2 States: overstated

Arjun Kapoor underperforms to make an ordinary script seem blande.


Rafay Mahmood April 22, 2014
To the misfortune of the film-maker, there are so many intimate scenes edited by the censor board that it’ll take you sometime to figure out why the film seems so rushed. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI:


Chetan Bhagat has over time become the JK Rowling of Bollywood.  He may not be as creative, influencing an entire new wave of fantasy in the post-modern readers, but he has definitely polished the ‘Shining India’ theme for the modern readers and viewers.  3 Idiots saw a boy from a not-so-well-known background chasing smaller, but significant things in life instead of cramming up text books and eventually making his own empire out of it.  Kai Po Che! on the other hand, was more direct and in sync with the ground realities of modern day capitalist India. It was a story of three friends and how their paths in life cross each other and social responsibilities make them question their relationship. The only friend who succeeds in achieving his dream is an entrepreneur, who always took calculated risks in life. The one who gets killed always took decisions rather impulsively (such as paying special attention to coaching a Muslim child).


This synchronisation of Bhagat’s narratives with a new spin on ‘Shining India’ gives film-makers enough room for creating an equally dramatic and inspirational experience. That is the reason why Bhagat should have restricted himself to writing books that ended up being adapted by film-makers and not writing books for the purpose of adaptation by film-makers. 2 States is a clear example of the latter and a major misfire from both Bhagat and the director Abhishek Varman.

The story begins with Krish (Arjun Kapoor), a Punjabi boy arguing with his friend Ananya (Alia Bhatt) who is a Tamil girl from Chennai about small matters such as the quality of food.  From friends they become lovers and share the bed with each other — but that obviously has been edited out of the print that is running in Pakistani cinemas. To the misfortune of the film-maker, the intimate scenes are so abruptly edited by the censor board that it’ll take you sometime to figure out why the film seems so rushed and pointless in the first half hour.



Story moves on, but of course the arguments between the two leads remain, which in the larger picture represent the conflict between the Tamil culture and the Punjabi culture. However, right when it seems that the cultural conflict is essentially the hindrance between their marriage and also presumably the plot of the film, we find out that fathers from both the families also have psychological problems. All of this adds up to a rather stretched second half after a relatively engaging start to the story, which also had the most loosely performed song of the year  Locha-e-Ulfat.

That does not overshadow the cultural conflict, which is established by a few very good one-liners such as when the Punjabi mom whines over the fact that her future daughter-in-law finished both of her juice packs.

However, the disappointing part of the film is that all such excitement and highs and lows are generated by the side characters, so much so, that it often seems that it’s only the families of the couple who are interested in putting up a show and not the couple itself.

Despite repeated attempts by Alia Bhatt to generate some sort of chemistry with Kapoor, boredom oozed out of every single frame that they shared together. Bhatt was consistently trying to infuse some sort of a reaction from Kapoor, who on the other hand remained timid and restricted throughout the narrative, which also proved to be the film’s fatal flaw.

The script was mediocre with its set of clichés such as the drunkard father, but even that could have been saved by a relatively talented male lead. Kapoor’s monotony is the film’s weakest link; after all he gets more screen time than Alia Bhatt and fails to make any use of it, apart from mimicking the not- very-talented Abhishek Bachan on several occasions.

Abhishek Verman needs to choose his actors wisely and Bhagat needs to think less like an extension of Bollywood and more like a novelist.

Verdict: 2 States is just a mediocre script that could have been saved by solid performances from the leads.  It is a sort of film that is not worth buying a cinema ticket for, but rather, watch it to kill time, when it runs on cable. 

Rating: 1.5/5

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23rd, 2014.

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COMMENTS (17)

Raj - USA | 9 years ago | Reply

Some have rightly said here that Pakistanis cannot understand multiculturalism. So far I had an idea that Pakistanis also have various cultures in their land. But this review proved that I have misunderstood Pakistanis. A person born in Mumbai in a tamil brahmin family, who grew up in Kolkata can understand and enjoy it. Most of India is like me. To me this movie is far better than Highway. Arjun Kapoor was far better than Rajdeep Hooda. May be Pakistanis like those types of characters and cannot appreciate soft characters. This critic mentions Alia Bhatt complaining about food but has not understood what the movie wants to say. She is relishing chicken and wants beer in Gujrat (where it is prohibited because it is the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi) and at the same time saying that she is from a pure vegetarian family. Other narratives in the movie, when they describe the punjabi homes, the furniture and even the inside of the homes with that in south India can be understood only by Indians. It was also laughable when Alia Bhatt's dad passes on when he was offered alcohol in front of others but enjoys it when his wife is not at home. I watched this movie with my American friends and they do not know any Indian language. They could follow only the sub-titles and were laughing and enjoying the movie thoroughly. They could understand the finer points that the movie has described not just in words and actions but also visually. They realized that every state of India is a country by itself, with cultures, attaire and habits that are so different. After the movie, we went to have some Indian beer and food at an Indian restaurant and I had time to boast with them that there are more than 100 languages in India, each with its own script and not just this but we also have different calendars in India and told them that we just had our new year in south India on April 14, whereas in the north they have it around October. I also boasted that Sanskrit the root language of many Indian languages is over 5000 years old. I think that this critic should not have attempted to review this movie with such a limited knowledge and experience.

Raza Arif | 9 years ago | Reply

Totally agree...it was just a waste of time. I had high expectations when I saw the trailer but the actual film disappointed me. The lead had a monotonous character and I saw no progress till the end.

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