Half Girlfriend deserves half star, not even half decent as Chetan Bhagat book
I’ve always wondered what the point of Arjun Kapoor is. He’s a sweet enough fellow but really what is he good for except to be the good natured staple in Karan Johar’s Koffee with Karan? I suppose you could say his second calling in life is to be a Chetan Bhagat hero, but can he please put a stop to this forthwith?
In 2 States, Alia Bhatt’s winsomeness allowed us to ignore him but in Shraddha Kapoor, he has such a pallid, vapid co-star that it’s a miracle that the film ever got made. Perhaps director Mohit Suri did not look at the monitor while directing even once. Perhaps he was blinded by the white light shining on Shraddha Kapoor’s face, which makes her look like a moving ad for a fairness cream.
Or perhaps he thought that Arjun Kapoor’s approximation of the lovestruck expression — slack jaw, sheepish smile, and a torrent of Bihari Hindi — would be a great distraction.
It isn’t and it isn’t. Half-Girlfriend, a perfectly decent book by Bhagat belabours the obvious. It’s not the language that matters, it’s the content. It’s not location that determines fortunes but aspirations. It’s not the reputation that matters but the reality.
Bhagat’s accurate reading of the mood of the young is stamped into the ground and in its place are ridiculous dialogues such as this: "jitna maine bhagna chaha, utna zindagi peeche chali aayi" or "tumhe to chhodne ki aadat hai, kabhi college, kabhi shaadi, kabhi shahar.”
We’re introduced to Kapoor as a Bihari from a tiny village where he is a princeling and to the other Kapoor, Shraddha, as a rich kid who is everyone’s dream date. Boy loves basketball, girl loves basketball. Boy loves girl. Girl loves him half back. Both play basketball – only he sweats and she doesn’t on the courts of St Steven’s (yes, not St Stephens, which must be turning up its nose at the apparent Bihari takeover of the college).
In the process, Bihar, as usual, gets a raw deal. Its youngsters are portrayed as uncouth; its state of development abysmal and its politicians crooked. Only Bill Gates can save the state, and by extension Madhav Jha aka Arjun Kapoor. He’s a poor substitute for Ranveer Singh, and Shraddha a poor replacement for Alia Bhatt. Both need some serious re-skilling.
Even Delhi society is not spared. Dreamy looking parental couple turn out to have “issues” — father beats mother and speaks theatrical English. Mother speaks Hindi and wants daughter to marry English accented heir to hotel fortune. All celebrate impending marriage with champagne brunch in sprawling lawns,
Chetan Bhagat books are serious business. Each book entertains but it also at the very basic level addresses questions that young people are agitated about. Sadly the movie is nothing like it. Half Girlfriend deserves half star. It eez enuf.