Life Partner Movie Review: A Pleasant Experience

Rumi Jaffrey's 'Life Partner' had stiff competition from this week's second release 'Kaminey'. But Jaffrey's film manages to make its presence felt, despite belonging to a more lightweight genre. The film is a comedy and a socially relevant one at that. 'Life Partner' is not one of your brain dead comedies replete with sick jokes. The director picks up a very pertinent subject and manages to deal with it in a very entertaining manner. Most Hindi films culminate in marriage, but 'Life Partner' manages to take the audience beyond the initial high of marital bliss and explore life after. The other highlight of the movie is the presence of Govinda. Ever since the actor made his comeback with David Dhawan's 'Partner' a couple of years ago, he has not managed to get a role which is meaty enough to justify his awesome talent. But in this film, he manages to dig into his role of a divorce lawyer with glee and does a mighty good job at it. It hardly matters if you like or dislike him, but he is definitely an actor you cannot ignore once he is in the frame.

The film's subject is marriage, a major obsession with us Indians. The film takes a look at this venerable institution through two marriages, one, which is an arranged marriage, while the other which is a love marriage. In fact, in nature and genre, 'Life Partner' is quite like those antiquated social films of yore, of course with a more contemporary twist.

The director begins his film very well and lays out the plot quite well. The film's graph moves quite seamlessly except for the climax which one feels could have been handled in a more competent manner.

In brief, the film's story is about two set of couples, Karan (Fardeen Khan) and Sanjana (Genelia D'Souza), who are a couple in love with each other. The second couple, Bhavesh (Tusshar Kapoor) and Prachi (Prachi Desai) has come together with parental approval, the ubiquitous arranged marriage. Sandwiched in between these two couples is a divorce lawyer Jeet (Govinda), who does not believe in the institution of marriage. It comes as no surprise that he has a fairly decent success rate where divorce cases are concerned. The director takes the lives of these people and weaves a story about the relevance of marriage, love in a marriage and the importance of commitment. Karan and Sanjana's marital problem stems from the fact that Karan expects Sanjana to play the typical wife, a role that she rebels against. Bhavesh, on the other hand is caught between his parents and his wife and is unable to stand up for his partner. Jeet, of course, has his own lessons to learn about commitment.

The first half of the film is laced with the comic flavour as the director proceeds to introduce his characters. Till the halfway mark, the film continues to be extremely entertaining. But post interval, the film takes a slightly serious turn as both couples are dealing with their respective marital problems. Even though the end seems as if the director and writer have run out of ideas, overall, the film leaves one feeling good.

Jaffrey, who made his directorial debut with the Salman Khan starrer, 'God Tussi Great Ho', seems to improve with his second attempt. He displays better control over his content in this film and also handles the two marital situations in the movie very well. In fact, the best thing about both situations is that they are so lifelike. He is greatly helped by a decent screenplay penned by Yunus Sajawal and some interesting dialogues by Niranjan Iyenger. The cinematography by Sameer Arya is of top class. Especially memorable are the excellent shots of Africa. The only department which is really weak is the music department, helmed by Pritam. The musical score of the movie is quite ordinary except for the 'Kuke Kuke' number.

Of the actors, Govinda stands head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. He is in excellent form and his comic timing is impeccable as always. He is definitely the scene stealer in this movie. Of the rest, actor Fardeen Khan is quite a surprise. He seems to have improved tremendously from his usual wooden self. Genelia D'Souza tends to go a little overboard at times but she is quite charming and carries it off well. Tusshar and Prachi manage to deliver life like performances. The supporting cast in this movie comprises mostly of veterans like Anupam Kher, Vikram Gokhale, Darshan Jariwala and Jagdeep. They live up to the seniority tag and are a treat to watch.

In conclusion, one can only say that Jaffrey's 'Life Partner' is a very pleasant experience. It manages to fuse the serious and comic elements quite competently and present a slice of life to the public.