Looking at the project as a whole, I had my doubts on whether Ashutosh will be able to create the same magic with Harman Baweja, as he previously did with Hrithik Roshan in the role of an unimaginable Akbar. With a shaky subject in hand and mediocre songs on air, I was not sure of another polished product from the director with a big stature in the Industry. And all my doubts proved right as “What’s Your Rashee” came out to be just a below average movie with an unbearable long length, not so impressive content and many unwanted ordinary songs.
Said to be based on the novel by Madhu Rye, the story (which is quite predictable) moves around a young NRI boy who is here in India to marry a girl within a week. To make a good choice he decides to meet a girl from each sun sign and then take a decision. Unfortunately, the interesting idea, fails completely in its uninspiring screen adaptation. Other than the twelve different girls brilliantly portrayed by Priyanka Chopra, there is no particular scene in the movie to rave about. In fact if you see the movie, ignoring the truth that it has been directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, then you will just take it as a debut project of any budding director and nothing more.
The biggest disappointment in the movie is its extra long length and completely uninspiring music. The length is fine when we are watching a movie like “Lagaan” or “Jodha Akbar”, but you cannot make every project close to four hours of duration just for the sake of it. Ashutosh could have easily edited out most of the songs in the movie as they are not anywhere a part of the progressing storyline. The run of the mill soundtrack stands nowhere, if compared to the scores of Gowariker’s earlier projects. Yes, he had the great A. R. Rahman on his side in all those musical masterpieces, but there were also good hummable songs in his “Baazi” too, which proves that he indeed has a good choice of melodies. Surprisingly in “What’s Your Rashee” out of more than 12 songs, we don’t even have one particular track to stay in our mind except the obvious title number.
Apart from its length and music, the monotonous act of seeing girls again and again becomes quite boring and annoying after a while. There is a very silly explanation given about the similar faces of all 12 girls in the start which puts you off straight away. The completely avoidable and poorly written detective angle in the script fails to make an impact. It also does not reach any conclusion since Ashutosh simply forgets about this added sub-plot towards the end and moves on. There is no proper justification given about how & why Harman makes his choice in the climax as everything just gets sorted our very easily and quickly.
In few words, it’s a Priyanka Chopra movie all the way, where she acts, dances and emotes in 12 different ways in a fantastic manner. Unarguably, it’s one of the best performances of her career till date. On the other hand, I really feel sad for Harman Baweja, who is a true hard worker, but still hasn’t got the lady luck smiling at him. When it came to Harman’s turn, even the man with a midas touch, lost his golden stroke and failed. May be it’s all destiny that whatever the boy does, he always gets compared to Hrithik Roshan, because of their naturally similar looks.
All other character artists in the movie have simply performed their allotted roles as a duty towards the director. Cinematography serves the purpose well and visual graphics are nice to see on the screen. Especially the graphical presentation of all the sun signs at the start reminded me of the famous James Bond opening credits, known for their brilliant graphics and girls.
A few decades back we had a T.V. Serial called “Mr.Yogi”, where also a young NRI selects few girls to meet before his planned marriage. In each episode he used to meet a new girl from a different family and background. And I still remember, that I enjoyed the T.V. serial many times more than the current “What’s Your Rashee”. In all, a big disappointment from the director who’s all last 3 movies, are there in my “Movies To See Before You Die” list.
Rating : 1.5 / 5
