Beautiful movie review highlights: A predictable love story

Agasthya Manju's Parth Suri and Naina Ganguly starrer 'Beautiful', hyped and produced by RGV, hit screens today.

The film has been called an 'ode to Rangeela', the hit 1995 Ram Gopal Varma directorial starring Urmila Matondkar, Aamir Khan and Jackie Shroff. Despite being directed by Agasthya, 'Beautiful' is conceptualised by RGV and comes nowhere near to the original.

'Beautiful' is the tale of Rini (Naina Ganguly) and Mayank (Parth Suri) who live in a poor settlement in Dharavi, Mumbai. Despite their circumstances, Rini is the kind who will find happiness in whatever she has, a manic pixie who will dance in the rain, dress in good clothes despite living in a chawl and pick silly fights with her lover but put up with his nonsense too. Mayank, a mechanic, is her polar opposite, wanting to make it big and die before accepting help from Rini because she's a woman. He also has an ego the size of an aircraft hangar where he will let her win a race between them on purpose but still pout if she celebrates, which gives a hint of what's to follow. Rini soon lands a role in a Bollywood film, and of course, their lives change after. There's also of course a manager who will ruin their love.

The first half of 'Beautiful' has very little plot and way too many shots of Naina Ganguly randomly dancing in what is meant to be a sensuous manner. The film feels like being stuck between a rock and hard place because even when the plot tries to tell a story it's not effectively shown, especially when Naina Ganguly's acting style is extremely over-the-top. Parth does a good enough job, delivering an earnest performance with the role he's handed. Ravi Shankar's music is a drivel, but the BGM is good enough. With things coming to a head right before the interval, it remains to be seen how the second half will fare.