Bhandarkar narrates the story of a shining actress Mahi Arora(Kareena Kapoor) who seems to be slowly losing her sheen all thanks to her personal life and erratic mood swings. Even though Mahi is considered the best in the industry and is the reigning queen of Bollywood who everyone wants to compete with, Mahi seems to be more interested in getting married to her boyfriend, superstar Aryan Khanna(Arjun Rampal). Aryan, meanwhile, is going through a divorce and remains non-committal towards Mahi, which leads to her downfall.
The premise of the film, like every other film of Bhandarkar’s, remains the same. Lead protagonist who has negative shades goes through the highs and lows in her life, enjoys a period of success and then goes through a low phase only to reform and rebuild herself as a human being. What Bhandarkar shows is not new to most of us; it is just presented in a snazzy, glamorous way.
The film could easily be written off but for Kareena’s performance. As the bi-polar, erratic, insecure and vulnerable fading star, Kareena gives a superb performance. She looks beautiful, glamorous and makes Mahi her own. In fact, some of the incidents seem to be lifted straight out of Kareena’s life(yes, there is an MMS scandal as well)
Arjun Rampal, as the confused, non-committal, playboy Aryan Khanna, gives a believable performance. It is also refreshing to see Randeep Hooda play a charming cricketer madly in love with Mahi, especially after doing a dark role in ‘Jism2’. The man though, is underused. In fact, Madhur manages to cast some very talented actors like Shahana Goswami, Ranvir Shorey and Sanjay Suri in walk away cameos who ably support the film’s narrative.
The film has a very linear narrative and for the greater part of the first half, one keeps wondering what exactly the plot is. A little bit of editing would also do a lot of good to the otherwise predictable storyline.
Heroine is Kareena’s Dirty Picture. The actress has shown ample cleavage and partaken in some really intimate bedroom scenes. Definitely worth a dekho!