By Aalia Khan

Everyone knows a typical Indian film has a happy ending majority of the time, so there was no question about how the film ‘Happy Ending’ would end. However the unique aspect of this film was the mockery of how a typical Indian romcom pans out.

happy-endingHappy Ending, starring Saif Ali Khan, Ileana D’Cruz, Govinda, Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, and there were cameo roles by Kareena Kapoor and Preity Zinta, is about a standard commitment phobe Yudi (Saif) who tries to escape his psycho ex girlfriend (Kalki) and incidentally meets Aanchal (Ileana). Yudi and Aanchal are both writers; Yudi, a one hit wonder with his book 5 years ago and Aanchal who is now becoming successful with her new book. Yudi believes he has gotten a writer’s block and is given the opportunity to write a script for Bollywood action star Armaan (Govinda).

Yudi and Aanchal embark on a journey of hate, friends with benefits and eventually Yudi falls for Aanchal; as is expected.

The film, set in LA shows glamorous locations and people but was a bit of a bore with Saif’s predictable playboy acting. In my opinion Saif has become rather old and these roles don’t particularly suit him. It was quite funny to see the purposeful recreation of each scene just to mock how an ordinary Indian film scene would be, but the not so believable acting of supposed cool dude Saif made it less exciting.

Ileana looked great in the movie, very chic and glamorous, and played her role well as a laid back writer of romantic novels. Not believing in the idea of love herself, she knows what her readers want and also manages to entice Saif with her carefree attitude.

Saif on the other hand did not look so good in the film. His inner conscience Yogi, a double role played by Saif, appeared every now and then to make Saif see sense. Yogi was meant to be a fat slob, and this role was played well by Saif. But the main role of Saif as Yudi did not seem overly attractive compared to overweight, unattractive Yogi. Therefore Saif did not do justice to the hero of the film; had a younger actor played this role it may have been more fun, exciting and humorous.

Govinda played his role rather well and was pretty funny. His six pack abs, fake or not, brought some humour to the screen. Kalki and Ranveer also acted out their roles decently.

Overall I’d give Happy Ending a 4/10 simply for the glamour, setting and fine acting of Ileana and Govinda.