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 Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Vishal Bhandari, Om Puri, Himani Shivpuri, Juhi Chawla, Boman Irani

Director: Aziz Mirza

He’s a down-on-his-luck architect. She’s the one who’s going to turn it all around for him. Prime ‘prem kahani’ material, and the kind of story that Aziz Mirza used to wing. But that was a long time back : ‘Kismat Konnection’ doesn’t quite connect.

Raj (yes, that’s what Shahid is called, even if it brings to mind a million roles Shah Rukh has played with that same name) is in the Mirza mould of the underdog heroes who slip occasionally, but get up, in the end, to fight the good fight. Pretty Priya (Vidya) poses the conflict: will it be massive malls, or a community centre for the homeless; crass commerce or love? Will rich businessman Om Puri, in a fake white wig, win? Or will Bomani Irani, in an equally fake grey one, who espouses the cause of the ‘aam aadmi’, trounce the opposition?

No prizes for guessing which side Raj will choose. The trouble with ‘Kismat Konnection’ is not only its predictable screenplay, but its even more predictable filling-in-of-the-spaces between the first and the last frame, and the lack of any real fire, barring a stray sequence or two, between the lovebirds. Shahid, who had gone on to another level in ‘Jab We Met’, slips right back into his floppy haired, too-eager-to-please style, and Vidya stays exactly where she’s been — on the same single track, and as determinedly frumpy.

Everyone else hams. Please never let us see Juhi Chawla, who’s usually capable of sense, as a trumped up techni-coloured crystal ball gazer, again.

shubhra.gupta@gmail.com