Simple and clear-cut just like the title...
By Priyanka Ketkar
Rating: 3 out of 5*
Starring: Dia Mirza, Zayed Khan, Tisca Chopra, Cyrus Sahukar, Auritra Ghosh, Satyadeep Mishra, etc.
Director: Sahil Sangha
October 5, 2011 (FM): There is a boy and there is a girl, they meet and fall in love; But... There is always a 'but' in every love story and that is not filmy, that is the fact of life. Relationships are complicated and that is what is simply put in this straightforward, simple love story of Love Breakups Zindagi.
Opposites attract. Right. They make for a perfect balance. Wrong. That’s what Jai (Zayed Khan) and Naina (Dia Mirza) are set to experience. Everything seems to be perfect for Naina- A perfect job, a perfect boyfriend and a secure future; that's what a girl wants right? Naina has everything but still something is missing. Ditto with Jai. "Abhi tak ghanti nahi baji"...that’s Jai’s theory. Solution? A Vacation of course... and what better place to go than your best friend’s marriage. So both Jai and Naina end up together at their best friends' marriage in Chandigarh. They click; they have chemistry...something brewing between them. A much expected story so far? Well, overall the movie doesn't have anything new to offer. They obviously will end-up being together, everyone knows that as a matter of fact, but, they show it without any cliches (especially towards the end where you are literally praying don’t run behind her and end-up going to the airport, thankfully, all this "typical" drama doesn’t happen.
Although Jai and Naina's story is the most important track of the movie, there are two other stories cooking- Arjun (Vaibhav Talwar) and Gayatri (Auritra Ghosh), and Govind (Cyrus Sahukar) and Sheela (Tisca Chopra). In spite of so many stories, the movie doesn’t have any cliches. The "sangeet" during the marriage seems to be perfect and very much real. In fact, the entire movie has a very real, earthy feel to it. It seems to be a regular movie, with a regular story which is simply put and that’s how life is, right? No doubt there are complications, but there never really are those over-the-top, mean, villains and vamps who are busy plotting how to ruin your life. The movie is like a real-life event’s shooting where even the conversations don't feel scripted, but like real conversations between real friends, couples and families. Simple gestures like- the falling of the chit from Dia’s hands during the "partner-selection" seems like a natural thing to happen. Farida Jalal's track could've been easily omitted but having that plot doesn't do much harm to the movie either. Dia Mirza has acted well; she is pretty and natural. Zayed Khan does a bit of over-acting but he is still fine. Tisca Chopra looks fabulous and Cyrus Sahukar is someone to look out for.
The music, the songs, the dancing everything is neat. There don’t seem to be any loose ends (if you think too hard you might want to raise a few questions here and there, but then the solution is just to sit back and enjoy). The only issue with the movie is its speed. The movie is a bit slow, not stretched...just slow. Still, it is definitely not a headache. Some might find it too sweet but we are so used to that "masala" that anything simple is not easy to digest for us.
Overall, the "intelligent", deep cinema-lovers might not like it, but it is definitely not brainless. The movie might not have big stars in it or super hit songs, it might not even be something "revolutionary" or different but it is still worth a watch.