Reviews - Specialty Releases


Film Review: Pyaar Impossible!

Well-directed if predictable Bollywood romantic company sinks under the weight of writer-producer-star Uday Chopra, a charmless leading man with a finger-wide range of expressions.

Jan 12, 2010

-By Frank Lovece


filmjournal/photos/stylus/120950-Pyaar_Md.jpg

For movie details, please click here.

The phrase "Don't do business with relatives" doesn't mean much in Bollywood, where generations of scions follow in family footsteps to create filmmaking dynasties. Even so, that doesn't mean you give Paris Hilton her own hotel to run.

Uday Chopra—actor son of major Indian producer/filmmaker Yash Chopra and younger brother of the successful Aditya Chopra (producer-writer-director of the 2008 hit Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, among others)—spends a lot time helping out around the family studio, doing some executive producing here, some assistant directing there. And while letting him write, produce and star in his own romantic comedy must have seemed a very nice birthday present or some such, it's no gift to audiences. Despite a few cute moments, the beauty-and-the-geek tale Pyaar Impossible!, set against the backdrop of computer software and corporate theft, is a vanity project that only goes to show that while love may or may not be impossible, nepotism is eternal. Box-office prospects look dim.

We'll give Chopra points for at least not directing it himself, and for having a good eye for talent in choosing Jugal Hansraj to do so, even though Hansraj's only previous credit was the animated flop Roadside Romeo (2008). Whatever this film's faults, they don't stem from Hansraj's hand; he keeps both romantic complications and corporate shenanigans moving along at a good, grounded clip, and his experience as a former child actor probably helped wickedly precocious newcomer Advika Yadav, who as a six-year-old romantic mastermind steals her scenes with conviction and the most ironic cuteness since the last Pee-wee Herman show.

Not that that's enough to save this well-meant effort. Ahbay Sharma (Chopra) is a computer geek who, in college, saved beautiful co-ed Alisha (Priyanka Chopra, no relation) from drowning. Seven years later, he still carries a torch for her, but she never got a good look at him. But when con artist Varun Sanghvi (Dino Morea) steals the code for the groundbreaking software Ahbay's developed, Ahbay tracks him to Singapore, where Sanghvi's selling the purloined program to a company whose marketing head is, surprise, Alisha—now single mom to Tania (Yadav). Through a mix-up, Ahbay becomes the nanny—the latest in a line whom Tania's terrorized. But after a rocky start, Tania sees that Ahbay loves her mom, and the kid's plans eventually lead to an adorable musical number (one of three in the film proper) that clues Alisha in to Ahbay's identity.

Bollywood romantic comedies, to their credit, construct romantic obstacles that feel more organic than the almost defiantly contrived ones often found stateside. As in “I Love Lucy,” they make the preposterous palatable. Nothing, however, can do that for Uday Chopra, who wears only about two expressions and who, in his way-too-many close-ups, looks uncannily like the late-period Michael Jackson—which somehow adds to his inadvertent-stalker creepiness. The painfully charmless Chopra is unconvincing as either a computer geek or even a geek at all. He seems exactly like what he is—a rich kid playing with daddy's toys.



Film Review: Pyaar Impossible!

Well-directed if predictable Bollywood romantic company sinks under the weight of writer-producer-star Uday Chopra, a charmless leading man with a finger-wide range of expressions.

Jan 12, 2010

-By Frank Lovece


filmjournal/photos/stylus/120950-Pyaar_Md.jpg

For movie details, please click here.

The phrase "Don't do business with relatives" doesn't mean much in Bollywood, where generations of scions follow in family footsteps to create filmmaking dynasties. Even so, that doesn't mean you give Paris Hilton her own hotel to run.

Uday Chopra—actor son of major Indian producer/filmmaker Yash Chopra and younger brother of the successful Aditya Chopra (producer-writer-director of the 2008 hit Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, among others)—spends a lot time helping out around the family studio, doing some executive producing here, some assistant directing there. And while letting him write, produce and star in his own romantic comedy must have seemed a very nice birthday present or some such, it's no gift to audiences. Despite a few cute moments, the beauty-and-the-geek tale Pyaar Impossible!, set against the backdrop of computer software and corporate theft, is a vanity project that only goes to show that while love may or may not be impossible, nepotism is eternal. Box-office prospects look dim.

