Modern rom-com about birth & reincarnation Raabta
Director:Dinesh Vijan Starring: Sushant Singh Rajput, Kriti Sanon and Jim Sarbh There is something about and the landscape all in one Sushant Singh Rajput and swirling breathless scoop of Kriti Sanon, something sleazeless sexiness. sexy without really getting Sushant always plays into the bed or talking dirty his characters as eager-tothe way Ranveer Singh and please, an early Shah Rukh Vaani Kapoor did in BefiKhan without a crafty charm kre, which for all practical that allows the cunning skill purposes, has a sexual pun of being charming to show tucked away in the ‘fikre’. on screen without the fear of
Sex is, of course, imporbeing called a showoff. Who tant in Raabta. Why should but Sushant among the curit not? Two young people rent lot of 20-going-on-30 Shiv and Saira (do not frown male stars can get away with at the religious divide which chocolaty cheesiness of a line the film blissfully ignores) like “Some parts of me are meet, flirt and do whatever chocolaty”. else follows. This is Budapest Okay, then. captured in all its gorgeous Sushant’s co- star Kriti glory by Czech cinematogSanon is remarkably free rapher Martin Preiss who of inhibition. She exudes a can’t decide what he loves morning- fresh dewiness more, the lovers or the landeven in the sweatiest of situscape. So, the camera decides ation. And it can’t get any to celebrate the lovers’ love sweatier than this: Sushant’s best friend Varun Sharma (the new Shakti Kapoor in town) hooks up with a plump and parodic soothsayer who looks at Kriti and grunts, “You don’t get much sleep. You are haunted by nightmares”... Sanon looks right back. If she can stare down Sushant’s mock-leeriness, what is a funny-looking card reader?
Raabta is fun to watch in the first-half when Sushant and Kriti do a Befikre. It’s when they take on the janamjanam ka saath Madhumati/ Milan/Mehbooba theme that the clouds gather. And the problem is Jim Sarbh. Cast in the key role of the arrogant lover who stalks Kriti from one life into another, Sarbh who was so brilliant and menacing as the terrorist in Neerja, delivers a whimper of performance.
Playing a liquor baron, he is like a mug of beer without the foam. Off-key and flaccid, he speaks his lines of intense passion to Kriti as though he was reading the newspaper headlines.
If only the third angle of the purportedly tempestuous triangle had got it right. Nonetheless, the post-midpoint time-regression into the past has both Sushant and Kriti undergoing a seductive makeover. Sushant even changes his voice to woo Kriti in a previous life. Their intense conflicts in the past located in an indeterminate tribal territory, convey a primeval immediacy.
The plot allows room for humour even in the most strenuous of circumstances, and that’s this winsome romantic comedy’s USP. For example, while Kriti’s Saira agonizes over her past life with Sushant, he remains blissfully oblivious of their past connections, preferring recreation to reincarnation, choosing flirtation over mediation, Ummm over Om.
The fun element never forsakes the film even when the three main characters are locked in an intense afterlife discourse. Sadly, there are only three characters in the film worth talking about. Not to mention Rajkumaar Rao who appears unrecognizable as an old man who resembles Vijay Raaz.
That’s okay. Mistaken identity is part of the mischievous game-plan debutant director Dinesh Vijan devises to keep the theme of reincarnation from getting grim. Raabta is fun most of the way. If only Jim had loosened up and had as much as Sushant and Kriti.
Maybe in another life? IANS