Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani - old wine in a new bottle!

Good news ... you get your money’s worth, at the almost ekdum start of ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani’! Madhuri Dixit Nene, lights up the screen, as she spins her ghagra & gives us more than a jhalak of her ‘ek do teen ...’ days, along with a very willing & nimble footed Ranbir Kapoor! La Dixit is ravishing, dances like a dream & special mention has to be made of her spectacular gold & silver ghagras, from the house of Manish Malhotra!

100 years of Bollywood & yet our love stories are still old wine in a new bottle .... Karan Johar, the producer, has obviously taken his role as a judge on ‘Jhalak Dikhla Ja’, because ‘YJHD’ is a cleverly tossed salad, with jhalaks of scenes, from every conceivable Bollywood romance, including his own magnum opus, ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’:

• From 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge' – like the bespectacled, nose in her books, ‘Om Jai Jagdish Hare’, chanting Kajol, YJHD presents Deepika, as Naina, bespectacled, nose dug in her medical books, carrying a Ganesh ki Murthi on a life changing trekking holiday!
• Yawn – the ‘Train’, of course, from DDLJ & ‘Jab We Met’, & yeah, yeah, Ranbir, the flirtatious, fun-loving hero, a la Rahul/SRK, helps her board the rail gaadi!
• Three buddies – Ranbir, Aditya Kapoor, a bohemian Kalki & a gate crasher, Deepika, going on a holiday - in ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’, it was spectacular Spain & apna YJHD goes trekking to Manali.
• Some K-Jo sensibilities – a serious medical student (Deepika), wears pretty, little dresses & tiny skirts, for a trekking adventure, but then, neither Ranbir, nor the men in the audience were complaining!
• The Big Fat Indian Wedding: who would dare make a Bollywood masala phillum, without the grand shaadi routine – again an audio visual treat: Ranbir, with his Shammi Kapoor moves, in the ‘Badtameez’ number, burns the dance floor! Deepika is drop dead gorgeous in some spectacular shaadi outfits, in a riot of colors! We also learn, that once desi shaadis begin, they never end! Kalki’s wedding, to her slightly idiotic boyfriend, is a non-stop party, where there is a grand reunion of the buddies (‘Love Aaj Kal’?), alcohol flows like water, dances & songs happen, outfits are changed a million times ... when the actual marriage ceremony takes place, it is almost an anti-climax!
• Like in every love story, one person loves unconditionally, but the other can’t make up his/her mind! (‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’!) You have to go through many excruciating scenes, before both come on the same page & that happily ever after happens!

Yep, so old wine in a new bottle – but that’s the redeeming part of YJHD – the bottle is pretty, with a stunning looking Deepika, a very suave & dapper Ranbir Kapoor (even if he falters in the serious emotional scenes), a foot tapping music album by Pritam - Rekha Bharadwaj’s voice soars magnificently, in a couple of the numbers, a surprise cameo by Farooque Sheikh, as Ranbir’s father, some amazing locations in India & across the globe, as the foot loose, fancy free hippie, Ranbir, travels the world & captures it on his len ....

a well packaged bottle, by Dharma Productions (they need to stop playing that ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ music!), so what if the taste is thoda sa familiar?