What’s Your Rashee?

Superstition has a place in all cultures however when it comes to Indian culture it seems that even in the 21^st century many still abide by the rules of superstition rather strictly. Offcourse they have evidence to support their belief hence I don’t intend to contend any of it however it’s a concept that’s lesser explored onscreen despite being inherent to Indian cultures. Until recently when Oscar nominated maker,  Ashutosh Gowrikar decided to explore the concepts of rashees  or  star signs as known in the west.

I can probably safely say that everyone at somewhere or some place has read their own star sign’s inherent qualities and its prediction and even though he or she doesn’t believe in it accuracy they have pondered and reflected on its judgement later on. What’s Your Rashee? is the story of one such individual, Yogesh Kumar Patel played by Harman Baweja, who despite having no extensive knowledge in the workings of star signs decides to meet prospective brides from each star sign. Why use such an unusual way to select brides you ask? Well our charming Yogesh who’s well educated and soon to permanently settle in Chicago has been tricked by his family to return to India and get married by a date already decided for him. You see the marriage of Yogesh would mean that according to his grandfather’s will he’ll come into his inheritance on the day of his marriage which in turn for his family would mean that they can pay off the debts of his elder brother by using that very inheritance. Now it’s a pretty wild concept but our boy Yogesh is such a kind hearted and family loving guy that despite being so well educated and accustomed to life in the west stays to his Indian ways and goes all out to find himself a Desi bride in a designated time so that no harm comes to his family. Read on to find out how the Jodha Akbar maker deals with this complex yet highly intriguing tale of love, life, superstition and destiny. (Note: do not except a short and summed up review of a film that is 3.5 hours long)

Personally I should put a disclaimer before this article and that is that I truly am not a fan of Gowrikar’s past work. Not as much as the general public any way since Jodha Akbar is a film that bored me within the first 10 mins making me fast forward the rest of it to complete in just 40 mins rather than the 3hr+ length it was destined for. The same goes for Lagaan which sadly didn’t shake me to the core like it did to others. However I do have a different take on Swades which is one of my all time favourite films. So naturally I have a very mixed opinion of Gowrikar and thus very mixed expectations from WYR. He gets it right sometimes in my eyes but not all the time. Sad to say that WYR falls neither in the right or wrong category according to me.

The film has the backing of a Gujrati novel so one really can’t decide what Gowrikar’s inputs were and what wasn’t unless they’ve read the original however what one can say with surety is that as a maker Gowrikar should have known what is best for the screen and what is relevant to the screen. The relevance part needs to be given particular specific attention because the insane lengthiness of WYR could have be very much easily prevented had some unnecessary side stories been removed. Honestly they were nothing short of excruciating! Especially when such an intriguing tale is put on the hold for mindless sideline stories which contribute nothing to the bigger picture. Whilst on the topic of length it may be wise to state that some reviewers found the use of all songs to be a major contribution to the lengthiness I would have to disagree as I think that removing the extra non-needed side line stories would have made the film far less tedious. The soundtrack was very intelligently crafted to give us more insight to the character in question than the dialogues hence they were infact significant to the overall picture, I would argue, compared to the storylines on the sideline which were nothing more or less than pure rubbish!

However length bothered me less than Priyanka’s overacting in certain characters. Firstly I couldn’t handle her as Sanjana (Aquarius) as she was trying way too hard to sound foreign and ended up sounding just plastic! I.e. fake.  I cringed every time she uttered a single dialogue as Sanjana and coincidently Sanjana had many of those, actually I am cringing as I type this as I am recapping her portions in my mind!

Then there’s the as annoying Nandani who drove me up the walls! I know she was meant to be one crazy and passionate young girl but I also know that she was not meant to be so darn un-stand-able. Yes the youth are passionate and over excited to get life rolling and live it on their terms but that all can be portrayed rather un-annoyingly.

