That Old World Charmlessness

CAST: Akshay Oberoi,Sandeepa Dhar,Monish Behl

rating: **

Fair-and-lovely Rajnandini Khandelwal (Dhar) helps her mother serve aloo poori to younger brother,father and grandmother at the breakfast table. This demure Ajmer girl keeps her eyes low and her dupatta high. She knows her function is to be a good daughter and sister. In short order,she will turn into a good wife and mother. An early twist in the tale has her arrive in Mumbai,and turn from a seedhi-saadhi,salwaar kameez-clad kanya into a short dress-wearing,beauty parlour-going modern young miss.

Anyone who’s watched films from the Rajshri banner will know what happens next in Isi Life Mein. Enraged father (Behl) will shake his finger at daughter’s suspiciously chummy collegemate Vivan (Oberoi). There will be loud recrimination: how can a daughter of their illustrious khaandan put their kul ki maryada at stake? Debutant director Vidhi Kasliwal,reportedly Sooraj Barjatya’s niece,airs the family wares all over again,before letting a late twist take the film away from the Rajshri template of good girls turning into good wives. But it comes so late that it might as well not have been there.

For a production house that’s been struggling with irrelevance,Isi Life Mein is not the way to go. College life in Mumbai — and how it can liberate shy small-town girls — translates into a bunch of young things trying to put a musical together where,naturally,Rajnandini,dubbed RJ,and Vivan get lots of chances to get cosy.

There can be a sweetness about this kind of film which is missing here. First-timer Sandeepa Dhar has a spark,but it gets overwhelmed by the saccharine sweetness of her character. Her co-star,the light-eyed Akshay Oberoi,melts into the obvious sets that make up this movie. No one in Mumbai will recognise this college and its inmates. Will viewers in Ajmer?