Meri Pyaari Bindu Review {2.0/5} & Review Rating
There have been many films titled after hit tracks on yesteryears. Examples to this are JAANE TU… YA JAANE NA, BACHNA AE HASEENO, KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA, MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES, YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI to name a few. This week’s release is MERI PYAARI BINDU, which happens to be the hit track from yesteryear’s hit film PADOSAN. Will MERI PYAARI BINDU be able to be as ‘adorable’ as the title or will it find resistance from the audiences, let’s find out!
MERI PYAARI BINDU is an essentially slice of life love story between two lovers and the ups and downs that their lives are subjected to. The film starts off with the suicide attempt by the novel writer Abhimanyu Roy aka Bubla (Ayushmann Khurrana) because he is not able to forget the girl whom he loved so selflessly. The girl in question is the free spirited Bindu Shankarnarayanan (Parineeti Chopra), who, despite living life on her own terms, leaves everything in life incomplete. Since Abhimanyu had been staying away from his parents for a long time, his parents fake their divorce and call him back home to Kolkatta. Even though he gets angry on his parents for telling him a lie, his house brings back all the memories about his childhood wherein his then neighbour Bindu had gifted him with something that she claimed ‘will change his life’. The film, then, dips into an array of flashback events which mirrors Abhimanyu’s incessantly selfless help towards Bindu, where he does everything possible that will make her happy. Be it helping Bindu realise her dream of becoming a singer and release her own album or offering her a shoulder to cry on everytime things didn’t work out for her. One fine day, life crashes for Bindu when her mother dies because of her father’s drunk driving. That’s when; she decides to shift to Australia, much to the shock of everyone around, including Abhimanyu, who, now, gives up his writing career to become a banker. Does Bindu ever come back to India and enter Abhimanyu’s life, what happens to the unspoken love story between the two, does Bindu ever forgive her father for her mother’s death and what ultimately happens to Abhimanyu’s ‘pyaari Bindu’ is what forms the rest of the film.
Even though the promos of MERI PYAARI BINDU tried to be unique, the sad part is that, they only landed up confusing the viewers about the plot of the film. The film, on the other hand, only adds more fuel to this confusion. The film’s story and screenplay (Suprotim Sengupta) is way too confusing and convoluted, especially in the stretched second half. The irregular timelines shown in the film adds to the already muddled up plot. Even though the film has its share of comic moments, the dialogues (Suprotim Sengupta, Soumik Sen) are good at certain places in the form of the one-liners.
After having worked as an Assistant Director in highly acclaimed films like THE NAMESAKE, WATER and VANITY FAIR, Akshay Roy makes his debut with MERI PYAARI BINDU. While his direction is strictly okay, it’s the lack of a taut screenplay which majorly hampers his direction. Despite all the glitches in the film, Akshay Roy manages to sail his way through the film. The film’s first half is interesting, breezy and sunny, which will have everyone take an instant liking to it. The tempo of the first half is fast paced and in sync with today’s times, making one will feel connected with the proceedings. It’s the second half however that crashes the film like a pack of cards.
There moments in the film that are conveniently squeezed in. Example of the same is the scene where Parineeti gets married in a split second after all the past happenings. It is something that the audiences will find tough to digest, considering her past track record of ditching most of the guys in earlier occasions. Secondly, the aspect of creating a mixed tape in the film seems to have been thrown in for convenience, considering that the mixed tape just does not form an integral part of the film in any way. In the same breath, one can easily say that the film’s makers tried to play it smart by having the retro songs’ mixed tape as its hook, probably due to the lack of an impressive original musical score in the film. Additionally, the film also suffers due to the presence of many unnecessary scenes, which look extremely thrusted in the film. Examples to this are Parineeti’s house hunting scene and even the meaninglessly stretched final sequence. Neither of the lead characters’ ambitions get fulfilled in the film, even the message that the film was trying to convey could not be deciphered. In totality, the film comes across inclined and highlighting more of friendship than love.
With a title like MERI PYAARI BINDU, the film, in totality belongs to Parineeti Chopra. After having done KILL DIL as her last film (her cameo in DISHOOM notwithstanding), Parineeti Chopra delivers a strong performance in MERI PYAARI BINDU. Like always, she looks effortless and at ease with her character of being lively, chirpy and energetic. It won’t be wrong to term her as the soul of the film. On the other hand, Ayushman Khurana churns out a decent performance in the film and delivers what was expected of him. Rest of the actors (Prakash Belawadi, Rajatava Datta, Aparajita Adhya, Kharaj Mukherjee) play their roles convincingly.
Both, the music and the background score (Sachin–Jigar) are strictly average. The film’s popular track ‘Haareya Main Dil Haareya’ was missing from the film. The film's cinematography (Tushar Kanti Ray) is also average. The film’s editing (Shweta Venkat Mathew) definitely should have been razor sharp and crisper, more so towards the second half. Doing away with some of the unwanted scenes would’ve helped.
On the whole, MERI PYAARI BINDU is a one-time watch which fails big time on account of its confused plot and convoluted screenplay. At the Box-Office, it will turn out to be an average fare. Disappointing.
