The brownie points for Farah from my side, ends there itself. If she still feels that making fun of Bollywood icons (in HNY its Saroj Khan's turn) is cool and her monotonous-to-death humor still looks good on-screen as off it, then she is hugely mistaken. I presume, she also accepts this fact and that’s the reason she tries to hide everything behind greased 8-pack abs of a SuperStar and her success hinges on devout followers of King Khan. If somebody disagrees, replace SRK with any other ‘humane’ actor from Bollywood in HNY, and you would get your answer.
HNY is shot on a large scale - the visuals are breathtaking, costume designing is at par with any other magnum opus and basic premise of the flick was quite an interesting idea – if not novel. The money spent on the extrinsic features was compensated by hiring no dialogue writers and choreographers. Dialogues are ‘khichdi’ from all previous SRK’s movies and as I said at the start – Farah thinks it’s funny. I was waiting for ‘Ek Chutki Sindoor..’ too; not sure if that was also used somewhere because I dozed off in between. If dance competition is the crux of your movie and you don’t have any dance or song routine that you can think off once you are out of theatre, then that guarantees a self-introspection. Compare ‘Lovely’ with a ‘Sheila’ and Farah would understand that she needs an outsider at the helm ……. Now!!!! If I would say HNY is a predictable affair then that would be an understatement of this decade. The Climax of such movies is always predictable, but unfortunately in HNY every scene gives you an idea of a subsequent one.
SRK sleep walks his part as there is nothing new to offer for him in this (as 89.99% of his movies) barring working-out for couple of scenes to showcase his chiseled frame. Boman Irani is an actor who always performs in extremes – either he performs on unparalleled tangent or he hams his way annoyingly. Sadly in HNY, he is in latter avatar. Vivaan Shah was fine for his debut and his real test starts now. Deepika would be first to accept that she looked good and acted better in many of her previous outings. Farah thinks Sexy Deepika imitating disgusting Rakhi Sawant in ‘Dance Pooja hia…’ dialogue is funny. Well….. Err…. No Comments!! Sonu ‘shirtless’ Sood was unintentional hilarious but the movie belongs to Abhishek Bacchan. We all know he has penchant for comic roles as we have seen in Bol Bacchan. In HNY he was in full unabashed form and his ‘Esnakes Dance’ is sure shot hit. Infact he has the best scene in the movie, for me – at the climax – No Spoilers please!!
Good thing about HNY? Last half an hour!! Farah is shrewd story-teller, for sure. She knows Public loves Heist/Robbery/Revenge Dramas and normally such flicks end on a high. And when you amalgamate the same with a tinge of patriotism then – Kya kehne!! But in order to reach to that bright spot – aka last half an hour, you need to cross ‘Aag ka Dariya’ i.e. excruciating and whopping 2 and half hours. Ready for the Challenge?
HSR Verdict: Borrowing and twisting a dialogue from the movie. There are two types of moviegoers: first - SRK/Sallu (and alike) blind followers/worshipers who get ‘Kick’ in every ‘Happy New Year’ and second – all other sane ones who only expect undiluted and impartial entertainment. Second Category normally Stays in Peace!!
