2 States

Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amrita Singh, Revathy, Ronit Roy, Shiv Subrahmanyam

Director: Abhishek Verman

Producer/s: Sajid Nadiadwala, Karan Johar

Writer/s: Chetan Bhagat

Music Director: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Plot: The story is about Krish, a Punjabi boy from Delhi, and Ananya, a Tamilian from Chennai, who hail from two different states of India. They are deeply in love and want to get married, however, the duo face hardships in convincing their parents to approve of their marriage.

Kalank Movie Review Rating: 1/5 Stars (One star! & I’m being ‘too’ generous here)

Star Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Kunal Kemmu, Kiara Advani & still there’s not a single frame without cringe!

Director: Abhishek Varman

What’s Good: If you’re opting to watch this, you have a good 166 minutes to decide what you’re doing with your life!

What’s Bad: Some people will buy the grandness and rush to the theatres, but alas, the days of watching a YRF movie just to drool over Switzerland are long gone!

Loo Break: Challenge yourself by controlling the tsunami of frustrated emotions for 166 minutes! Don’t think of a break this time. If you’re in, you deserve it

Watch or Not?: Don’t even if the visuals attract you! Just skip it and save yourself of some hard-hitting dramatic torture

User Rating:

Set in 1946 in Husnabad which is apparently close to Lahore in the Dharma-world (but in reality, it’s in Telangana), and we can see snow-clad mountains as Zafar (Varun Dhawan) plays the sport of Bullfighting in Spanish-style. Roop (Alia Bhatt) while running after a falling kite starts dancing with the villagers and complains about how hard it was to catch the kite. Satya (Sonakshi Sinha) is dying because of a fatal disease and wants Roop to marry her husband Dev (Aditya Roy Kapur), because why not?

Roop agrees because she has two ‘unmarried’ sisters and her father will not be able to ‘take care’ of them alone. Don’t underestimate Roop! She also has some demands to stay in Dev’s castle after getting married to him and being his second wife – she wants to learn singing from a brothel owner Bahar Begum (Madhuri Dixit). Balraj Chaudhry (Sanjay Dutt) is head of the house and does nothing apart from doing nothing. All of these ingredients mix together to make that thing which our mothers warned not to take from strangers on the road.

Kalank Movie Review: Script Analysis

The script was conceptualised by late Mr Yash Johar 15 years ago and even for that time, all of this is very naive and boring. You’re asking a girl to marry a husband of another dying lady and then get the girl to complain that “Aapke pati toh sirf aapse pyaar karte hai” (Of course girl!). Lousy screenplay can’t make up to stunning visuals! It doesn’t matter how good you look if you are saying shit. I know the movie is set in 1946, but still you can’t use dialogues such as “Kala azeem hai, keemat nahi lagayi jaa sakti” OR “Hum iss guftugu se thak gaye hai” – hum bhi aisi movies se thak gaye hai! (You hear me?).

No matter how much I try to talk about the amazing cinematography (by the master Vinod Pradhan), the ghosts of appalling narration are still haunting me. The editing is so bad because the editor (Shweta Venkat Mathew) forgot to delete the entire movie. I very much enjoyed the “Sab kuch acha tha, lekin tambaaku ne sab barbaad kar diya” (Tobacco) ad in the interval. Alia’s character asks towards the end – “Aapne is kahaani mein kya dekha?” (What did you see in this story?) – I saw a few rich brats coming together and burning millions on screen.

Kalank Movie Review: Star Performance

Varun Dhawan, the man with the 100% of track record at the box office, sleepwalks as Zafar. Why you do this Varun? He slurs his dialogues because they’re way too weird to speak for a normal millennial. Though he tries to carry the film solo on his shoulders, he gets some help from Alia Bhatt. She is the best actress of the current slot and I’ve no two thoughts about the same. But, Kalank is not something you do to portray your talent! (Remember Suits? One for me, one for the organisation) This is not something Alia will do for herself, for sure.

Aditya Roy Kapur gets a very easy role of being on the sets, wear some clothes that royals would wear and deliver some comparatively easy dialogues. Yes, he gets a scene in which he gets to do his favourite thing – drinking alcohol but still he can’t match his talent. Sonakshi Sinha and Sanjay Dutt are ignored throughout as they get minimal screentime (which is a kind of a relief too! We couldn’t afford more than 166 minutes for this film).

Madhuri Dixit’s character is very artificial! She tries to cover the flaws with her grace but nothing works. Kunal Kemmu and Kiara Advani are good in their extended cameos. Kunal gets more screentime than Sanjay Dutt & Sonakshi Sinha.

Rating: 3/5 Stars (Three stars)

Star cast: Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amrita Singh, Revathy, Ronit Roy, Shiv Subrahmanyam

Director: Abhishek Varman

What’s Good: Alia-Arjun’s real and stirring chemistry and the pleasing premise of Bhagat’s story.

What’s Bad: The pace of the film is convenient and the hold is scattered.

Loo break: Nearly None.

