Befikre Trailer Tries Too Hard To Be Cool, Adi Takes a Dig At Himself

Here’s hoping and praying that Vani Kapoor who plays the lead in Befikre justifies her director’s faith in her abilities. In the eagerly-awaited trailer she is underwhelming in her overwhelming overtures as a hottie on a hormonal high.

Aditya Chopra seems to see in his leading lady  we unfortunately do not get to see in the trailer about two Indians who are hellbent on giving Paris a reputation for being a city of incorrigible kissers.Goodness, isn’t there more to life in Paris than making love?

Vani Kapoor whom we saw last(for the first time) in  Aditya Chopra’s Shudh Desi Romance as a  runaway bride here exchanges the bridal finery for super-chic Parisian summer-wear. She is a designer’s dream.Her  attitude in both films remains distinctly defiant. She  is out to have fun with a  guy, this time the masti–khor Ranveer Singh(the last time it was Sushant Singh Rajput).And no one can dare to stop her.

It isn’t very clear what she is so defiant about.Or where exactly she is heading with all that pent-up mojo.But wherever she is heading, her co-star Ranveer Singh is a furlong ahead.He is so charged and ….umm….ready she seems quite an wannabe in matching her co-star’s joie de vivre. Befikre is a film about a couple that couldn’t care less about rules. And we really couldn’t less about about their disregard for rules. Where are the other  characters on the trailer?  Is this a film only about the blast tango in Paris???

From the moment Ranveer and Vani introduce themselves to one another as  Dharamand Shyra we know they are doing an updated revved-up horny version of  the 1957 classic An Affair To Remember.Except that the lead pair lacks the durable compatibility  of Deborrah Kerr and Cary Grant in the original.

Vani and Ranveer are all over each other. There seems to be little story to tell  besides their crackling hissing rumbustious togetherness. Her fear of commitment. His patient respect for her delayed yes.Ah, the story of Ranveer’s love life!. When she issues apre-condition about no commitment she sounds like Anushka Sharma from Band BaajaBaaraat transported to Paris.

In a bikini of course. Except unlike other Yash Raj heroines who wear a bikini to the beach or the swimmingpool with a casual grace, here Vani Kapoor lets Ranveer and the camera have a vivid look at her derriere .

Damn posterity. The posterior is very important to the proceedings. In a scene meant to take a dig at the changing mores which govern on-screen romance Vani kapoor, eternally wedded to her bad-ass persona in every moment of the trailer, scoffs atRanveer for expecting  guy to to turn around to look at her , a la Shah Rukh Khan inAditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.

“That’s is so 1990s.I am not looking at him walk away so he can palat. I am just checking out  his ass,” drawls the prickly diva.

Ok then.Are we to presume women didn’t indulge in this erotic pas-time in the past?And is Adi declaring his benchmark romance in DDDLJ to be obsolete??!!

This is  Aditya Chopra sprucing up his cinematic  vision to  match what he thinks to be the morality of the current times. We have seen Sooraj Bajratya jumping and skipping over his comfort zone in Main Prem Ki  Deewani Hoon with disastrous results Let’s hope Adi has more for us than Ranveer stripping to his (red) underwear for a public dance(as Vani’s mouth opens in a rounded exclamation), Vani stripping for a public dance(as Ranveer’s mouth opens in an exclamation), Ranveer–Vani making love in a car,Ranveer–Vani making love in a hotel room, Ranveer–Vani smooching and dancing in every nook and corner that Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani explored in their recent music video.

Ooof, this is exhausting and at the moment, senseless. We hope it gets better in the film.

Rating: ** ½