Aashiqui 2 Hindi Movie
Although the original came 23 years ago, the second part isn't a remake. It's a sequel. And no, even at that the Bhatts don't take off from where the first film ended, in their usual format they convert their musical hit of 1990, Aashiqui, into a franchise and present a romantic saga that according to them should cater to the young guns. Does it really? We tell you.
So we have a rockstar Rahul Jaykar aka RJ (Aditya Roy Kapur) who has tasted enough success and is already spiraling downwards courtesy is undying addiction to alcohol and an inexplicable detest of fame. His wayward ship finds shore in a bar where he first hears Arohi (Shraddha Kapoor) croon one of his superhit numbers. Cupid strikes and he takes a task upon himself to build a career for Arohi. She becomes successful much too soon but doesn't let the fame get to her. Her focus clearly remains on her lover RJ while his entirely on his alcohol. You then see a sudden spurt of career interest in him only to find that he has lost his voice courtesy the spurious drinking and his ego starts pinching him to see the rise of Arohi and his downfall. Alcohol takes over once again and the film centers around it right till the end.
Touted as the musical romance of this year, Aashiqui 2 does have music that's become a hit among the masses but very smartly at that, the makers have only encashed the two tracks, Tum hi ho and Sun raha hai na, by playing it over and over again, not just in promos, even in the film. The song Sun raha hai na literally gets repeated many times till you get bored of it.
That be of the music, on the story too there's barely any innovation done and liberties are taken beyond measure. The film takes off with RJ's downfall, why you may ask? No reasons given. There's hardly any time spent on his backstory except for showing his addiction to alcohol. After a point it appears more a love story between RJ and Alcohol than RJ and Arohi or even some docu-drama supported by Alcohol Anonymous.
Even the run time of the film doesn't help matters. The 134 films dedicated to this sordid saga makes the story appear in loop going on repeatedly. Aashiqui 2 also heavily borrows from Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan starrer Abhimaan and Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar but even at that fails to do justice to either of the films.
To add to the agony you have two incompetent actors. For a character that remains largely intoxicated for most parts of the film, Aditya Roy Kapur appears extremely sober, wooden faced and incongruous. Shraddha Kapoor although appearing extremely pretty in the film, too fails to deliver as an actress. The Bhatt favourite Shaad Randhawa finds himself repeating his Awarapan act this time around too as the best friend/ally to the male lead. Mahesh Thakur doesn't get much scope to perform and Salil Acharya also repeated in a similar role as that of Awarapan gets wasted.
In short, Aashiqui 2 is an endless romantic saga that may somewhat work with the Mills & Boons junkies but for the practical new age lot, the film will bore you to death.
