Break Ke Baad

* Imran Khan as Abhay Gulati
* Deepika Padukone as Aaliya Khan
* Sharmila Tagore as Ayesha Khan
* Shahana Goswami as Nadia
* Yudhishtr Urs as Cyrus
* Lilette Dubey as Pammi
* Naveen Nischol as Jeet Gulati

If the opening credits create enough interest in us, the rest of the movie doesn't quite live up to the hype created. Abhay and Aalya are childhood friends and both of them falling in love and getting married is an unwritten script. They are two opposite characters least to say. While Abhay is the more grounded, patient, ever-resistant-to-girlfriend's stupidity, I-don’t-know-what-I-want kind of person, Aalya is the spoilt, 'urban', brattish, impulsive, devoid-of-respect, doesn’t like the mehndi ki 'gobar-jaisi' (cow-dung like) smell kind of girl. They have their differences and Deepika decides to take a break from their relationship and go to Australia to pursue her dream as an actress. The two decide they will find each other during their BREAK. And Break ke Baad?

Danish tries very hard to make Deepika and Imran bond together in the first few scenes. But the independent actors that they are, they shine on their own. We need not talk about chemistry or science here. More than the bonding, the scenes end up as nice ad slots for Kit-Kat, Volkswagen car and Zen mobile. The story can be best described in a few words and hence the movie is all about the screenplay and it is surely a challenge to drag it to the maximum.

Renuka Kunzru’s dialogues shine sporadically but most of the dialogues get submerged in the slightly underplayed sketch of the characters. The Hinglish dialogues at various instances can only be appreciated by a certain section of the audience. Moreover, at one point of time, we feel that there is an overdose of advice from Renuka (through the characters) on love and its implications. Kunal has already told in ‘Hum Tum’ that a boy and a girl can never be friends, so why again? All these lead to a dull, boring, inept and a lacklustre screenplay.

What worries more is the depiction of the 'urban' lifestyle. It is a cause of concern if this is really the way our generation is shaping up as everything seems to be cool to them. Be it getting laid, breaking up in a relationship or act stupid, everything seems to cool and casual. On the other hand, if this is not the current scenario, then movies of this kind are definitely misleading.

Deepika shows her supermodel loooong legs all through the movie. Her super short micro shorts help the cause. Wearing the same style of shorts on Graduation day is hard to digest. Otherwise, her pretentious acting does not garner enough attention. Same with Imran. He mouths a lot of dialogues but the plain expression on almost all scenes is not what we expect from a talented actor like him. Sharmila Tagore has been absolutely wasted in a miniscule role. There are other funny characters like Shahana Goswami and Yudishtir who provide the occasional laughter.

Technically, there is nothing special in Andre Menezes' cinematography as this is yet another free, unguided tour of a foreign location. We are so used to it aren't we? By the way, is that Gold coast that we see in the movie? Editing is good as they have ensured that the movie just runs for 2 hours. Vishal-Shekhar's songs are the saving grace but the songs, mostly situational, have been shot with the narrative. Screenplay and direction are definitely the sore points of the movie.

Overall, barring a few moments here and there, Break ke Baad's story and screenplay disappoint and make us look at our watch more than once. Though its running time is only two hours or so, it becomes painfully irritating and a lazy watch towards the end. So much so that a person after watching the movie commented, "Mazaak mat kar yaar, maine socha ki yeh char gante ki movie hai (you must be kidding, I thought this is a 4-hour movie)"!