Happy Ending Review - Not so Happy an Ending
Ameet Bhuvan
What do you call a film that runs into the very same traps that it begins with mocking in the first place? What do you say of the makers who start out sounding cheeky and smart but end up making a royal mess of their own idea? Happy Ending leaves you with these questions and an after taste of a half baked apple pie that could have been better.
Saif Ali Khan plays a writer well beyond his sell by date, who is tormented by his shabby inner self (again Saif) and a series of failed relationships which more or less are his own doing. His rival writer, who dislodges him from the best seller list, charms her way into his life, so does a Bollywood producer who wants a Hollywood style romantic comedy to be written for a film. Saif is the writer he finds, and in the process we are subjected to every single cliché that rom-com genre entails and told how funny it is to spoof them. If only the spoofing continued till the very end.
Director Raj DK, fresh from the whacky zombie tale Go Goa Gone, chose to leave behind much of the outlandish eccentricity of their first attempt in favor of a more palatable screenplay that is relatable and more “mainstream”. They basically repackage every single Hollywood rom com cliché into a Hindi film that is only partially charming- a lot of this is to do with the scrawny screenplay and casting.
Saif is in a role that we saw him play a decade ago- Hum Tum meets Love Aaj Kal, meets Cocktail two years ago. It is a little odd to see him in and out of college time romances playing the commitment phobic philanderer once more, he has grown old for it. Yet his effusive charm and goofiness sail him through. Kareena, Preity in cameos add the necessary spunk, but it is left to Kalki and Ileana to actually raise the bar - they manage barely to add some life into their parts that are badly written in the first place.
The music is fun, weird, placed neatly, the dialogues witty, a scene here, a situation there sincerely heartwarming, yet overall, Happy Ending is just a string of ho hum scenes put together with no real soul or point to put across. You just sit through the motions, not knowing where the characters are headed to, what the story intends for them. That is sad, since this seemed like an opportunity for some real fun to be had.
Catch it if you must, not seeing it will not be a life altering decision.
Rating: 2 / 5