The movie is a loyal parody in the first place, reminding us of the avatars that the born-rich kids in the film are. It’s picture perfect. We right away find ourselves in an out-of-the-world foreign location that’s supposed to intimidate our senses. The situation of Saif, playing Yudi, a bankrupt one-time bestselling author is similar to most of the urban centric stereotypes in films. He’s afraid of commitment. But, for every reference that we’re to make about the generic plot from now, the makers Raj-Krishna succeed in a way, as they spoon-feed us this ‘mock-fest’ idea to their advantage.
The female character isn’t any underwhelming either. She’s the storyteller’s bid to make the ‘made-for-each-other’ cliché a tad obvious. She’s a writer too, Anchal Reddy essayed by a well-casted Ileana, who uncomplainingly looks like entering the scene immediately after a close shave at the Femina Miss India title.
Some of the film’s best instances come out of the meta-scripting that Saif does. This gets us back to Govinda, a self proclaimed superstar here, in less than a week after Kill Dil, more in his element.
Ranging from the ‘opposites attract’ to the ‘cluttered long-drive’ to the ‘hangover’ indulgences, while also taking digs at the chiseled ‘six-pack’ abs, ‘class-mass’ divide, item-numbers, Happy Ending, with its jazzy background score sticks to its template consistently. Even as we look at the frames that interestingly explain ‘8.5 girlfriends’, ‘5.5 weeks’ dwelling on the inconsistencies of a male lead’s mind and mistake all this to be a pictorial humbug, the depth is pretty much there. Not so much to go teary eyed, but just enough.
Take this for instance in a line uttered by Kalki Koechlin. In her vein of justifying that opposites do attract, she cracks a dangerous joke on the India-Pakistan conflict. Thankfully, the director duo knows the way to deal with it. Nothing here is in fact, stretched beyond necessity. But that doesn’t deny the film from suffering the ‘second-half’ syndrome. The spunk, the characters’ introductory sequences had, even that of the truly refreshing Preity Zinta’s extended special appearance, isn’t of the free-flowing quality in the latter hour.
As long as we’re in track that the ‘obviousness’ on display is intentional, Happy Ending is an easy watch. It takes the less-traveled path, resembling that of Shakun Batra’s Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, mostly in its measured treatment, showing the underplayed tone its lead actor has indeed mastered. Happy Ending for the 135 minutes spared, indeed!
Three and a half stars
