After works of cinema as good as 'Luck by Chance' and 'The Dirty Picture', there is very little appetite left to appreciate Madhur's imagination when a director of his caliber stereotypes gays and pre-release sensationalism and reduces them to bare essentials. The insiders' scoop would have multiplied the effect manifold rather than three formulaic scriptwriters Anuraadha Tewari, Manoj Tyagi and Madhur Bhandarkar penning a script for a movie heavily loaded with expectations.

Even the keen, wait for DVD.
Except for a difficult performance by Kareena Kapoor and the lost character she plays, Heroine is one dramatic scene after another without anything substantial.

Word of mouth – An actor is as good or bad as her choice of films and Kareena Kapoor proves it by choosing to work in a Madhur Bhandarkar film.

Rating - ** (Below Average)

Ticket Meter – Worth 100 bucks

Popcornversations: Heroine with caffeine

A cappuccino awaits its turn to be sipped by a girl and a guy. They have just returned from a multiplex after watching Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine. Let’s call the girl Ms. Audience and the guy Mr. Critic. Heck no, he’s isn’t a Masand, Sen, Guha, Chopra or Ebert, but all of a sudden, everyone has become a film critic, walking out of auditorium promptly asking, “How many stars?”

Well, it doesn’t take an Eisenstein to guess that Mr. Critic and Ms. Audience don’t get along well and often end up arguing over camera angles v/s golden bangles, story v/s soiree, screenplay v/s foreplay, inter-cuts v/s low cuts, direction v/s duration and so on. Sample this:

Critic: What a waste of time! Yet another Madhur Bhandarkar film!

Audience: So what did you expect? A Ram Gopal Varma film?

Critic: I fail to understand how many times will this guy remake Page 3?

Audience: But he also made Traffic Signal much before we applauded the slums and dogs. It wasn’t a Page 3, mind you. Nor was Dil To Bachcha hai ji.

Critic: Come on, Dil To Bachcha hai ji was a silly film!

Audience: Do you remember what you said after watching it? Madhur Bhandarkar should stick to doing what he does best – exposé movies. Now that he’s back to what he’s good at, you criticize him for making the same kind of films.

Critic: But there should at least be a story yaar…a girl called Mahi Arora is a big film star, she falls, and then she either hits back or goes into the oblivion.

Audience: Every story has the same formula – Conflict, Action and Resolution. Girl meets boy, they face problems, get separated and finally reunite.

Critic: So you recommend Heroine for an Oscar?

Audience: Heroine never made any such claims and can’t even afford to. Every film finds its audience and this one too will surely do that.

Critic: It’s only because of people like you that silly films garner 100 crores.

Audience: Yup, we’re not here to join the yawnathon in the auditorium for two hours and praise the same film to skies, just to appear intelligent.

Critic: In that case, you should appreciate me for surviving Heroine.

The film is rife with cliches – it is as if Bhandarkar is churning out films with the same old fodder, presenting his view of Bollywood as a hard, calculating, merciless place full of jaunty, gay folk or drama queens emanating of broken homes. I long for him to break out of his C-grade reverie and think out of the box again; good films in Bollywood are getting too few and far between. This is a decent enough film, relatively (primarily due to Kapoor’s capabilities), and can be watched once.