Film Review- Meri Pyari Bindu

A meandering second half kills the feel-good factor brought in by the first. The positives are good acting by Ayushman (Parineeti is Ok, too), and the easy flow in the narrative roughly till the interval.

Actually, the idea (of linking songs with life incidents) had a lot of potential. The movie may have worked better if it had stayed in the realm of flashbacks related to the songs. Some more songs could have been used to beef up the screenplay, vastly improving its impact. I can think of another dozen songs..actually, the best scenes are related to the old songs. I particularly liked the "Aiye meherbaan" dance sequence from the kids, recreating Madhubala and Ashok Kumar from the original.

The other good sequence is the entire family chipping in for the title song..Meri pyari Bindu, which also is my favourite from Padosan..mere prem ki naiyyan beech bhanwar mein gug gud gote khaye use paar laga de,..classic lyrics.

If you walk out at half-time, you won't miss much. But watchable for what it does not contain- over-the-top Khans, for example.

The Dawat-e-ishq Review

This is a story you can appreciate more if you happen to be from Hyderabad or Lucknow. I have lived in both places, so maybe there's a soft corner for it. I liked the movie in spite of an illogical twist which prolongs the story to fit into a 2 hour-plus format. Nevertheless, it sustains your interest because of the lead players aided superbly by veteran Anupam Kher.

There is a message in it too, that of the evils of dowry, and treating female thieves differently from the highway robbers who shamelessly indulge in dowry-taking (assumed to be male here, though they aren't always male).

Parineeti and the Kapoor (don't ask me which, I am confused with so many of their clan around) do their parts well, a couple of songs are good, the sights of Hyderabad and Lucknow are captured well. The characters being Muslim, it's nice to learn a bit more about their lifestyles and customs.

A 3 on 5 from me.