Raabta is good to look at but lacks finesse
Raabta (Urdu for ‘Connection’) is a ‘love-never-dies’ sort of a film. It wants to pack in as much glamour as possible, so the characters make transitions in time and space.
This does not help the film’s overall struggle to stay upright.
Shiv (Sushant Singh Rajput) and Shaira (Kriti Sanon) meet in picturesque Budapest and realise they might have a history, from a previous birth maybe.
But then the non-committal chocolate maker meets a globetrotting, cynical-yet-charming business tycoon named Zak (Jim Sarbh) and her world turns upside down.
Frankly, we all begin to feel a little lost at this point.
Director Dinesh Vijan clearly thinks that since he has managed to gather all the ingredients for a masala Bollywood hit, the dish should just take care of itself. He has a hardworking lead fresh off a sizeable success (MS Dhoni: The Untold Story), a fairly recognisable heroine, Deepika Padukone for a cameo, a bankable antagonist in Jim Sarbh. Add a few clichés, including a faithful friend for comic relief and a flower seller with a heart of gold; some designer threads; aspirational careers; a couple of old Hindi songs; a pining lover who also paints.
Fills the gaps in the plot with cheesy lines, saturated colours and dashes of hastily-patchedtogether flashbacks. What could go wrong, right?
What he fails to account for is the fact that we’re in 2017, so a guy actually saying, ‘Ladki to main hi lekar jaaunga’ while a grown woman plays coy and giggles is plain unpalatable.
Raabta is good to look at but lacks finesse. Sushant Singh Rajput and Jim Sarbh are wasted.
The film has nothing new to say. You truly have been there, done that.