Aashiqui 2   Producer: Bhushan Kumar, Mukesh Bhatt, Krishan Kumar Director: Mohit Suri Starring: Aditya Roy Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor Music: Mithoon,Jeet Ganguly, Ankit Tiwari Lyrics: Irshad Kamil, Sanjay Masoom and Sandeep Nath Genre: Romantic Recommended Audience: General Reviewed by: Jaykumar Shah  - Rating: 6.0 / 10   Let us know what you think about this review Music Review

A sequel always carries on its shoulders great expectations from the audience. And that is the primary reason why it falters. Mohit Suri directs the sequel to one of the landmark romantic films of that era not to mention an all time classic musical. The Question that everyone has had was will the director be successful. Mohit Suri has never been known for his romantic films, well not that his thrillers were a hit either. So does he get it right this time around? How good are Aditya Roy Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor? Did the music directors (Mithoon, Ankit, Jeet Ganguly) and Arijit achieve what Kumar Sanu- Anuradha Paudval and Nadeem shravan did? Let us try to find out.

Aashiqui 2 is supposedly a musical like Aashiqui so let's start with that. The songs of Aashiqui 2 are good, but that's it. Many people believe the best part of the release is that the songs of the original Aashiqui are being re-played on FM again. It brought Kumar Sanu to the fore as the leading singer of the 1990s. Arijit singh has done well but his voice strongly reminds you of Mohit Chauhan. What Mithoon, Jeet Ganguly and Ankit put together are no match for Nadeem Shravan. Aashiqui had easy lyrics which could easily garner mass appeal, barring “Tum Hi Ho” and “Sun Raha Hai” none of the other songs will stay long in your memory for this film.

Aashiqui 2 is a story of a falling star turned drunkard, Rahul Jaykar, or RJ (Aditya Roy Kapoor). It is his discovery of Aarohi Shirke’s (Shraddha Kapoor’s) talent which drives the film forward. The movie then moves onto the Abhimaan (The great film by Bachhans' and Hrishikesh Mukherjee) route, where success of one of the lovers and the failure of the other is the main conflict in the story. I will not even try to compare the writing here with that of Abhimaan.

The conflict takes ages to build up. The resolution is too pedestrian and unconvincing. Story by Shagufta Rafique hits many flat notes and is supported ably by the dialogues like an out-of-sync harmony. The movie could easily have accommodated some lighter romantic moments which one strongly misses as the actors deep dive from sadness to depression.

The screenplay is smooth with a few poignant moments and the director of photography (Vishnu Rao)has done a fair job. There were many scenes which were supposed to be for concerts in the movie. Most of these scenes were shot without showing the crowd. Though it might be innovative on the director and cinematographer’s side, it looked slightly low budget. Editing by Deven Murdeshware (also editor for Murder 2 and Murder 3 that alliterates with his second name) does not really murder the story, but could have been sharper.

Coming to actors, Shraddha Kapoor is adequately confident and expressive. She looks beautiful and is restrained for most of her part. Director could have given her more movement and space in the film. For most of the part, she looks as if she is crumbling within and will disappear. Shaad Randhawa looks like a weak, rudiment of a role that would have aspired to bring in Deepak Tijori’s charm from Aashiqui. Mahesh Thakur plays his part well, but the one who carries the film on his shoulder is Aditya Roy Kapoor.

We have seen him in Action Replayy and Guzaarish and he was impressive there, but this film is his first solo, and he delivers. Let us put it like this, no amount of bad acting from lead actors in Aashiqui (1990) could stop the music and singers of the film, which were the real heroes from shining bright. The prediction we can make watching Aashiqui 2 is, no amount of bad direction, story and dialogue can stop an actor like Aditya Roy Kapoor from shining bright. Though his role was badly etched, his confidence and conviction in playing the internal turmoil of the character was pitch perfect. One actor to watch out for in future.

So overall, the movie disappoints but has its moments within the film. Story, dialogues and direction brings down a good performance. To sum up the review, Arijit Singh is good, but Kumar Sanu was exquisite. Mithoon and Jeet are good, but Nadeem Shravan were exquisite. Rahul Roy was good, but Aditya Roy Kapoor is exquisite.