Ranbir’s next big hope - Bachna Ae Haseeno

Ranbir Kapoor who started out on the wrong note with Saawariya, has a chance to make amends with his next release - Bachna Ae Haseeno – a Yash Raj Productions movie. Everything seems to be going good for him – big banner, songs climbing up the charts already, not one, not two but three drop dead gorgeous actresses opposite him, great look and locations of the movie clips so far. Only worry could be the recent track record of Yash Raj. They have been found embarrassingly lacking in script sense and choice of stars.

Check out their turkeys this year – Tashan, Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic. Not serious enough, lets glance at last years result – Tara Rum Pum Pum, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag , Aaja Nachle, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. That’s six flops compared to one hit. Only shining light was Chak De India. So Ranbir better make sure he makes all the trips to the religious places his father and uncles used to make as it seemed to work for them.

He does have three gorgeous excuses to blame if the movie fails - Minissha Lamba, Deepika Padukone, Bipasha Basu. And though I feel he doesn’t have hero material looks (too dopey, long face), he does seem to be charming and has a calm and mature head on his shoulders. I saw him on a TV Reality dance show and he carried himself admirably. And most important he spoke Hindi well- something that some fancy-schmancy Mumbai stars cannot do too well. Get the message, Hrithik, Fardeen, Tushar Kapoor???

Ranvir Shorey-Vinay Pathak to the fore...viva la new age cinema

Thanks to the parallel or new age cinema we are being introduced to actors who might have otherwise been languishing in the periphery of cinema and away from the recognition that they rightly deserve. One of the stars who has slowly and steadily worked his way up is Ranvir Shorey. This extremely talented actor started off as Channel V VJ and it was his double act with his funny twin Vinay Pathak that he came to the publics notice. At least he came to my notice. I don't know how many people remember his days as a VJ and his at times atrocious and at tongue in cheek humor. They had a ball and who ever watched it with them enjoyed the show immensely. It was only because of the presence of a Cyrus Broacha that they were not crowned the undisputed funny men of TV. And were they funny.

They then graduated to films where they picked up small buy significant parts. It seemed they could not act without each other or they simply liked each others company too much. Perhaps it gave a sense of security to them when they stepped in to the big bad world of Bollywood that they had each other withing shouting range. Vinay Pathak was first off the blocks with a smallish but funny role in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.

I was watching Jism recently and realized that they were playing John Abraham's friends in the movie. It was around this time that Ranvir's name was splashed on the Bollywood scandal pages for his messy affair with Pooja Bhatt and his drinking problems. He reportedly ranted outside her house once after being punch drunk. He luckily managed to get out of that phase and started doing small but significant roles.

He was seen in small but important roles in Khosla Ka Ghosla, Traffic Signal, No Smoking, Bheja Fry, Aaja Nachle and major starring roles in Mixed Doubles and now Mithya. Bheja Fry was of course the huge sleeper hit of last year that catapulted his buddy Pathak on to the big league. And that is what Mithya will do for Ranvir I think. I hope it does well, as it is a brilliant film, with great reviews and has been getting great word of mouth publicity.

And the movies they have acted in together? Mixed Doubles, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry and Jism. Proves that buddies work and play together?