HEROINE

Cast: Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, Divya Dutta
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Genre: Drama

“What success brings to you; it takes lot more in return from you” these lines from Helen (playing a veteran actress) sums up what Heroine is all about. Madhur Bhandarkar has always been associated with a certain brand of cinema – realistic, contemporary, women centric, hard hitting... This time he brings story of a Bollywood Diva, her quest for stardom, her struggle with failure, her dilemma between success and happiness...

Mahi Arora (Kareena Kapoor) is a leading actress of Hindi cinema. She is glamorous, successful, chased by media, seeked by big banners and big producers. She is in love with Aryan (Arjun Rampal), a star actor. But things don’t quite work out between them which leads to Mahi getting in mental depression and ending up ruining her career. At this juncture, she meets Pallavi (Divya Dutta) who’s a sharp PR professional. With the new resolve and the help of image makeover, Mahi gets back her position. With success also comes love in the form of Angad (Randeep Hooda) the vice captain of Indian cricket team, who is charmed by the beauty of Mahi. But can she handle all the adulation and control the biggest danger to her success......herself!

The biggest problem with Heroine is that it gives you the feeling of déjà vu. Page 3 parties, rivalries among movie stars, sexual favors for getting advantage, homosexuality.....we have seen it all in Page 3, Fashion & Dirty Picture. After a while the sequences seem to repeat themselves. In fact the length of the movie could have been short by 25 min at least.

Kareena Kapoor tries very hard in what she declares as “role of her life”. She looks gorgeous as a Diva and vulnerable as a girl looking for true love. She gets it right at most places but her emotions become repetitive after a while because of the limitations of script. Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, Divya Dutta all pitch in decent performances. Music is not a big part of the movie but couple of songs are ok.

Madhur Bhandarkar seemed to have repeated himself in this movie which time and again provides flashbacks of his earlier work. He still shows his grip as a storyteller at times, but the problem is that he has nothing new to say.

I will rate Heroine, 2 out of 5. The movie might have left a better impression with a more novel script, better editing and had it released a decade ago.

Rating: 2/5