Movie Review: Bewakoofiyaan


Movie Review: Bewakoofiyaan
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor
Director: Nupur Asthana

Mohit is a pink-slipped MBA looking for a job. Myra is his girlfriend with an eye for designer footwear. And ‘Bewakoofiyaan’ is an unfortunate title in search of a film.

This one could also have been called “How to knit a grim subject like recession in a frothy Yashraj rom com and not go anywhere with it”. Losing a job can be a bummer. Ambitious airline executive Mohit Chaddha (Ayushmann Khurrana) starts getting shaky in the love department as soon as he goes down in the employment stakes. How will Myra handle it? More importantly, how will her father?

This plot point could have led the film into exploring the tricky terrain of joblessness, gender expectations, and rocky relationships. Done well, it could have been revealing and rewarding: how does a guy feel when his girl gives him a hand-out; how does a girl feel when she has to keep doing it and not let him feel like a loser? But ‘Bewakoofiyaan’ spends most of its time trying to showcase a slew of brands, get us to smile at the antics of the father of the bride which are singularly unfunny, and to convince us that its leading lady can helm an entire film.

V K Sehgal (Rishi Kapoor) is an about-to-retire senior Dilli babu with a regulation white Ambi, and the habit of throwing about the names of the ‘higher-ups’ he knows. He also treats his daughter Myra (Sonam), all grown up and gainfully employed, like a twit who isn’t capable of knowing her mind about whom she should marry. The fellow has to prove himself, he thunders, like a heavy-handed ‘baap’ from an old style ‘ma-pitaji’ film.

If love is indeed all you need, and that is presumably why these two got together in the first place, then why all this blather? Is Myra the shoe-hound and the lover of expensive rock concerts the kind of girl who only wants her boyfriend’s credit card? Is Mohit an arrogant jerk who has to be taught some hard lessons before he comes to heel? These ideas, and their predictable resolutions, float around confusedly in a meandering story.

Sonam is one of the few Bollywood denizens who wears her clothes beautifully, and doesn’t let them wear her. Her elegantly-assembled outfits are a joy. But acting is a whole different thing. Neither the veteran Kapoor nor the couple- of-films-old Khurrana manage to lift off the screen: they are as flat as the film.

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