Movie Review - Ishaqzaade (Hindi) - A touching tale supported by able performances

A lovely pairing, an impressive promo, native music style, and the song "Main Pareshaan" pulled me to Ishaqzaade. Habib Faisal is one of the coming of age directors trying to make a thumping impression on the celluloid. His history dates back to Do Dooni Chaar, an excellent portrayal of a middle class family full of realistic characters, and he was part of the successful Band Baaja Baraat wagon penning the screenplay and dialogue. He's also got some dismal ventures under his sleeve and the aforesaid ones are obtained after winnowing the wheat from the chaff. His film-making style in Ishaqzaade reminds me of Telugu director Teja who's made many such movies and was once revered, but now he's painstakingly swallowing people's abuse for being repetitive.

Coming to Ishaqzaade, Faisal's direction transformed a formulaic story into an intriguing one. He's struck a perfect balance with the love story and the political rivalry in a town in UP. The local flavor exuberates in every scene with picture perfect visuals and Hemant Chaturvedi's camera effectively captures the raw and rustic flavor of the land without which the story would have lost its spice. The awesome chemistry between the lead pair with a choc-a-bloc of raves and rants lights up the screen and you love watching them fall in love.

The finely etched characters of the lead pair add to the sheen of the film. Parma (Arjun Kapoor) is an unapologetic skunk who harbors intentions of rising to the top of his family tree by proving himself. Zoya (Parineeti Chopra) is a bubbly girl who has more pluck than the male members of her family. She's a firecracker and no body dares to match her wits and if someone does then her incisive, acid tongue comes into play and chills run down their spine. There is no physical attack from her end but the physical damage is already done. 

Despite some meticulous effort by the director to spin a perfect yarn, the film falters as it meanders into second half and gives you a pause. Extremely predictable happenings kill the joy of movie-watching and the same happens with this film. Except for the twist-in-the-talish ending, every scene in the latter part of the film can be predicted miles before. The display of utterly eloquent cinematic language in the first half suddenly struggles searching for words in the second half. Tongue-in-cheek moment is when more bullets than a JP Dutta film are fired in the film and miraculously no one dies. Like many others this movie has also fallen prey for cinematic liberties.

How do you feel when someone cuts the wings off of his/her best asset? - Without a second thought you would speedily cut the wings of that person who's committed such a heinous crime. After watching this film everyone will run after Habib Faisal's life for diluting Parineeti Chopra's angry and independent Zoya and transforming her into a sob sob gal, oppressed and bashed throughout, and for draining all sparks of life from her. The inflection point in Parma's character, he traversing through dark emotional terrain, his struggle to resurrect his love and a subdued Zoya makes the movie struggle to find a tone. Everything happens in a jiffy and you feel the need for a scene or more in the second half for proper character reincarnation of Parma. 

By the time the end arrives, the audience tries to don a thinking cap and their creative juices trickle down. They are hooked to the screen expecting for something unexpected to happen and feels happy if their imagination is mirrored on screen or curse the director for making them take a step back. That's an innovative move from the director tweaking the pre-conceived notions. Despite the flaws, the movie's fascinating and shines at many places esp. all through the first half, but your patience levels are tested in the stale second half. The phenomenal background score of Ranjit Barot needs a special mention and one can't resist swaying to the lilting tunes of Amit Trivedi.


My rating - Expectation: 8/10; Reality: 5/10