3/5 * Half Girlfriend has its moments – Movie Review

have not read Chetan Bhagat’s book Half Girlfriend, so will base my review on what I saw in the film. The storyline of a mismatch couple in the form of a suave south Delhi chic Riya (Shradda Kapoor) and a Hindi medium basket ball player Madhav( Arjun Kapoor) piques interest. Shraddha does a good job of acting as the complexed rich  girl (abusive father who beats her mother ), sadly  on the other hand Arjun looks a bit lost in her presence. Agreed complex love is difficult to portray but we expect better from him. He has taken efforts to learnt to speak Bihari and kudos for that. Director Mohit Suri also took pains to ensure that Bihar is not painted in a bad light. The fact that Riya agrees to get married at 19 years and then returns home quickly (abusive husband again) is a telling comment on how fickle today’s gen is. The music is good and reflects the mood of the film quite well.
Mohit also brings out the concept of half girlfriend, where a couple are in love yet can’t take it forward due to various issues. Vikrant Massey acts as the  typical Indian male friend Shailesh, who asks Madhav to try to bed Riya as that is the only barometer of a serious relationship.
The visuals of Patna & the Ganga ghats are quite scenic. The dig about there being only one five star hotel in the city might not go down well with the city mandarins  though. Some stand out scenes are – the English speech bit, which leads to the couple coming together again (smart plugging of Swach Bharat), but the Bill Gates dupe is a bit lame. Seema Biswas’s (Bandit Queen) short role of a caring mother who shows Riya the mirror is apt.

Cut to the Big Apple, where Madhav indulges in pub crawling and in the process also gets arrested for trying to find his love, yet does not lose his job. The argument with New York settled Shailesh, who he accuse of forgetting his rorts, is another telling comment on how globalization is making the world lose it’s unique differences. Madhav’s joke with an American NRI gal who can’t speak Hindi about the desi translation of friends with benefits was quirky .

All in all a decent movie with a few jarring moments.
Ratings – 3/5