HALF GIRLFRIEND

Director: Mohit Suri

Screenplay: Tushar Hiranandani

Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor

Strength: Visual Appeal

Weakness: Acting, Storyline

Runtime: 135min

Rating: 6/10

PLOT: Madhav Jha (Arjun Kapoor) comes to Delhi to attend Saint Stephens College from a small village, in Bihar. Soon after he meets the mesmerizing Riya Somani (Shraddha Kapoor) who comes from a very affluent family. Riya befriends Madhav after much effort from his side but refuses to be his girlfriend. In order to pacify his constant nagging about becoming his girlfriend, she decides to become his 'half girlfriend' instead. But Madhav not being happy with their current relationship, ensues a fight with her which makes her leave him for good. Soon, Riya drops out and gets married to her childhood family friend and moves to London. But destiny has other plans for the star-crossed lovers and their lovestory continues four years later when they meet again.

REVIEW: Books are just not meant to be turned into films and "Half Girlfriend" proves that yet again. The book brought tears to many people's eyes and the film will do so as well, but for very different reasons. The film could have been fantastic had the writers stuck to the original story. But of course, they decided to change it and that is where disaster struck. The film left out crucial parts of the book which made the story so interesting in the first place and added new parts that couldn't be anymore redundant. 

Although Shraddha looked mesmerizing in the film, her acting wasn't at all. In most scenes she was so expressionless, she will remind the viewers of Kristen Stewart from "Twilight". Arjun wasn't too far from her either. The film as a whole lacked depth and the characters just seemed confused throughout the entire film. Mohit Suri could have done a much better job at directing the film. Perhaps the only saving grace of the film was its music. The tracks by Arijit Singh are absolutely beautiful. However, "Half Girlfriend" proves that a good film requires much more than just a good looking cast and good music, a fact that Bollywood just doesn't seem to realize.

Reviewed by Amira Amin