REVIEW: Baar Baar Dekho a shallow 'moral science' lesson

BBD is a promising one-liner that goes over the top because it never rises above what we saw in its trailer, writes Deepa Gauri.

The tempo simply isn't there. The laboured effort is obvious. And in the all-hued Karan Joharish-frames by Ravi Chandran, the life of a young man - a genius mathematician, we are told - is narrated in simplistic, preach-mode. That is Baar Baar Dekho in a nutshell.
It isn't a bad film. How can it be? The support that has gone into it comes from two big banners - Dharma Productions and Excel Entertainment - the kind of producers, who keep a firm pulse of commercialism, and who have managed to push Hollywood studios to the corner.
But seriously, though, don't these guys read scripts? Do they just get carried away by fanciful one-liners, and think that the audiences would fall for anything?
BBD is a promising one-liner that goes over the top because - like most Bollywood films today - it never rises above what we saw in its trailer. The allure of a man, trying to go back in time, and fix the problems so he can.. er, well... live a happy married life, goes for a toss in the final product.
That is what happens to our hero Jai Varma (Siddharth Malhotra), who is not sure of starting blissful married life with his childhood sweetheart Diya (Katrina Kaif). He wants to chase his career.
A good bottle of drink later, he is transported into different stages of his life. The tribulations he faces makes his realise the obvious: He needs work-life balance, and must live in the present.
Debutant director Nitya Mehra gives us enough of such 'inspirational tosh'. We are reminded to forget the big things and focus on the small things, and to live in today. Yes, that usual blah.
But what are the small things? Since this comes from Karan Johar school of filmmaking, it is about being there at the soccer game of your kid, and when your wife opens her art exhibition. All the first world problems, in general! As if to balance the hollowness of it, there is also a passing reference to a bankrupt man, who discovers joy in life when his wife reaches out to him.
The trouble is not in the story, per se. It is in the meandering. Why waste 2-and-a-half hours on something we already know, if you cannot present it with originality or keep you engaged?
BBD misses the opportunity to use a fantastic plot that involves the ever-reliable Rajat Kapoor, as a pundit, telling Jai that life does not go by calculation or logic. Instead, it becomes a drill in what we have seen countless times in Bollywood.
Such films get their life with power-packed performances. While Siddharth Malhotra is effective and carries the weight of the role, his constant befuddled, half-mouth open expression gets tiresome after a point.
The less said the better about Katrina Kaif; the scene where she gets the shock of her life from Jai is a classic lesson in rank bad acting.
At one point the film take us to 2047 or so; the director's vision of the future is of eerie hairstyles and pop-up digital screens. But the emotional context is so Karan Johar.
That Bollywood might never grow up at this rate is the scary thought that BBD, a simplistic film attempting to be philosophical, leaves behind.
Baar Baar Dekho
Starring: Siddharth Malhotra, Katrina Kaif
Directed by Nitya Mehra
Now playing at theatres in the UAE