Yaariyan, Hindi Bollywood Film Movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * *

Hindi Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Conning the youth with a musical serenade

Film: Yaariyan

Cast: Himansh Kohli, Serah Singh, Nicole Faria, Dev Sharma, Rakul Preet, Evelyn Sharma, Sayali Bhagat, Deepti Naval, Gulshan Grover

Director: Divya Khosla Kumar

Rating: *  *

T series in it’s hey day was known to develop hit music first and then weave a story into it in order to convert it into a film. Remember ‘Lal Dupatta Mal Mal Ka and several others that were better known for their music rather than content?)  . Divya Khosla Kumar’s well marketed and superbly publicized maiden directorial effort, ‘Yaariyan’ appears no different from that earlier con. The music is terrific , there’s no two ways about that but the story is completely lacking in consistency, content or believability.

A hotch-potch of genres and cross-cinema-references, this romantic-comedy-adventure-drama-musical borrows ideas from several hit films both Bollywood and Hollywood to fashion it’s patchwork quilt narrative. From the Jai-Veeru kind of brotherhood, to ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’ triangle of love, lust and innocence, to grand-masti sorta skimpiness in creative thought, to nat-geo styled sporting adventures, all tucked-in by reason of the flimsiest of premises, this film is a complete mess.

The story is largely set in Sikkim. A young lad Lakshya(Himansh Kohli) whose only motive is to share a passionate kiss with a girl goes all out to get the college hottie compromised. Caught in the act, he and his friends are set a challenge by the college Principal(Gulshan Grover) . They have to participate in a two-stage competition beginning in Australia with it’s finale in Sikkim.  Failure in this competition would mean losing their college grounds to the Australian folks.

It’s a weird set-up and the exposition only makes it worse. The drama appears crudely manufactured and the practiced motions appear completely fake. It’s a pea-brained college campus tripping that fancies itself to be the true representation of today’s youth.  A bizarre representation if you ask me. The hallucinatory pattern of thoughts and ideas herein are quite simply confounding!

The only good thing about this film is it’s terrific music , expecially the Honey Singh composed and sung, peppy youth anthem that plays twice in the film and Baarish –hauntingly rendered with soulful pathos  , composed by Mithoon. The ABCD pyjama party number is also quite interesting. Also the cinematography by Sameer Arya with it’s picture postcard bent, is befitting of a romantic adventure. Unfortunately Divya Khosla Kumar’s story and direction,  co-scripting with Sanjeev Dutta, and editing by Arief Sheikh  lack fine-tuning and therein lies the main reason for this misery!

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