Everybody knows by now that Pyaar Impossible is about “1 Beauty + 1 Geek”, and how after a series of circumstances, the two fall in love with each other, or, rather, Beauty finally realises how much Geek loves her, and she in turn, becomes receptive to his love.
How many times have we heard of this run-of-the-mill story before? Hmm… Let’s see now – Notting Hill, Shrek, I Love You, Beth Cooper, and of course, the Disney classic, Beauty and the Beast, to name just a few. So what makes Pyaar Impossible any different from these movies? Sadly, nothing.
The story begins with the protagonists in college, where Alisha Merchant (Priyanka Chopra) fails to acknowledge the presence of Abhay Sharma (Uday Chopra), despite his saving her life. Dismayed, he resigns to his fate with a sigh and a dialogue – “Kuch Pyaar impossible hote hain.” Seven years down the line, Abhay is shown to have invented a software program which is stolen by the suave Siddharth (Dino Morea), who has plans of passing it off as his own creation. Abhay’s pursuit of ‘Siddhu’ lands him in Singapore, where, surprise of surprises, he finds his long lost love, Alisha. He follows her to her house, and she mistakes him for her child’s nanny (she’s a divorcee), and hires him. Enter Varun (Morea’s actual identity in the movie), a smart alec who manages to impress Alisha and sell ‘his’ software to her company with equal ease. So, it’s finally up to the geeky Abhay to get the credit that he deserves for his software, clear his name and confess his love to the gorgeous Alisha.
The biggest drawback of the movie is its script, penned by Uday Chopra. Yeah, that’s right. Uday Chopra. He’s written the dialogues of the movie as well. Anyway, getting back to the point, it is hard to believe that Abhay is ‘in love’ with the college hottie, Alisha, with whom he’s never exchanged even a single word. So, basically, the audience is made to understand that he loves her for her looks, and her looks alone (for no other explanation is given in the movie). He confesses to still being ‘in love’ with her after seven years (even as his dad, played by Anupam Kher, classifies it correctly as an obsession).
The movie wants the audience to believe that love transcends the boundaries of physical beauty. Alright, so maybe it does. But then, what explains the scene where Abhay explains Alisha how people falling only for good-looking people is a “duniya ka neeyam“? Isn’t that pretty ironic, considering the fact that Abhay himself is a part of that vicious neeyam, having fallen for the bold and beautiful Alisha? Also, it is extremely hard to digest the fact that Alisha was naive enough to actually believe that guys do not show any interest in unattractive girls, exclaiming in extreme shock, “I can’t believe ki log itne shallow ho sakte hain.” Reality check, babe. You don’t exactly live in Wonderland, you know.
Unfathomable is Ms. Alisha’s stupidity in trusting her 6 year old daughter, Tania (Advika Yadav) to a male nanny whom she has just met, as is her reaction when Abhay’s ‘intentions’ are exposed to her by the conniving Varun. She doesn’t give Abhay a chance to explain his position, and ironically, in the very next sentence she claims tearfully,” Maine tum par trust kiya tha Abhay. Ab samjhaane ke liye kuch bacha hai?”
What’s noteworthy in the movie, though, is the stellar performances by both the Chopras. While Miss Chopra fits the role of a divorced, smart and sassy working mother to the T, it is actually Mr. Chopra who turns out to be the real scene stealer. His enactment of the ugly, underrated and bespectacled nerd, Abhay Sharma, is a far cry from his previous debacle, Neil and Nicky, and was a major improvement. The scenes where he continuously calls up his father for advice, and where he shyly confesses to Alisha,”Main koi prince charming toh hun nahin,” are extremely endearing, something which gives the audience enough reason to take an instant liking to him. His bonding with little Tania is completely believable; nothing sudden or miraculous. Kudos to director Jugal Hansraj for handling the scenes between both the Chopras with delicate care, which is what makes it so much easier for the audience to believe and relate to how Alisha starts falling for the ugly geek. Hansraj adds to the upcoming and extremely talented crop of directors (read: Kunal Deshmukh, Ishaan Trivedi, Ayaan Mukherji, etc.) who know how to connect with the youth.
The film’s cinematography (courtesy, Santosh Thundiyil) could have been rated as first class, had it not been failure on Thundiyil’s to capture Singapore’s real beauty. Buildings are not the only aspect of Singapore, Mr. Thundiyil.
Music composer duo Salim-Sulaiman manage to come up with a decent score for the movie, with the feather on their cap being the upbeat (and instant hit) “Alisha”.
Uday Chopra did a near excellent job with the dialogues – they were very real, very contemporary, something that today’s youth can completely relate to. There were of course, moments when one felt that the some of the “in” expressions were very forced; it’s high time that we realised that everything American isn’t always hip. We’re still a long time away from actually using certain terms and mannerisms, and yes, Priyanka’s fake accent did tend to get on one’s nerves time and again.
On the whole, though, Pyaar Impossible has nothing which hasn’t already been tried and tested. It’s like an old wine in a new bottle, except that the new bottle has nothing really new to offer. Go watch it only if you’re a Chopra fan.
