I am always open to watch period movies...they have a charm of their own...Watched Parineeta yesterday...here goes...
Lolita (Vidya Balan) loses her parents, when she is a little girl, in a car accident and comes to live with her maama - maami and cousin Koel (Raima Sen). The family is neighbours with the Rai family - a rich business family headed by Naveen Rai. His wife Rajeshwari is the subdued and submissive wife. His son Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan) is a musician since childhood. Lolita and he become friends fuelled by their common love and talent for music. And as the saying goes...
’’Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never.’’
Theirs is an unsaid but taken for granted love...and it is as deep as one can imagine it to be...Lolita is the one person that can make Shekhar happy...and vice versa...whenever he calls out to her, she goes over to his house irrespective of what she was busy in at home...he gives her the full right to take money from his cupboard whenever she needs it...Shekhar helps Lolita get a job in his father’s business.
’’Falling in love is not an extension of one’s limits or boundaries, it is a partial and temporary collapse of them.’’
Another family in the locality has a visitor from London - Girish (Sanjay Dutt) - who is a wealthy business and the owner of several steel plants. He has a chance meeting with Lolita and it is love at first sight for him. Lolita starts spending quite of bit of time with Girish and his family and Shekhar notices this. The green eyed monster rears his ugly head and he makes it clear to Lolita that he doesn’t like this a bit...she is a girl with a mind of her own and ignores what he has to say because she is angry that he is being unreasonable. Lolita has heard about Rai’s plans to get Shekhar married to Gayatri and also his policy of ’’never waste time where there is no profit’’...and she doesn’t feel that she is doing anything wrong by spending time with Girish and family.
Girish’s niece is to get married on an auspicious day on which just exchanging garlands is enough to become husband - wife...by a twist of fate...on the same day, Lolita goes to get Shekhar to the wdding...in the argument that follows, Shekhar and Lolita exchange a gold chain in the manner of garlands and decide that they are now married...
’’Blood may be thicker than water, but love is thicker than anything.’’
Lolita’s uncle’s mansion is ’’girvi’’ to Shekhar’s father, who has secret plans of converting it to a ’Heritage Hotel’...Lolita finds out about this and is shocked...the amount to be repaid is 1.5 lakh rupees...she is wondering how to overcome the problem, and decides to take the money from Shekhar. But when she is about to tell him, his dad calls him as they have to go to meet the Tantias - Rai’s business associate. They have plans to get Shekhar married to Gayatri Tantia (Dia Mirza). Shekhar is very scared of his father, and goes along without listening to Lolita’s predicament.
’’Take each other for better or worse, but not for granted.’’
Girish hears about this problem from his sister Sunita...and decides to help out Lolita’s family - this is helped by the fact that he is slowly and surely falling head over heels in love with Lolita... When Lolita returns home, she finds Girish there and her maama tells her that he is now Managing Partner in Girish’s new project and he has given him an advance of 1.8 lakhs ! He goes over and repays the loan...
’’Where love is concerned, too much is not ever enough.’’
Rai is stunned...and angry...and fills into Shekhar that Girish has ’’bought’’ Lolita and the family...Shekhar becomes very impassionate...and decides that money and business is everything...and gives up music completely...Rai decides to bring up a wall between the 2 houses...this shocks Lolita’s uncle and he suffers a massive heart attack. Girish comes to their rescue once again...and decides to take all of them to London for his treatment...It is with good reason that Shekhar and family feel that Girish and Lolita are to get married...Shekhar is shocked and decides to agree to marry Gayatri...
What happens next...go and watch...!!!
Vidya Balan looks beautiful...thanks to the ’60s Kolkata look....and very natural make-up...she acts quite well too...and I hope she chooses her films well...she will also act in ’Yagna’ - a Vidhu Vinod Chopra movie - the trailor of which they showed...
Saif Ali Khan is great in the serious and brooding role...for a change from his ’’forever cheerful’’ roles...
Sanjay Dutt does not have a long role...but he does justice to his part...
The movie is shot very well...and the costumes and sets are great...the music is good too...my personal favourites are ’’Piyu Bole’’, ’’Kaisi Paheli Zindagani’’ and ’’Raat Hamari Toh’’...
But, the only negative is the ending - which is very Hindi filmi ishtyle !!! Could have been a little different...the movie does drag a bit...maybe could have done with a couple of songs less...?
’’Within you I lose myself
Without you I find myself Wanting to be lost again.’’