Watch or Not?:  2 States is a feel good, romantic comedy which scores for being earthly and grounded. It is never too candyfloss but even with a known, loved and inevitable climax, Abhishek Varman spins an engaging story. Alia and Arjun’s unfeigned and spunky chemistry is winsome but mostly the film is watchable because of its ability to portray known dynamics of culture divide without many glitches. It is easy, breezy and good fun!

User Rating: 

Krish Malhotra (Arjun Kapoor) narrates the story of how he fell in love with Ananya Swaminathan (Alia Bhatt). The first day of IIM-A and Krish lost his heart to the woman who cannot stand bad sambhar. Through friendship and more, the two fall in love with each other and decide to settle down. There begins the problem. Krish’s Punjabi mother won’t accept the Tamilian Ananya and vice versa. With that begins the journey of Krish and Ananya’s endeavour to get their parents smiling on their wedding day. Tough job ay? The movie has in store every hurdle they come across and how they eventually get married.

2 States Review: Script Analysis

For script, Bhagat’s engrossing book supplies a story that audiences have read on the loop. Obviously the intelligentsia finds a certain degree of insatiable pleasure in bashing the young writer who reinstigated the reading habit among Indians. The book is massively loved and and to make the same story interesting all over again, the film must offer something refreshing. Does the film manage that? Well, the answer is dubious.

While the leading pair’s decadent chemistry is a breather, the story’s magic dissipates in part. The narrative is scattered and I wouldn’t have been this critical of the film, had I not loved the book. The problem with the narrative is there is no new rendering of the story. It is a mere enactment of the sequence of events. The script doesn’t add anything new in its folds except the caliber of its cast, which has been perfectly handpicked to their credit.

The ethos of the middle class children and there tendency to play appeaser to their parents more than rebellious is wonderfully written by Bhagat. The film reflects the same. The north-south cultural clash could have been garnished more satisfactorily. But in the face-off scenes between Revathy and Amrita Singh are fantastic. The little nuances are enjoyable and done to perfection. In the scene which shows Arjun’s first tryst with a typical silent Tamilian household that reminds him of a funeral situation in a Punjabi household is crackling. Also when Amrita and Revathy clash on their Tamil and Punjabi sensibilities is entirely entrapping.

The love story between Arjun and Alia is thankfully kept simple, which is exactly what Makes it beautiful. It is not mundane but comes without any outrageous Bollywood airs. Krish and Ananya are young, rational minded people who are rightly rooted in tradition and sensitive to.their parents’ needs as much as their own. Though the hold loosens, the plot gets dull but their relatable and easy chemistry offers something to look out for all through the film.

2 States Review: Star Performances

Arjun Kapoor breaks his own typecast and performs.strongly in a film.quite unlike him. He is stronger than his onscreen better half, both in terms of mettle and potential. I like the bit that the actor despite not living up to Bollywood’s demands of typical Raj-ish romantic heroes, appeals so extensively. He is very boy next door and immensely lovable. Thank God the brooding angry mould is finally cast away and Kapoor proves to be quite a sunshine when the script demands for it.

Alia Bhatt is a stunner and that quite works in her favor. Even when she misses a few hues in her character or fumbles at places, she is looking so.beautiful that you can’t take your eyes off. Her chemistry with Arjun is full of vigor and the gusto in it is hard to miss. She isn’t the perfect Ananya but somehow pulls through the role with gravitas and confidence.

Amrita Singh as the khatarnak Punjabi saas is fabulous. But Revathy’s character doesn’t get elucidated adequately. The magnitude of her problem with a Punjabi son in law doesn’t come off well. Intact Shiv Subramaniyam too suffers the same fate in the film.

2 States Review: Direction, Editing and Screenplay

Frankly there was nothing wrong with the film. Abhishek Varman did manage to retain the intrinsic soul of the novel. I would not call this a scene by scene copy but the débutant director did not feel the need to tamper at all with the original matter. This problem had perturbed me since the release of its first trailer. The ideal thing to do in a book adaptation is to infuse some newness in the plot which Varman doesn’t try a hand at. He remains loyal to the original and that is his main problem. The film fails to soar beyond the contours of the book and sadly even falls short of creating the magic of Bhagat’s book. Coming from someone who has read the book continuously, many times over, the book was far above the film in terms of its gleeful moments and the humor.

Seasoning the weaknesses with glossy songs and humor, the film will appeal less to the fans of the book. For those who are in love with the original will find the direction half baked and below the mark. Though a good effort from Varman, the guy has a long way to go in learning the art of film-making and tackling stories lucidly.
The film’s editing could have been tighter and the pacing done consistently. It droops in parts and rushes through in others. Shankar,Ehsaan & Loy’s music deserves some brownie points as tracks like Offo and Lochae Ulfat will blow your mind.

2 States Review: The Last Word

2 states is barely unwatchable but misses the magic of Chetan Bhagat’s novel. As a stand alone, it is endearingly done with Alia and Arjun’s scorching chemistry coming off as adorable. Despite a half baked soul, this movie is worth the price of your popcorn. I am going with a generous 3/5. The Bhagat fan in me is disappointed but the cinegoer isn’t.

2 States Trailer

2 States releases on 18th April, 2014.

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