We'll give Chopra points for at least not directing it himself, and for having a good eye for talent in choosing Jugal Hansraj to do so, even though Hansraj's only previous credit was the animated flop Roadside Romeo (2008). Whatever this film's faults, they don't stem from Hansraj's hand; he keeps both romantic complications and corporate shenanigans moving along at a good, grounded clip, and his experience as a former child actor probably helped wickedly precocious newcomer Advika Yadav, who as a six-year-old romantic mastermind steals her scenes with conviction and the most ironic cuteness since the last Pee-wee Herman show.

Not that that's enough to save this well-meant effort. Ahbay Sharma (Chopra) is a computer geek who, in college, saved beautiful co-ed Alisha (Priyanka Chopra, no relation) from drowning. Seven years later, he still carries a torch for her, but she never got a good look at him. But when con artist Varun Sanghvi (Dino Morea) steals the code for the groundbreaking software Ahbay's developed, Ahbay tracks him to Singapore, where Sanghvi's selling the purloined program to a company whose marketing head is, surprise, Alisha—now single mom to Tania (Yadav). Through a mix-up, Ahbay becomes the nanny—the latest in a line whom Tania's terrorized. But after a rocky start, Tania sees that Ahbay loves her mom, and the kid's plans eventually lead to an adorable musical number (one of three in the film proper) that clues Alisha in to Ahbay's identity.

Bollywood romantic comedies, to their credit, construct romantic obstacles that feel more organic than the almost defiantly contrived ones often found stateside. As in “I Love Lucy,” they make the preposterous palatable. Nothing, however, can do that for Uday Chopra, who wears only about two expressions and who, in his way-too-many close-ups, looks uncannily like the late-period Michael Jackson—which somehow adds to his inadvertent-stalker creepiness. The painfully charmless Chopra is unconvincing as either a computer geek or even a geek at all. He seems exactly like what he is—a rich kid playing with daddy's toys.
Post a Comment
Asterisk (*) is a required field.
* Author: 
Rate This Article: (1=Bad, 5=Perfect)

*Comment:
 

More Specialty Releases

Windfall
Film Review: Windfall

Documentary about a quiet upstate New York farm town shaken and divided by some not always dirty and sneaky players in the burgeoning, highly profitable industrial wind-turbine industry is not just the genre at its most revealing but category 5-level entertainment. More »

Innkeepers
Film Review: The Innkeepers

Two slackers becalmed in dead-end jobs at a rambling, supposedly haunted Connecticut inn decide to play ghost hunter in this shaggy-dog story with a sharp little sting in its tail. More »

Kill_List
Film Review: Kill List

What starts out looking like a convincingly grubby but unexceptional U.K. crime picture takes an eleventh-hour detour into way spookier territory: Audiences willing to go with it are in for a real treat. More »

Perfect_Sense
Film Review: Perfect Sense

A strong candidate for the most nauseating film of the year, in every sense. More »

ADVERTISEMENT



REVIEWS

The Woman in Black
Film Review: The Woman in Black

The unimaginative approach of both director and screenwriter make this attempt at classy horror singularly uninvolving and lacking in the essential element of surprise. More »

Big_Miracle_
Film Review: Big Miracle

Fictional treatment of the 1988 effort to rescue three whales trapped under Alaskan ice features a wide-ranging cast of characters and offers solid family entertainment. More »

Player for the Film Journal International website.


ADVERTISEMENT



INDUSTRY GUIDES

» Blue Sheets
FJI's guide to upcoming movie releases, including films in production and development. Check back weekly for the latest additions.

» Distribution Guide
» Equipment Guide
» Exhibition Guide

ORDER A PRINT SUBSCRIPTION

Film Journal International

Subscribe to the monthly print edition of Film Journal International and get the full visual impact of this valuable resource for the cinema business.

» Click Here

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Learn how to promote your company at the Film Expo Group events: ShowEast, CineEurope, and CineAsia.

» Click Here