BNA INDIA January/February 2015

FILM REVIEW
HAPPY ENDING
Disappointing and a waste of Govinda
Friends who have seen Raj Nidimoru and Krishna
D.K.’s (aka Raj & D.K.) earlier ventures
such as “99”, “Shor In The City” or the recent
“Go Goa Gone”, would readily agree that the
director duo really showcased some exceptional
talent in these three films, moving ahead than
a routine Bollywood project made on the same
old set routine patterns. Hence, watching the
witty promos of
“Happy Ending”, well
supported by a few peppy
dance numbers and
an interesting cast really
made everyone expect
a fairly enjoyable
rom-com from the
team once again.
But perhaps crime
thrillers remain their
proved forte and a romantic
comedy is not
exactly the genre Raj &
D.K. are comfortable
with. Because what
they present in “Happy
Ending” is full of all
been there-seen before sequences with nothing
fresh except few occasional good dialogues or
only four entertaining scenes of Govinda.
Taking its clear references for certain insertions
(like the book reading one) from “Before Sunset”
(2004) and more, “Happy Ending” begins
on a fairly interesting note and then goes on to
become a boringly long ride with everything
predictable till the end. The romance loses all
its charm as it progresses and the writers remain
confused between their target audience
making a vain attempt to cater the viewers
within the country as well as abroad. In fact this
has been the dilemma or conflict seen in most
of the projects today when they try to incorporate
plots for both the diverse territories and in
the effort make a complete mess out of the film
deliberately. With no impressive performances
delivered by the lead pair, “Happy Ending”
once again wastes the gifted Govinda just like
“Kill Dil”. The veteran has only four to five
scenes in the entire film, but still manages to
give you at least something to cheer in those
few minutes, especially in the song “Nacho
Saare G Phaadke” offering his famous and
immensely enjoyable
dance moves. Saif Ali
Khan continues his ‘noshow’
post “Bullet Raja”
& “Humshakals”, plus
Ileana D'Cruz gives another
similar yet sweet
kind of appearance as
the fellow writer. Ranveer
Shorey tries hard to
contribute his bit &
does bring some rare
smiles with his witty dialogues
but Kalki
Koechlin, Preity Zinta
and Kareena Kapoor
fail to add anything significant
to this long,
painful watch in their small cameos.
Music remains the only saving grace in the film
(with few catchy dance tracks), which unfortunately
doesn’t get the support it deserved from
the script. On the other hand Cinematography
as well as Background score do not come up
with any extra ordinary feature to mention here.
In short, it’s really strange why the director duo
chose this kind of stale and overdone subject
for their next venture - or was this another case
of the producer interfering into the script as per
his own vision as always. In any case, “Happy
Ending” is not at all a “happy” watch to recommend
with nothing else to offer except Govinda.
So you can easily give it a skip to be later
watched at any Cable Channel or on Home
Video when its official DVD got released.
BNA INDIA January / February 2015
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