Review: Jodi Breakers

Jodi Breakers
 
Seemingly ‘inspired’ by the French film Heartbreaker (but only to a point), Jodi Breakers stars the portly R. Madhavan as Sid, a divorcee lumped with crippling alimony payments to a materialistic wife. Single once again, he finds his forte lies in breaking up marriages. He makes a successful career out if this. His office is Nano’s Bar, run by his friend Nano (Omi Vaidya). It is here that he encounters the beautiful Sonali (Bipasha Basu). A chance meeting results in a business partnership. As their business flourishes, they find themselves attracted to one another, a feeling that reaches fever pitch during a tricky assignment in Greece.

Sid and Sonali are enlisted to break up businessman tycoon Mark Pereira’s (Milind Soman, oddly styled like Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura) relationship with Maggie (Dipannita Sharma who looks stern throughout). Naturally its mission accomplished, but when Sonali finds out the truth behind Sid’s reasons for taking on this assignment it breaks their jodi.

Wracked with guilt, and finally admitting how much he loves Sonali, Sid sets out to correct his mistakes and win Sonali back. From this point on the film begins to lose steam and pace. From the entry of Helen, as Mark’s grandma, till the final scene, the movie now plods along making the last 20 minutes wearisome.

The music is passable, with only the ‘Kunwara’ song having any recall, and the ‘Bipasha’ song is just an indulgent showcase for the lead actress. But Bipasha Basu makes the most of a shallow part. The character of Sonali has no layers or back story making it hard to relate to her. Omi Vaidya’s has become typecast the bumbling sidekick. His poor Hindi diction and hammy acting aside, it is unbearable to watch him reprise the cult scene from 3 Idiots where he reads the wrong speech in public. In this movie, he is masquerading as a ‘baba’ who adlibs a speech from a bar menu. There are also some awfully juvenile jokes about flatulence, anatomy and Sid’s heart being in his bum and his car being referred to as ‘Horny’.

What keeps you engaged is the chemistry between Bipasha Basu and Madhavan, with director Ashwini Chaudhary executing some truly tender and romantic scenes and making an otherwise odd couple quite believable. Madhavan delivers a natural and likable performance within a script that lacks (mature) humour, which is the cornerstone of a romcom. More comedy and less flab on the script would have helped.

Rating: **

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Udita Jhunjhunwala

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