Sanam Teri Kasam review: Mawra makes an impact

People stay together not because they forget, but because they forgive.

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So..if I take a girl with supermodel good looks and give her braids and a kurta to wear, much less put some spects on her, then would she become an old nerdy maid whom no guy in his right mind would want to marry? Well, the movie tells us the same and this is the only thing in the movie we cannot digest. Mawra Hocane, an actress as impactful as her name plays Saraswati a.k.a Saru, a brahmin girl who lives a nerdy lifes under her orthodox parents and can't seem to get an 'IIT/IIM' guy to marry her despite her Mawra Hocanian good looks. You get to know this and you are like "I am not going to sit through this anymore unless they resolve this crap" and so they do.

Directors Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru have tried to bring about an 'old wine in new bottle' sort of love story on the celluloid by making Sanam Teri Kasam. And so, they keep it in the old Bollywood world, throw in cliches and then some more cliches until they are sure that the protagonist is laden with all the life's problems she can have at a tender age of 21 (Also, Mawra is 23 actually but being 21 has a certain charm to it doesn't it?). They do all this until they come up with one outcome- They succeed. YES, they do.

This is one of those films, critics get to showcase how talented they are. It would probably get 1 or 2 stars and a small opening but none of that changes the fact that the film actually succeeds in achieving whatever it wanted to achieve. The makers here aren't very aspirational with the movie. They know they are not making a Casablanca or even Veer Zaara for that matter. They are just telling a love story keeping the balance of old and new intact. If you went in expecting something bigger, it's your fault.

Coming back to the movie, Saru struggles in her romantic life until our hero Inder (Harshvardhan Rane), a supermodel hunk with huge tattoos who loves to roam around topless, comes in. They do not fall in love just like that and there is the build-up which you expect. Also, there are some other motifs going on which frequently spring up to give the movie new dimensions. There is Sudesh Berry playing Inder's father and they seem to have a crisis laden back-story. There is Murli Sharma playing a police inspector who himself adds a nice although implausible character role to the movie. The film pieces together a hot mix but it does not take away its heroine from the center stage. And that is how you use a talented, peppy actress to her best.

The film does not really idealize Saru as the epitome of the new age Indian woman who is rising up breaking all shackles of society. She is a real person and if you exclude that Mawra Hocanian charm from her, she might just be a girl you know. This is a story of how such a girl can learn to care about her and not about how a girl should go -"Oh screw the world, I'm awesome". Many may not agree to this philosophy and those are the ones who would hate this film. But as for me, I like it; not love, but like.

The young audiences seem to have plenty of reasons to watch this flick. The first of course, as evident from my unending glorification of her, is Mawra. She has plenty of fun lines in the movie and audiences would love to chuckle to them now and then. For the girls, there is Harsh. Now this movie has actually made an attempt to contribute its part towards Woman Power by objectifying not the heroine but the hero. Inder in the movie is shirtless almost 40% of the time and all they want to focus on is his abs and his tattoo. Talking of their acting skills, Mawra carries the film and that Kheech Meri Photo song is plain awesome with her. Harsh is too rigid but he isn't bad. Although, seeing his character and the backstory he has, I would have chosen a less muscular and more agile guy but he does his best. Also, thanks to the directors, the movie actually gets the audiences to care for the characters which IS A BIG DEAL these days in Bollywood.

Finally, it's what cuts the cake for you this weekend. You want some good music and a cool flick to go through, then go for it.

Bandwidth verdict-It's not the Pizza eating love story,it's long and has everything you have been tired of loving in Bollywood. BUT, you will still love this show.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.