What's your rashee - what was Ashu thinking?

Despite all the bad reviews (or maybe because of them) regarding What's your rashee a few friends and I were curious to see the movie - we bullied our respective spouses into agreeing to watch the flick - Blue being their choice clearly (not sure that Blue is a better movie but that is another review). And boy did we regret it!! 3 hours of my life that I am not going to get back (and it was 3 hours only because we watched all the songs and some of the scenes in fast forward mode).

The movie starts with an astrologer predicting that the younger son of a Gujrati family will get married by the 20th of that month. The older son has borrowed money from a few shady characters and is in over his head when the family hears that their wealthy grandfather will turn over his entire property to the younger son upon his wedding. This is a further impetus for the family to pressurize their son to come to India and opt for an arranged marriage. The boy (played by Harman Baweja) agrees to meet 12 different girls (all played by Priyanka) but from each sign of the zodiac and choose his life partner from among one of them. The story then progresses with Priyanka Chopra essaying each of the 12 different roles. The biggest letdown is the completely weak storyline and non-existent script. That is then compounded by all the background noise in the form of unnecessary background stories of how much in debt the older brother is, the matchmaker uncle who is also cheating on his wife and the million songs. While the songs are certainly very pleasant and hummable there are just way too many of them thereby prolonging a very weak and flimsy plot.

I wonder if Ashutosh realized in the middle of making this movie just how bad it was going to be and had no other option but to finish it despite his misgivings. I cannot believe that this was made by the same director who gave us Lagaan and Swades. The portrayals of the 12 different zodiacs is very cliched and some of the characters are reduced to downright caricatures. Harman is okay. The good thing is that he no longer seems to be trying to ape Hrithik Roshan (a la Love Story 2050). Must say, the future is not looking too bright for Mr. Baweja. Priyanka is okay as well. I remember watching an interview with her where they were talking about how she has still not come across the role of a lifetime - similar to what Pakeezah was for Meena Kumari or Umrao Jaan was for Rekha - and sadly if she was pinning her hopes on this movie, this is definitely not it.

So the verdict (if it is not already crystal clear from the paragraphs up above), give this movie a miss unless you really have nothing else to do with 4 hours of your time.