Priyanka Chopra| Hurman Baweja| New Release| What’s Your Raashee

What were you thinking Ashi? – I mean Ashutosh Gowarikar. The hangover still looms large of this cinematic adaptation on astrological literature that isn’t entirely logical or amusing.
Adapted from US based Gujarati writer Madhu Rye’s novel Kimball Ravenswood , which has already been made into a TV series ‘ Mr. Yogi ’ (1989) by Ketan Mehta and adapted into theatre as ‘ A Suitable Bride ’ by Naushil Mehta, the premise of What’s Your Raashee? is interesting but the execution isn’t as appealing.

Yogesh Patel (Hurman Baweja) is the last rescue for his debt-ridden Gujarati family. He will inherit his grandfather’s property on marriage and so his family calls him from Chicago and persuades him to get married. Silly as it may sound, the marriage date is fixed, but the bride hunt is to begin.

Yogesh agrees to meet a dozen damsels (Priyanka Chopra), one each from the 12 zodiac signs and choose his bride. In less than a fortnight’s time he meets them all, sings song with each, visits his grandpa in Gujarat, checks-in a hotel room for reasons unknown and gets married by the end.

The basic idea of the story to give diverse perspectives through different characters holds appeal. The gamble of casting the same actress (Priyanka Chopra) in 12 different characters rather than having multiple actresses play the parts pays off pretty well. However the director’s justification on the resemblance of the different characters appears plain corny and is absolutely avoidable. So is the scene when two of these characters confront each other for no good reason.

Through its individual subplots, the screenplay attempts to explore different aspects to matrimony which range from social (child marriage), communal (virginity), wacky (punar janam ), unconventional (prenuptial agreement), familial (forced marriage, suppressed female ambitions) to greed (dowry). Some familiar and some unfamiliar themes are touched though most of the episodes are shallow-sketched with brittle backdrops. Supplementing a song to each track doesn’t impart enough depth to the drama. It almost qualifies for a musical countdown show with a 13th track emerging as a recap of the earlier dozen.
Another setback is that with as many as 12 Priyanka Chopra, one intermittently gets puzzled in identifying one from the other. Twelve characters are too much for an instant recall. After a point, the boy-girl encounters gets repetitive with cyclic sessions of ‘ What do you do? What are you hobbies? ’ interrogation. The pacing is slow and for a simplistic romantic comedy, What’s Your Raashee is tediously long at a 3 hour 30 minute runtime. And despite that the narrative lacks conviction.

There are dollops of humour in the writing and Hurman’s perfect timing complements the antics of Priyanka’s characters. But at many instances, the gag is simply stretched or falls flat. The supposed spoof song (on reincarnation) almost seems as if in a serious shade. The climax recap song is smartly edited and another numberMaanunga Maanunga (though with a Love Story 2050 hangover) is imaginatively choreographed. Some characters seem to be designed differently out of deliberation (like a jeweler father) while the end is so conveniently resolved that it makes you wonder if there was any cash-crisis to start with.

Priyanka Chopra is expressive in each of her characters though some are just too shallow and repetitive. She glides effortlessly into each avatar switching her body language, dialect and performance very smoothly and is beautiful in, both, her appeal and act. Hurman Baweja has a comfortable screen presence and a compelling connect with the viewer. Rajesh Vivek is still in the Lagaan hangover. Darshan Zariwala hams it up every now and then.
The mystery on who will Yogesh marry in the end doesn’t hold much thrill as he himself isn’t certain of his choice. He is confused with most options open till the end. The viewer is exhausted for the exit door is still closed.