2 STATES

I am dying '2 State s' o much about 2 States!

It is a undoubtedly a predictable love story fraught with clichés not limited to the reticent 'south indians', the loud punjabis, the girl goes to work for 'Sunsilk' while the boy takes up the bank. But we could loosen the noose around the moviemakers' neck as the movie is taken up almost line by line from the book. The movie is by no means an intellectual endeavor. And the creative team makes no such claims either.

Would I still recommend it? Yes! Why? For Arjun Kapoor, who summons a world full of pain in his eyes when he tells Ananya that without her 'Main to barbaad ho jaaonga'. For Alia Bhatt, who has yet to pick up the diva mannerisms from bollywood and actually essays the character in an unpretentious fresh way. For Ronit Roy, who is one of the most written away actors of his generation but who is simply brilliant. For Amrita who so aptly portrays the woman torn between being an unhappy wife yet a dutiful mother. For the cinematography which doesn't overtly scream 'look at me' but is covertly brilliant. And lastly for Manish Malhotra who i think really knows how to bring out the best of Alia's luminous beauty. 

Krish Malhotra tells Ananya that he wants to write a book in which the 'story is the hero'. Today however I feel that in a movie the character is the hero. Thank god Shahrukh or Ranbir or Saif, who were originally considered for the role of Krish, didn't get cast. There was a time long back when we loved our stars for their mannerisms, be it Dev Anand's little nods, Rajesh Khanna's head tilts or Shatrughan's 'khamosh'. In the truest sense, the characters were not the heros there - the actors and their mannerisms were. Arjun Kapoor becomes the character, not letting his mannerisms take over. He can be both edgy (as in Aurangzeb and Ishaqzaade) and soft (as in this movie) with equal ease. I think he's a talent to be reckoned with.

At the end of the movie I thought to myself 'finally.. a normal movie' as against the dysfunctional movies that seem to have caught our fancy of late. Don't get me wrong. I love me my dysfunctional movies - DevD, Honeymoon travels, Barfee and the likes. But once in a while I like to come home from a movie smiling and warm in the heart.