Betabiyan will leave you betab for the film to end
It almost feels like you’ve missed something, because Betabiyan starts off with the subtlety of a derailed speeding train one has accidentally jumped on to.
Moments into the film, Hassan’s wife Rida passes away during childbirth, and the films’ cinematographer and editor lose their minds. Framing amateurishly, whizzing round Hassan, the world unexpectedly turns into a throbbing headache.
But then, just as suddenly, the exaggeration cuts off as Hassan’s life finds instant stability when his best buddy from college, Niggy, offers to become the newborn child’s adoptive mother.
Being the child’s over-protective father, Hassan doesn’t realise that Niggy has been in love with him since forever. And so begins the protracted drama of a ‘what if’ scenario — what if Kuch Kuch Hota Hai had its mushy Bollywood sentiments (and budget) taken away, and the hero’s daughter, now in college, falls in love with a douche who thinks he is the hero of the film?
Woe is us having to find streaks of hope in a film that has glib characters, a trite premise and a screenplay that stretches one’s sense of believability
This alternate universe of late ’90s storytelling clichés doesn’t sound too enticing … right?
In spite of how Betabiyan looks, it is at times chirpy, stress-free entertainment with some fine music. I’m not saying the film is good — far from it — but these are dire times when even ho-hum fodder with some saving grace appears applaudable.
Woe is us, then, for entertaining the idea of being entertained by a film that has glib characters, an impulsively laid-out premise, and a screenplay that stretches one’s sense of believability.