"Heroine" Movie Review: Kareena Leaves You High and Dry

After watching "Heroine", one may perhaps start believing that celebrities may be in favour of the controversies involving them. Rumours keep actors engaged and in business.

Madhur Bhandarkar's "Heroine" deals with an intra-psychic conflict of a popular but fading actress. The film exposes the pain and trauma endured by an actress in the fight to hang on to the remaining threads of stardom.  

Leading lady Mahi Arora, played by Kareena, is a star but a highly unstable one that is. Behind the haughty exterior and her penchant for throwing tantrums lies a very insecure woman in terms of both her professional and personal life.

A series of break-ups and patch-ups, flops and hits, forces Mahi to seek psychiatrist help and pills to deal with her bi-polar condition.

With several facets ranging from profession rivalry, controversies, relationships, link-ups, sex-scandals, manipulation to the role of a PR in building an actor's career, screenplay writers Anuraadha Tewari and Manoj Tyagi seemed to have spared no miniscule detail concerning the business of the celebrity world.

The stretched out detailing of the film is what perhaps that drags the movie at some points. Despite the slack, the film certainly has various other aspects to compensate the said drawbacks.

"Heroine" is a definitely a hard-hitting movie and helps one come to a conclusion that being a heroine is really not that simple.

Kareena's character appears to be very dumb in handling her escalating fame. She often gets swayed by personal emotions and ruins her professional life to the point that even a successful PR can't save her from her self-imposed inferno.

In her quest for happiness in the world of glamour, Mahi's life spuns out of control in no time and everything falls apart. Whether she overcome her challenges or gives into her demons will unfold to an unexpected ending.

Will she kill herself owing to the failures? Perhaps, this is the question that keeps one completely engaged about Mahi's life.

In terms of her acting prowess, Kareena has dominated the screen. Her performances in each phase as a heroine are unforgettable - from a most happening actress, a lovelorn lady to a fading star and the epiphany of what she lost in her frantic pursuit for fame. Needless to say, Kareena rocks and sizzles in "Halkat Jawani." 

Bhandarkar's storyline is strong but seemed to be lengthy with the plots and details going overboard. Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, Divya Dutta and Ranvir Shorey don't merely come as fillers but fail to draw encore with their performances.  

As far as humour is concerned, don't expect given the fact that it has a serious theme to it.

"Heroine" is served in typical Bhandarkar favour. Hard-core Bhandarkar fans may find the movie interesting but it may also depend upon one's interest in learning beyond the flawed facade of happiness and fame in the Bollywood industry.

On the whole, "Heroine" is far from boring. Despite lapses and the long-drawn narrations, the film is still consistently watchable for Kareena.

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

Cast: Kareena Kapoor, Randeep Hooda, Arjun Rampal