Half Girlfriend: Arjun Kapoor-Shraddha Kapoor film could have been decent, but why so much melodrama?  

Madhav wants to find out if Riya is his girlfriend. He also wants to find out if he is special to Riya. How do you find that out? Madhav’s friends enlighten him. They tell him that all he has to do is to take Riya to a room and see if she sleeps with him. Madhav takes Riya to his room in boys’ hostel. Riya lies down on Madhav’s bed to get some sleep while Madhav busies himself with a book. But Madhav has to find out if Riya is his girlfriend. So on the pretence that he’s feeling sleepy, Madhav lies down next to Riya on the same bed. As few minutes pass, we see Madhav forcing himself on Riya against her wishes. When Riya protests, Madhav gets furious and blurts out: “Rehti hai to reh, varna kat le”- a diluted version of an original line from Chetan Bhagat’s book- “Deti hai to de, warna kat le”. Chetan Bhagat translates this line into, “F*ck me or f*ck off.” in the book.

The scene has just the right amount of tension and intensity. It’s a clash of different ideologies and upbringing. It also reveals the true characters of both protagonists.

Madhav is a breed of men who think that they have an entitlement to a woman’s body. They think that men can’t be ‘just friends’ with women. Madhav is that kind of a man who can’t hang out with a woman for the sake of it. He is a man who thinks that a woman (if she is your girlfriend) must have sex with you. Madhav is a man who thinks that every relationship should have a name. He thinks in terms of extremes. He is a man who believes that if he helps a male friend then it’s friendship but if he helps a female friend it’s a favour.

Madhav’s background makes his character more complex. In Chetan Bhagat’s book, Madhav is your quintessentially average Indian man looking to befriend a girl for the sex. His only dream is to take a woman to bed.

Riya, on the other hand, is a modern woman but not without her own problems. Most men would like to see Riya as this manipulative woman who uses men for her own benefits. She wants a man’s company but doesn’t want to deal with his sexual urges. It’s Riya who will decide the progress of a relationship with her male friend (a fact that Madhav despises, to be manipulated by Riya). But does all that give Madhav a license to force himself on Riya? And shouldn’t Riya have enough self-respect to cut off all ties with Madhav? Or they are just humans, victims of their very own circumstances, desires and needs?

So when this scene ends, you want to know what happens next. And instantly realise: It’s Bollywood. The film takes a tumble after this scene and waddles in useless songs, bad acting, more bad acting and shallow emotions.

Half Girlfriend’s first half is decent. Arjun and Shraddha manage to hold your attention. Shraddha exudes a confidence and coolness required for her character. Arjun doesn’t fit the part. He is overweight and has a terrible Bihari accent. But Arjun manages to sway you. He also gets an able support from actors playing his friends — Vikrant Massey especially is just brilliant, his Bihari accent is music to your ears.

The problem begins when Arjun and Shraddha’s facial expressions don’t seem to budge in the second half. But that’s the problem with the performances in this film. You can learn basketball from NBA professional players, why can’t you work on your accent? You can work on your looks, why can’t you bring nuances, layers to your characters? Someone needs to tell Arjun that playing a poor boy from Bihar doesn’t mean he has to act ‘dumb’. Someone should really stop Mohit Suri from turning a movie into a music album. And someone needs to tell us why Arjun is always running in the film? And when we will get to see a different expression on Shraddha’s face?

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Instead of having more engaging, crisp dialogues, Mohit throws a song in a film whenever he can. Chetan Bhagat’s book at least has details if not depth. Makers also conveniently dropped Riya’s backstory from the book. Riya is a more complex character in the book. You don’t find any character arc in the movie. Other characters (like Riya’s husband Rohan) that could have been developed are dismissed here completely.

What could have been a decent film is botched up by laziness? What is a Half Girlfriend? Makers don’t have to really tell us what a ‘half girlfriend’ means. But at least they could have tried to show us what happens when a man is ready to commit and a woman is not (which could be vice-versa also).

Instead, we get a soppy Bollywood film.

Here’s a request, Bollywood. It’s just not enough to give your film a ‘trendy’, ‘cool’ title (wasn’t it a trick behind promoting Half Girlfriend), you also need to work on it to make it ‘cool’. And that requires efforts.

Half Girlfriend is not ‘cool’, it’s ‘fake’.