Banner: Dharma Productions & Excel Entertainment
Producer: Hiroo Yash Johar, Karan Johar, Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Akhtar
Director: Nitya Mehra
Star Cast: Siddharth Malhotra, Katrina Kaif, Ram Kapoor et al
Music: Amaal Mallik, Badshah, Jasleen Royal, Bilal Saeed & Prem Hardeep
Debutant director Nitya Mehra who has been an assitant director on many big projects has made a complete mish mash of her debutant directorial offering namely Baar Baar Dekho. Perhaps she completely failed to grasp the correct meaning of the “Time Travel” genre of filmmaking. And once again it was wrong on her part to join the pieces of foreign films like The Family Man & Click and even Indian films like Love Story 2050, Fun2shh…….! & Acton Replayy.
The scripted scenario of Baar Baar Dekho kicks off with the birth of Jai Verma (Siddharth Malhotra) & Diya Kapoor (Katrina Kaif) in Delhi & London respectively. Post that, Diya Kapoor’s family settles down in India (Delhi, to be specific). As “time” progresses, Jai & Diya grow up together and fall in love with each other. After years of knowing each other, one day, when “painter” Dia proposes marriage to the “Maths obsessed Professor” Jai, he becomes petrified with the very thought of marriage. Right before their wedding day, Diya takes Jai to a plush house that is gifted to them by her rich father (Ram Kapoor). This gift not just hurts the self respect of Jai, but also makes him confess to Diya that he is just not ready for marriage because his main focus is his career. Hearing that, a heartbroken Diya leaves Jai promising never to return back. Post that, a grief-stricken Jai lands up gulping a full bottle of champagne. And when he wakes up next morning, he sees the world & “Timezone” around him totally changed. He sees himself transported into his future which shakes the ground below him completely. On one hand, while he sees himself resigning from a dream job at Harvard University (for which he had strived so hard), on the other hand, he sees his wife Diya divorcing him and moving on. If that wasn’t enough, Jai “lives through” many different crucial stages of his life.
So debutant director Nitya Mehra seriously needs to pick up some more crash course in direction to perfect her directorial skills before taking up any other film for independent direction and once again take the audiences for granted and take them on an unending and pointless merry go round of a “Time Travel” journey that too at the producer’s expense.
Performance wise Siddharth Malhotra is good in parts and bad in most of the parts especially in old age role and when he his constantly dashing to & fro in the “Time Machine”. Katrina Kaif disappoints big time, maybe its almost time for her to quit the Bollywood scenario soon enough before testing the audiences patience anymore. While all the other actors including Ram Kapoor also have failed to salvage the film.
Tail Piece: Baar Baar Dekho is a totally forgettable movie of 2016. Although the classy multiplex audience may visit the theatre for “Time Pass”. But it is certainly not a common man’s cup of tea not even as a “Time Pass”.
