Half Girlfriend, Full Cringe

Share this News:

By The Bollywood Onlooker

Aashiqui 2 -> Ek Villain -> Humari Adhoori Kahaani -> Half Girlfriend. 

This filmography pretty much depicts the downfall that Mohit Suri has been facing as a director, and his latest venture Half Girlfriend is only taking it further low. 

Possibly the cringiest of the subject to make a film on, Half Girlfriend shows the story of a bihari guy who gets admission in St. Stephens, gets a degree, gets a job, interns at the UN, collaborates with a Bill Gates foundation and stays in New York for 10 months but apparently still can’t speak very very basic english or pronounce a simple word like ‘flight’. Too rooted to his culture to be true?

Similarly, the boy’s mother is supposedly a progressive woman running a school and striving for women empowerment through girl child education, but she can’t accept a divorced girl as her ‘bahu’ because what will the society say. The characters are themselves so self-contradictory which makes it very tough for us, as the audience to relate to them. 

I understand that Suri is a director whose vision generally is to strengthen the chemistry between his leads, and make the audience feel for them. He did it exceptionally well in Aashiqui 2, and if you compare the former with Half Girlfriend, you would find a lot of technical similarities. But why the former works and the latter doesn’t depicts the power and the importance of the story. 

The concept of a ‘half girlfriend’ in itself seemed stupid to me, but I was hopeful that I might be more enlightened after watching this movie. Well, that clearly hasn’t been the case and I am only left more confused. Is a ‘half girlfriend’ someone who only makes out with you and doesn’t go beyond that? 

More than 50% of the film has songs. The 2nd half has ‘Main phir bhi tumko chahunga’ playing almost throughout the run time, and by the end, when we are hoping for the film to end soon, the makers decide to play, ‘Tu thodi der aur theher ja’. We tried guys, but sorry. 

The best part of the entire film is Vikrant Massey, the guy who plays Arjun Kapoor’s roommate, Shailesh. He has matured so much as an actor, and his narration, his accent is extremely crisp. He deserves many more chances. It is surprising how he impresses us more in his comparatively smaller screen time than both the leads. Arjun Kapoor has definitely tried very hard, but his effort shows. And the bihari accent is not looking natural at all. Shraddha Kapoor needs to think of the subjects she has been choosing. Rock on 2, OK Jaanu and now Half Girlfriend, she needs to do something different to get applauded for her role. 

Apart from Vikrant Massey, the other positives of the film were it’s editing and it’s screenplay, but only till 1st half. The pace of the film made it look fresh and breezy, with all the semi comic moments etc. involved. But the 2nd half ends up being a big time yawn as the film tries to add more substance to its story. Though Arjun Kapoor is running very hard throughout the climax, but we are still hoping for the time to run faster and the obvious ending to happen soon. 

Final word – 

I would definitely not suggest anyone to watch Half Girlfriend this week. Without any doubts in your mind, just go for Hindi Medium. 

Rating – ‘Half’/5