Aabeer Gulaal UAE Review: Fawad Khan & Vaani Kapoor Stir Up a Stylish Cross-Border Rom-Com

Aabeer Gulaal UAE Review: Fawad Khan & Vaani Kapoor Stir Up a Stylish Cross-Border Rom-Com

 Dubai: This is one of my main criticisms of romantic comedies? When film-makers pan and scare themselves straight and tie everything up with a sweet bow. It is as though it were motion picture capitulation. Fortunately, Aarti S. Bagdi does not succumb to that temptation in Aabeer Gulaal. Don’t ruin the game, but we may mention, she does not uplift the messiness of the love but clean it up. The movie still strikes the same chords as storybook comfort, even so, but with a sufficient degree of wit to keep one laughing and rooting among its two main characters.

Papa is a Princess, But Tough.

Enter Vaani Kapoor, who is a Simran-esque daughter torn off the pages of DDLJ, only this Simran is loaded with a set of luxury credit cards, jet-set status and a streak of insubordination. Father, her old fashioned father, is the puppeteer, whipping her into a matrimonial merger. She, in her turn, is a rebel not with her dul intonation, but with pratfalls, tantrums and the melodrama of the one who confuses anarchy with allure. Spoilt? Definitely. Watchable? Against the odds, yes.

Sequins along London Streets.

And here Aabeer Gulaal is stretched to the limit of its unintentional humour. Our heroine is no longer financed by the limitless bankroll of Cut off Daddy and she chooses to go out into the world herself by reinventing herself as a Bollywood dance teacher. That is her great independence scheme. It is almost a parody to see Vaani Kapoor dance across London in poofy lehengas, showing the confused locals how to dance the thumka. It is ludicrous, though it is the ludicrousness of the film: of hustle in Heathrow and wedding-ready dress-up.

In the meantime, she falls into an internship in a fashionable eatery directed by Abir, a scowling Fawad Khan. Their initial words are bristling with confrontations--snappiness with eye-rolls. The chemistry is not ticking time bombs, it boils, griddles and then catches fire, more a one-night cooked stew than a microwaved snack.

Sparks and Side-Eyes

Well, we need to get the obvious out of the way, the smile of Fawad Khan can sole light up its own marquee. Distracting? Absolutely. But in the best way. Vaani, in his turn, boasts of a body so ripped it is about to steal every picture. Together, though, they click. Their repartees, part gallant, part small-scale, part acupuncturally sharp, are homely. It is not sugarcandy romance; it is ugly and improvised and strangely attractive.

Too Much Stuffing

And here is where the film fails, editing, or the absence of it. Aabeer Gulaal is perhaps too long in its unnecessary digressions. And the worst offender is a cameo by Lisa Haydon, which is all slick and empty and has no real point other than the fixation of Bollywood on recognizable faces. A more decisive slice would have taken away the fat and had us all enclosed rather than half awake halfway.

Finale with Bite

But oh, those last 15 minutes. Bagdi reserves her most dramatic hits to last, and it is worth the wait. There are no villains but the climax evades the rom-com happy ending and instead leans towards flaw and danger. It lands. To that, add a surprise appearance of a performer who almost runs away with the film - you will see when you watch it - and the final act is memorable.

On the one hand, Aabeer Gulaal is sleek and hyper-stylized. London is like an ad of a lifestyle, dazzling streets, fashionable cafes, and Instagram ready food displays. The music is jubilant, but some of the songs are dropped in, rather than sounded out of necessity, Vaani in sequins than storytelling.

Aabeer Gulaal does not innovate rom-coms and, quite honestly, it does not attempt to do so either. Rather, it revels in incisive acting, sexually charged energy and toothy resolution. It is ridiculous and romantic watching a spoiled but magnetic heroine banging against a gloomy restaurateur in London. Yes, the middle part is draggy, but it is carried down and through by the charisma of the film, its humor and gritty conclusion.

Review: A slick, flawed yet fun rom-com- warmed, a bit sloppy and sprinkled with snark.