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The connection is a tad hazy

In a version of Toronto, Canada where if you throw a stone (or a pail of paint) it lands on an Indian, a young architect called Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) is cursing his luck.

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Kismat Konnection
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan
Director: Aziz Mirza
**1/2


In a version of Toronto, Canada where if you throw a stone (or a pail of paint) it lands on an Indian, a young architect called Raj Malhotra (Shahid Kapoor) is cursing his luck.
Enter a fortune-teller (Juhi Chawla) who guides him towards a lucky charm that comes in the shape of a young woman called Priya (Vidya Balan). This is a pleasant enough premise, but sadly there's so much more built into the story — like an unscrupulous competitor, a sidekick for a friend, a building project, a community centre facing demolition (recall Lage Raho Munnabhai) that the film finally ends up losing its charm.

Priya's presence changes Raj's luck so dramatically that he engineers ways of involving her in his meetings and life. Even if this means duping her into believing he's on the side of her cause when in fact he stands on the opposite bank. In essence a nice guy, Raj's ambition and personal disappointment guide him along a path that makes him no better than Priya's cheating fiancé, until his conscience prevails.

With glimpses of Just My Luck and Two Weeks Notice, director Aziz Mirza's Kismat Konnection is the victim of a long drawn-out screenplay and excruciatingly juvenile dialogues, with jokes that fall flatter than a chapatti. Some scenes that simply don't connect should just have been snipped out. There is so much talk here that you wish for a return of Shahid's Jab We Met character whose body language and expressions conveyed so much.

The film works because of the characters and their interactions like Raj and Priya, Raj and Hasina Bano Jaan (Juhi Chawla), Raj and builder Sanjeev Gill (Om Puri). Yes, there's a lot of Raj in this film and there's a lot of Shah Rukh Khan in Shahid Kapoor's interpretation of Raj. When he finds his own timbre, he's fine, but mostly he needs to shake off the SRK hangover.

Vidya Balan, on the other hand, is contained and communicates naturally without resorting to histrionics. She infuses Priya, a bleeding heart do-gooder, with simplicity and believability. At a time when anorexic figures in bikinis are mistaken for able performers, she shows how acting can look effortless. Om Puri is expectedly efficient, Vishal Malhotra as Raj's partner and friend reprises a role he's been seen in once too often and Himani Shivpuri injects her part as Mrs Gill with surprising Punjabi punch.
As in Chalte Chalte, the romance itself is the most convincing relationship here, but
unlike Mirza's previous films, he takes no chances with this one. It's safe, predictable, partially palatable but leaves you unaffected.

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