A Love Story rises out of Hatred

Movie: Ishaqzaade

Cast:  Parineeti Chopra, Arjun Kapoor

Rating: ***1/2  (1/2 extra is for Parineeti's performance)

“We have enough Religion to make us hate, but not enough religion to make us love one another” - Jonathan Swift

Even today in “Modern” India we see religion as one of the biggest threats and issues faced. And this film shows how religion goes on to become the biggest enemy of Love. This movie is an inter religion love story and it’s handled beautifully. The story is about Zoya (Chopra), the apple of everyone’s eye in the Qureshi family. She is brave, daring and adorable. And Param (Kapoor), the black sheep of the Chauhan family. He is rowdy, brash and insensitive. They belong to rival political families of Almore and most importantly different religions. The story revolves around them and giving away any more details of the story would be doing injustice to the film.

The first half of the Movie is fast paced and leaves you with huge expectations. The second half kind of dulls in the beginning but slowly builds up the pace and gets into the groove. The characters of the movie are simple, real and very believable. You can connect with the movie on the whole.

Director Habib Faisal adds pace to the story telling. Above all the he has made is so real that you relate with it and it stays on with you. I wish he would’ve done a little better handling the second half nonetheless he is someone to look out for more in the future. Dialogues are witty and add the right kind of humour to the script. And now the main ingredient of the film, its music. Mr. Amit Trivedi, you just do it over and over again. The background score is apt, smart and pacy. The songs are beautiful barring one of the item songs. The music just adds a new dimension to the story telling.

The cast is primarily Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor. Parineeti Chopra is here to stay. She just has so many different expressions. Most of the Bollywood actresses wouldn’t even know them. She is so talented. Right from her dialogue delivery to getting every act from being a daring girl to a sensitive lover is perfect. You just fall in love with her. She is brilliant. Debutant Arjun Kapoor also matches her right. He does a great job for his first film. His transformation from an insensitive boy to a sensitive lover is portrayed quite well by him. He does a good job of carrying off the rugged and rowdy look. He holds promise for the future.

This is a love story borne out of hatred, revenge, bullets and deceit. And it PREVAILS!