What’s Your Rashee?

After the last pairing of Priyanka Chopra and Hurman Baweja in Love Story 2050, I was very apprehensive about watching What’s Your Rashee? But lo, each show was running to house-full crowds in every multiplex of the city. I couldn’t get tickets even on trying for them a day in advance. Finally settled for a small cinema hall that started the movie 15 minutes before schedule and cut out one of the rashees (virgo). Never mind my personal bad experiences, let’s get on with the review (I usually do not give reviews because I tend to go too much into details, but here goes).

Directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, What’s Your Rashee? stars Hurman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles. You might already know that Priyanka Chopra plays twelve different characters, each corresponding to one of the zodiac signs.

There is nothing much to be said about the story. What’s Your Rashee? is a frothy, light-hearted romantic comedy. Slightly different from the boy-meets-girl stories in that it is a boy-meets-twelve girls story. Yogesh Patel (Hurman Baweja) is a Chicago-returned MBA graduate, who wants to have a love-marriage. However he is forced to have an arranged marriage to cover his elder brother’s shady debts because a Jyothshi had predicted “money-rain” the moment Yogesh ties the knot. With no clue as to what to do, Yogesh decides to meet twelve girls, each belonging to one of the twelve zodiac signs and decide upon one from them. And begins the bride-hunting, where the twelve prospective brides are played by Priyanka Chopra.

Nothing much to be said about Hurman Baweja either. He sure needs to work on his acting and emoting through facial expressions. And it’d help him if he could make dialogues sound like something real and not like something he has learnt by-heart. But Priyanka Chopra steals the show with her portrayal of the twelve rashee brides-to-be. Some of them memorable, some not so. Some glamorous and some very simple. These twelve brides are:

Priyanka to the power of 12

• Anjali, belonging to Aries. A Simple, uneducated, hindi-speaking girl. Pretends to be all modern and western to escape from her conservative parents to Chicago.
• Sanjana, who is an Aquarius. Friendly, outgoing, sweet and charming. A microbiologist by profession, who already has a boyfriend from Kenya. Gets herself rejected by Yogesh as she was forced to see Yogesh by her parents.
• Kajal, a Gemini. Bubbly, energetic, fun-loving, outgoing college girl. Believes in the magic of love.
• Hansa, a Cancerian. A simple and honest female. This is the avatar of Priyanka that I loved the most. She looked graceful and elegant in Saree and long, straight hair.
• Rajni, who belongs to Libra. A balanced, authoritative, demanding and commanding woman. Wants a prenuptial agreement that will make it possible to have a divorce after two years.
• Chandrika, who belongs to Pisces. A mysterious, superstitious girl, who believes Yogesh is her lover from her previous life.
• Mallika, a Leo. Creative, hot-headed, attractive, an artist,  a dancer by profession. Hates the nakhras of NRIs.
• Nandini, Scorpio. Pretends to be simple for parents, but in fact, is a modern girl, dreams of becoming a supermodel. And wants to go to Chicago to fulfill her dreams. Priyanka has managed a great feat by memorising million details of Chicago here.
• Pooja, belongs to Virgo. Works as a doctor. Refuses to leave India.
• Vishakha, belonging to Taurus. Simple, bubbly and intelligent. Feigns madness to know whether Yogesh loves her or her wealth. There’s a nice Gujarati song choreographed on her.
• Bhavna, a Saggitarius. Spiritual, with high sexual energies. Tries to seduce Yogesh.
• Jhankana, a Capricorn. Turns out to be a 15 year old girl being forced into marriage by her parents.

Priyanka has portrayed each of the avatars with élan and the seamless direction has fitted the whole story together, which otherwise had very good chances of going awry. Even the sub-plots contributed to the main story. Even the music is pleasant. When I was told that the movie has 13 songs, I was shocked. But after a very long time, I have come across such decent songs in Bollywood.

So who will be Yogesh’s wife in the end? Watch and find out! Oh by the way, I rate the movie 5/5 4/5. (Sorry. Was being too generous!).