Raabta
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti Sanon, Jim Sarbh, Varun Sharma
Rated: 5/10
Raabta is a perfect example of wasted effort, films which attempt but do not know how to combust a full-blooded romance, films that stray from being a heartbeat they are originally meant to be, somewhere down the line developing an inherent lack of faith in their core subject. The result in RaabtaIJ A slide into what you erroneously categorise as a ‘romantic thriller’, only with very little thrills in a drama needlessly sliding into another life and another time.
Come to think of it, Sushan Singh Rajput as Shiv and Kriti Sanon as Saira do pretty well as modern beings in a modern relationship in a picturesque Budapest. There is fun and frolic, there is humour, there is relatability and there is chemistry between the two and their love bytes. Rajput does a decent job as a dil-phenk banker with Punjabi moorings. Sanon is charming, vivacious and very likeable as the pastry-maker living alone. Between the two of them, there is a lot to love in the film. But it’s all so shortlived and fails to survive the interval.
In comes a villain, previous life and all the jazz that takes away from the till-then breezy and engaging romance completely. And, the turn of events is so sudden that the audience are left wondering why they needed to be forced into a CGI action-oriented blunder from the happy space they had cushioned themselves in through the romance that was budding pretty well.
For one, the villain in Zak (played by the very middle-eastern looking Jim Sarbh of the Neerja fame) is so artificial and affected that you feel like slapping the drawl out of him. He is uncomfortable and almost an alien in his suit. Maybe a less edgy villain would have been the thing to do, especially with the romance cruising in top gear.
After yet another romance going astray despite a good musical score, one wonders when a real and pulsating love story will be stitched up by Bollywood. Nikhil Advani, are you reading thisIJ