matrimony?
`Life Partner` is about three protagonists struggling on the marital marathon but on different tracks - three good friends with three different approaches to life.
Produced by noted director duo Abbas-Mustan, shot in plush South Africa, and directed by comedy king, Rumi Jafri, `Life Partner` is a non-stop laugh riot with its heart in its place.
