Movie Review – Shani continues in Harman’s Raashee!

12 Priyankas' - But movie disappoints

Guys, what might be the reason that will compel you to go for ‘Whats your Raashee ?’ this weekend – I guess its Ashutosh Gowarikar’s earlier movies & Priyanka Chopra – These are the only reason if I m not wrong.

Most of us might have gauged the plot of ‘Whats your Raashee ?’ from the promos itself that our not very own Harman Baweja will hunt for his real life ex-girl Priyanka Chopra who will appear in 12 different avatars, right ? Earlier references – Sanjeev Kumar got very popular after playing 9 different characters in Naya Din Nayi Raat, Govinda made us giggle playing 6 different charcters in Hadh Kardi Aapne, remember Kamal Hasan’s 10 get ups in Dashavtar – people found it messy.

The novel 'Kimball Ravenswood' by Madhu Rye, which Ashutosh selected to be transformed into a motion picture definitely has an interesting script material – it wasn’t a wrong choice on his part – but this time the canvas is much smaller as compared to his two earlier biggies – Lagaan and Jodha-Akbar.

Whats this Rashee holds? click to open

Whats your Raashee entertains you but in portions. Though it has a good and appealing script, it would neither become your favorite nor would it be remembered as a path breaking cinema. It never reaches the stature of Lagaan, it lacks the depth and sensitivity of Swades, it’s nowhere near the grand scale of Jodha-Akbar, its neither hard hitting as BAAZI(1995, Aamir Khan starrer).

Then what does it have ? It’s a story of a guy who returns back to homeland to rescue his family out of financial crisis – decides to marry – meets 12 girls one of each Rashee – finally gets married to one after some pathetic twists and turns – do you find it interesting ?

Whats your Raashee is a standard Bhel-puri which is made with an intention to match everybody’s taste – but it doesn’t have the perfect ingredients. In addition its too much to finish in one go. Some moments are too dull and boring – you might find yourself sitting through hell – but some sequences – especially Harman’s first encounter with every Priyanka are mind blowing. Its because of them you gather courage to sit throughout the 185 minutes – Yes ! its so lengthy.

Ashutosh Gowarikar thought to play safe by making a low budget project pertaining to the bad phase that the film industry is going through this year. Throughout the movie you experience that the production cost is well maintained within the stipulated boundaries.

Priyanka Sizzles!

Whats your Raashee has Priyanka Chopra as its major USP.

Believe me, she is the only saving grace – this would go into books as her best performance till date – she has grabbed a good meaty role – she would no doubt get this year’s filmfare too (Filmfare 2008 for best actress, Fashion). Priyanka’s performance is perfectly complemented by the rock steady writing, and the makeup that she wore to differentiate amongst the roles was exceptionally good. All the 12 characters played by her are written superbly as well as enacted with sheer perfection. Not a single character is left with loose ends or sidelined – the audience gonna fall in love with all the 12 Priyankas. Whats your Raashee will boost her career to new heights no matter the film’s HIT or FLOP.

It is a joint effort of Ashutosh & Priyanka that each one of the 12 characters are lively & different from each other.

Harman - Improving

Harman Baweja’s got a better film this time after the earlier debacles Love Story 2050 & Victory. Surprisingly he did a good job as far as acting is concerned. He is believable in the role of foreign returned, still stuck to values, a simple guy next door kind of stuff. Its good to see him confident and matured. His efforts will be really appreciated – atleast Whats your Raashee will act as ventilator for Harman’s career which is heading towards comma.

Too Slow & Lengthy!

The major setback of the movie is its pace – its too slow! You have to sit through a 3 hour slow but no doubt steady film – still not easy. On top of that you are bombarded with 13 songs – might take hell out of us. I don’t know what made the director to go with an idea of associating one song with each of the 12 characters. The movie would have been shaped better with forty percent of its music wealth.

Ashutosh, its high time now, you have to rethink on style of lengthy film making – Now a days, audience responds well to 2 hour or max 2 hour 20 minutes movie. You have to provide a real gem in its true sense to offer a 3 hour movie. Wasting time in irrelevant stuff is not at all tolerated by today’s audiences.

Music

About the soundtrack – its best place is in your bedroom or drawing room or wherever your PC is, not in the movie – barring a few songs others irritate you. The reason’s not that they are not good but they come at us as obstructions. We have a debutant music director/singer Sohail Sen coming to B’town – out of 13, eight songs are sung by himself.

Jao na and Bikhri Bikhri are really mesmerizing, Pyari Pyari and Su che are bubbly, happy go lucky, but the surprise package is – Sau Janam. Udit Narayan & Madhushree take us to the musical enchantment of early 90’s. Rajab Ali Bharti is superb in Koi jane Na. out of the two title songs the one in the opening titles is better – it will remind you of James Bond - Golden Eye. Rest of the compositions are forgettable.

Whats your Rashee?

Whats your Raashee wont be a major HIT but it will definitely recover its production cost - thanks to the makers who kept this film a low budget affair. It will have mix response, it will entertain as well as irritate the audiences both in multiplexes as well as small screens.

So, readers if anyone out there is a die hard fan of Piggy Chops, leave everything you are doing and go watch her best performance till date! Rest of the people can wait till this Friday to witness the clash of two big releases. Ranbir’s gonna select Gandhi Jayanti to 'wake up' & Govinda’s coming to disturb you on the same day with his gang of pranksters.

RATING : 2.5 / 5
Reviewed by Ashish Gharde

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