Masand's review: Pyaar Impossible impossible to watch

Rajeev Masand , CNN-IBN
Posted on Jan 08, 2010 at 22:22 | Updated Jan 09, 2010 at 14:53

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Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Uday Chopra

Direction: Jugal Hansraj

Films with titles like Pyaar Impossible are begging to be spoofed. This impossible romantic comedy between a geek and a gorgeous girl stars Uday Chopra as nebbish nerd Abhay, who spends most of his college years crushing on the campus hottie Alisha (played by Priyanka Chopra), who barely notices him at all, even though he once saved her from drowning.

The two of them cross paths again, seven years later in Singapore, when divorced single-mother Alisha mistakenly hires Abhay as a nanny to her six-year-old daughter. Happy to just be around her, Abhay doesn't reveal his identity and sportingly goes along with the situation.

Before long he's won over the girl, an annoying, precocious tyke who decides to play cupid between mummy and nanny. Together with the kid, Abhay sabotages Alisha's budding romance with her colleague Varun (played by Dino Morea), who by the way has also stolen Abhay's revolutionary new software program and passed it off as his own.

Directed by Jugal Hansraj and written by Uday Chopra, Pyaar Impossible is painfully predictable, and offers nothing original in its writing or treatment. On more occasions than one, the makers compromise basic common sense to deliver scenes that are offensive or plain dangerous. Alisha leaves her six-year-old daughter to be supervised by a male nanny she has met less than 5 minutes ago. On another occasion, the kid volunteers to sleep over at a friend's house so Abhay can get some alone time with her mummy. The morning after she asks him for all the details.

To be entirely honest, I didn't quite understand what the film was trying to say in the first place. That beauty isn't skin deep and that there's more to love than just surface-level attraction? I suppose that's why Alisha ends up with Abhay in the end. But why doesn't the same logic apply to his interest in her? After all I can't think of one reason why anyone would be drawn to Alisha if it isn't for her beauty – she's pretty harebrained, she's not a responsible mother, she has a fake accent, and she dresses like a tart. If you ask me, Abhay's too good for her.

Pyaar Impossible doesn't work because it's hard to empathize with any of the characters and because the actors fail to rise above the flawed script. It's back-breakingly long at two hours and twenty-odd minutes, and I can't remember one single scene that made me smile. The humour is ordinary, and the pre-climax romantic scene in a Mac store is the most embarrassing I can remember in recent times.

For Salim-Suleiman's peppy music score alone, I'm going with one out of five for director Jugal Hansraj's Pyaar Impossible. Indeed, it's impossible to find much love for this film!

Rating: 1 / 5

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