Heroine Review: Poor scripting, dialogues, direction lets Bebo down

New Delhi: What we see in this typical Madhur Bhandarkar film is clinical depression, manipulative friends, homosexuality, a high and low in an actress' career. We saw it in ‘Fashion', and this time too, Bhandarkar isn't gonna offer you any new ingredients. 2011-12 was the year when Bollywood was dominated by women-centric flicks and certainly it will be if we leave out ‘Heroine'. Among women-centric films including Raaz 3 and Kahaani, Vidya Balan's ‘TheDirty Picture' leads from the front and will be doing so for a long time to come. Though Bebo tries too hard but the film is weak and the old masala of a rise and fall in the life of a superstar overshadows her brilliant performance. The story is about a Bollywood star Mahi Arora who seems to be slowly losing her gloss. Even though Mahi is considered the best in the industry and is the reigning queen of Bollywood , Mahi seems to be more interested in getting married to her boyfriend, superstar Aryan Khanna, played by Arjun Rampal, who remains non-committal towards her. Aryan refuses to admire their relationship in public and finally dumps her in a public brawl. Mahi's career is at stake but she doesn't weaken. She now hires a new PR, a cricketer boyfriend played by Randeep Hooda. She follows a single dictum : always to be on the top and at any cost, kicking off all her moral values and people who care for her. Being drugged to stay on top, Mahi ,even though ignored by the malicious world of B'wood, works in low substance flicks, and adopts cheap publicity stunts. Finally broken, she tries hard to bring her life back on the track. We all loved Bhandarkar for his films like Corporate, Fashion, Traffic Signal, in which he uised to expose the unspoken truths in each sector, but you will love to hate him for bringing you such a disaster. One thing he unnecessarily emphasis, God knows why, that all actresses are addicted to alcoholism and cigarettes. OK , we got it now. The director doesn't forget to portray some of the known trademark scenes : a gay friend, a bisexual director sleeping in return for a favour, MMS scandal, struggling female actors sleeping around with big stars to rise in their career, philandering male stars and their manipulative star wives, which will surely going to make you yawn and sometimes may irritate you to an extent. Bhandarkar also seems confused that is he focusing on a declining graph of fading star, Mahi, or whether he is still trying to bring some eye-opener truths about the sleazy, glamorous world. What will interest you, or it could rather a pointer to Priety Zinta, that if your B'wood career in declining, just bond with a billionaire businessman or cricketer and buy an IPL team. This will probably make you think for a while. But the director should have focused on Mahi, and then the flick might not have lost its way. Kareena Kapoor carries the flick on her solitary shoulders. She looks totally engrossed in her role of a moody and emotionally unstable fading star. She gives her top performance and shines in some of the scenes. But bad script, dialogues and direction lets her down. You won't feel pity for her downfall in the flick, as it's portrayed from the very beginning that the actress is mentally sick and she follows her heart.The saving grace is that popular item number Halkat Jawani of Kareena, which has already slayed spectators. It's a treat to watch it on a 70mm screen. Arjun Rampal plays the non-commital playboy superstar Aryan Khanna. He is good in his performance and looks believable. Randeep Hooda after a dark performance in ‘Jism 2' is great as a cricketer and caring boyfriend.‘Halkat Jawani' is the only track you will remember and that too for its video. Besides ‘Saiyaan' also sounds good. ‘Heroine' is a typical Madhur Bhandarkar's flick and if you are his big fan, the flick will disappoint you. However, if you are Kareena's fan, you will love her more with ‘Heroine'. I'll go 2/5 stars for Bhandarkar's so called ‘ambitious' ‘Heroine'. Don't expect too much, as everything is similar to what you saw in his earlier projects. Rather you can watch those flicks again.