Review: 'Jodi Breakers'

Film: Jodi Breakers
Cast: R Madhavan, Bipasha Basu, Omi Vaidya, Milind Soman, Helen and Dipannita Sharma
Director: Ashwini Chaudhary
Rating: **

Before beginning this review, I must admit that my love for Milind Soman has nothing to do with how disappointing this attempted romantic drama was. No he's not the lead actor here, but he could very well be made if looks was the criterion of making a film.

As predicted (you might just be a Major in foresight after this movie), Jodi Breakers is all about a couple trying to break other jodis and in the midst of all that they fall in love with each other. Bah innovation!

Given this, sprinkle some masala of that 'one drunken night sex' which makes fairy tale-believing Bipasha fall in love with divorcee Madhavan while the latter runs away from the thought of committing.

Sid (R Madhavan) and Sonali (Bipasha Basu), are jodi breakers by profession as they help struggling marriages reach the rock bottom i.e. divorce. As Sid helps tormented men/women gather evidence to divorce their spouses, he meets, Sonali, a self-acclaimed stalwart of breaking couples as she helped her parents get a divorce.

Their joint business starts with helping ace boxer Gajender Singh (if the name and profession wasn’t obvious, the actor duplicates Vijender Singh's accent) divorce his ‘sexually hungry’ wife. From then on they help over 20 couples get divorce from their husband and finally take up a project (as they call it) of separating Mark Periera (Milind Soman) from his wife, which changes their lives as well and as Sonali puts it, leads to their jodi being the “last jodi they break”.

The latter half of the film is all about how the duo work towards reuniting the Perieras whose separation was a result of Sid’s selfish interests. Through the process, they reunite as well and it won’t be wrong to say that the love story between the Perieras is more interesting than the one between Sid and Sonali.

While the first half has moments that could keep you from rushing for the doors, the second half might just pressurise you to leave.

The long and short of it is that the screenplay needed much improvement. While it starts as a fast moving tale, it goes on to become extended, dragged scenes with a situation well told in 10 minutes being stretched to of 20. One such example is when our jodi breakers get drunk and the scene crawls to reach to the point where they kiss.

R Madhavan, as expected, does justice to his role as he forces you to pity a heart-broken Sid and Bipasha fills in the much needed glam quotient.

Taraana Raja, yet again, plays the role of an agony aunt and is decent when not all in-your-face. Milind Soman and Dipannita Sharma are good with each of them blending into the character. Helen is charming and adorable as always, though she does not have much to do.

Omi Vaidya could have been better utilised with not much to add to the role. The movie makes an extremely disappointing attempt of his 3 Idiots-look/sound-alike speech, which fails miserably to bring out a chuckle.

The music adds no good to the film. Though Kunwara is a chart buster, the other songs fail to blend into the story and just pile on to the misery of the story line. Bipasha does well in presenting the sensuous actress, though the choreography may be a turn off. The cinematography is commendable in bits with a picturesque presentation of Greece, but distracting when the actors are in the shot. The editing falls flat with roughly cut shots.

The characters carry an otherwise monotonous plot to make the movie not only tolerable, but seldom enjoyable. The second half is sorely predictable, yet the actors keep it going. Leave all expectations behind before entering the hall and you ‘might’ (urgency redefined) walk out with a smiling face.