After that I would say Kajal’s the next annoying character in line as Priyanka’s try-hard-act to be cool and hip was nowhere near of being subtle.

Lastly there’s Mallika who’s not as annoying as the rest but some dialogues of Priyanka’s as Mallika were just plain pretentious!

Although, Priyanka wasn’t terrible as all of the 12 characters, to my surprise. She was stand-able in particular as the suppressed Anjali, the empowered Raajani, the wounded Hamsa, the independent Pooja and the young Jhankana. Sadly despite creating history by playing 12 different characters Priyanka really did not impress me for the many flaws I pointed above. The actress really needs to work on her understanding of characters and her dialogue delivery as 9/10 her lines are very pretentious, its rather obvious that she’s acting and it has nothing natural about it.

In addition I had a lot of issues with Priyanka’s styling in several portions especially the unneeded skin show in Cholis. This is a latest trend in Indian cinema that I cannot fathom with skirts going lower and lower and cholis becoming the size of a bra and dupattas basically not fulfilling their purpose. All I’d like to say is that if you want skin show use western clothing but please do not butcher pure Indian clothes which are authentic and historical. There’s a fine line in looking glamorous and looking desperate to show skin and outfits in Sau Janam and Sue Che were crossing the line extremely especially since in Sau Janam skin show was really inconsistent with the character. It just looked like a desperate attempt of the maker to hold the audience’s attention because I am sure even he knew given the length that half of them would be napping by then!

Harman on the other hand I think delivered his best performance till now. The actor has been receiving quite a hard time from audiences and critics alike however a star always emerges after a battle and history gives evidence to this. Harman’s acting has sheer hard work and dedication behind it and more than anything he’s one with the character. An absolute natural. Maybe it’s the fact that Yogesh’s character’s age and situation may be relatable to Harman considering he too is a young man who seems to be quite close and dedicated to his family. Or perhaps the fact that he has a lot to prove to the world makes him work harder whilst a person like Priyanka has already proved quite a bit (however in my eyes nothing yet) so she can afford to research less and not work on small aspects like dialect. I’ve also though that a truly hardworking person will pay more attention to his failures than his victory and Harman is exactly that because in WYR the conviction and hunger to prove him turned into a fantastic performance. The unsuccessful run at the box office may just fuel the hunger even more and who knows what we’ll witness next time he’s on screen!

Moving on from performances to song sequences. My expectations were in abundance as I simply love soundtrack so I’ll comment on my favourite songs only. First being Dhadkan Dhadkan. I have a fetish for theatrical numbers and was even more enlightened to find out that Dhadkan Dhadkan was stage number on screen that too choreographed by Terence Lewis! The song was as I imagined it and nothing short of it, LOVED IT! Next up I enjoyed the picturisation of Bikhri Bikhri as it synchronized with the feeling of the song very well all thanks to fantastic work by Priyanka and Harman, subtlety is the key to success and in this song the subtlety was in their eyes. Thirdly the sets in Maanuga impressed me thoroughly but it was reminiscent of Love Story 2050 which is a nightmare offcourse is a nightmare we all share and not in fact a real movie! Lastly Chehre Jo Dekhen was impressively picturised conveying the complexities of Yogesh’s decision very well.

Apart from songs I have a couple of scenes that particularly stay with me much after the film concludes:

·         Jhankana saying thank you to Yogesh – for its shear feel

·         Yogesh speaking to Anjali after she attempts to smoke – for its sincerity and background philosphhy

·         Yogesh’s interaction with Pooja in the clinic – for its naturalism

·         Yogesh telling Kajal what he really would say if she was late – for its realism

All in all WYR is a borderline film. 50:50 is its exact ratio as it has the same amount of pros and cons. I encourage you to watch it at least once but yes do set out a whole day its lengthy one. Watch it for Harman, watch it for some unique portrayals by Priyanka, for Sohail Sen’s music and for an intriguing story, flawed but none the less intriguing! 

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