NEW DELHI: He has given to the Mumbai film industry memorable romantic films like ‘Dilwale Dulhaniaan Le Jayenge’, ‘Mohabbattein’ and ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’, all of which have ‘everlasting love’ as their underlying theme.
Going by its trailers, ‘Aditya Chopra’s latest directorial venture ‘Befikre’ comes across as a breezy rom-com dealing with the modern phenomenon of ‘carefree love’. In this sense, it seems far removed from his earlier directorial ventures.
‘Befikre’, however, surprises you with the underlying message of ‘everlasting love’ embedded in the relationship between the protagonists Dharam (Ranveer Singh) and Shyra (Vaani Kapoor), which begins as a ‘casual romance’ only to graduate to a ‘mature love’ between the two individuals.
Dharam, a stand-up comedian at a club in Paris, meets Shyra on his first tour in Paris. He gets drawn to her due to her electrical energy and carefree nature. As the relationship, which starts as a ‘casual’ romance, begins to evoke emotion feelings among Dharam and Shyra, they decide to part ways.
Later, they meet again and decide to be “just friends”. In the meantime, Shyra meets Anay, an investment banker who falls crazily in love with her, which pushes Shyra into taking the decision of marrying him.
On other hand, Dharam too is involved with someone else in a non-serious relationship. However, he does not like Anay’s proximity towards Shyra, The rest of the story deals with whether Shyra and Dharam move towards their respective marriages or realize their feelings towards each other.
The first half deals with the both Dharam and Shyra indulging in ‘one upmanship’ in their relationship and the second sees the two realise the values of commitment and ‘everlasting love’, that has been the hallmark of the Yashraj films over the years.
‘Dharam’s character comes across as an extremely shallow person whose only aim seems to be to ‘score’. His childish behavior at many junctures has been oddly termed as his ‘Delhi’ attitude and that’s sort of a turn off, generalising all Delhi lads like that.
With ‘Befikre’, Aditya , as the director is lovingly known in the industry, shows that he is equally adept at whelming ‘light hearted romances (as ‘befikre’) as ‘mature’ love stories like ‘Dilwale Dulhaniyan Le Jayenge’ and ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’.
As the stand up comedian Dharam, who transforms from a modern day youth full of ‘frivolity’ and running away from commitment in love to a mature individual who realises the value of commitment, Ranveer Singh seems ‘tailor made’ for the role.
He is credible both as an ‘immature ‘ modern day youth who believes in ‘ephemeral ‘ and ‘transitory’ relationships as well as the ‘matured’ Dharam who begins to understand importance of commitment in relationships. It is another superb performance from him after ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’.
Watching him one does not feel absence of Shahrukh Khan, who has been a regular feature of all the earlier films helmed by Aditya Chopra. As Shyra, who like Dharam believes in ‘casual’ romance, Vaani is effortlessly at ease.
This is just her second film, after ‘Shush Desi Romance’ but she performs like she has been around for a long time.
She manages to match up to Ranveer in every frame. ‘Befikre’ beautifully captures the beauty of Paris, considered the ‘land of love’. In fact, Paris seems to be another character of the film, that deals with ‘carefree love’
Befikre brings out the enrapturing locales of Paris, dotting with ‘madly in love’ couples.
Vishal-Shekhar has come out with a soundtrack in keeping with the spirit of ‘carefree love’ as reflected in songs like ‘Labon Ka Karobaar’. (AGENCIES)
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