Cast: AyushmannKhurrana, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor
Direction: NupurAsthana
Direction: NupurAsthana
Rating: **
Remember the Mithun Chakraborty-Padmini Kolhapure starrer, Pyar Jhukta Nahin? When the poor man (played by Mithun) approaches Padmini's rich father (Danny Denzongpa) who then jeers at him for not earning enough to be able to take care of his daughter? Well, that was back in 1985 and three decades and innumerable such movies later, Bewakoofiyan has the same 'ghisa-pita' poor boy-rich girl story. Yes, there is one difference: here, the girl also earns more than the boy. But this seems like a cosmetic difference because the girl's career seems totally dispensable considering that she is ready to chuck any lucrative offer or promotion for the love of her life and a blissful marriage. Ironically, this is a film directed by a woman (Nupur Asthana of the TV show, Hip Hip Hurray fame).
Ayushmann Khurrana plays Mohit Chaddha, a senior marketing executive in an airline company, and Sonam Kapoor plays Mayera, a big shot (like I said earlier, her position is apparently not important enough to be specified in the film) in a bank. Life is good for this pair of obviously materialistic lovebirds, who date between buying Steve Madden shoes for Mayera and getting high on gold and platinum credit cards. Mayera's father, VK Sehgal (Rishi Kapoor) is a recently-retired IAS officer; he is a tough guy and he is not too happy with his daughter's choice of husband.
Soon after, Mohit loses his job and things begin to get worse.
In the beginning, the film seems to hold promise as one of those slice-of-life, easily relateable films. And it appears to tackle the malaise of a male ego being hurt when a woman earns more than him. But unfortunately, it turns out to be anything but that. The story soon loses steam and moves at an agonisingly slow pace as the couple struggles with their financial problems. Sonam has a caricature of a role, where she is required to grin widely and be the cute, caring girlfriend and daughter. Perhaps it's time for her to get out of this mould if she wants to get anywhere near being taken seriously as an actress.
Ayushmann Khurrana is competent but stuck in a situation where he can't do too much to salvage the situation. Rishi Kapoor hams once in a while, but mostly does a good job as an overprotective father.
The worst thing about this film is its story (Habib Faisal). It seems like some sequences have been put together hurriedly to just keep the story going and create some drama. Mayera rejects a job offer in Dubai, but later on, when she wants to accept it, her boss says, "Oh, someone else will be joining next week, but if you can reach before him and work hard, you will get the job." Clearly, more thought has been put into what Mayera will be wearing at work than knowing about how corporate companies function. Wish we knew our priorities better when we did our 'homework' for a film.
This plain vanilla film is easily forgettable.