A story that holds you hostage to the plot. Dialogues that develop with delicate nuances. Songs that you find yourself humming in the shower. And a heroine that epitomises the progressive woman of the 21st Century. She fights the odds of super-stardom — deceit, betrayal, insecurities and competition — bravely and bulldozes her way through obstacles like a Greek goddess on an ethereal mission. Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine has none of the above.
This is a film that pries out unpleasant dirt from the trials and tribulations of a starlet’s life, leaving her with nothing but ugly calluses to count every night as she hangs up her heels. This was expected as part of the film — after all, what else could Madhur Bhandarkar offer as an insight to the film industry? — but not in all of the film, in entirety.
As a director who is known for his real brand of cinema, Bhandarkar disappoints with this sobbing and whining portrayal of a woman who indicates no mettle of being the star she is portrayed to be. There is nothing real or convincing about Mahi Arora; surely an actress so volatile, unstable and self-destructive cannot make it big anywhere in the world? Especially if she can’t even act, which she can’t? The irony is that Bhandarkar uses an excellent A-grade actor — Kareena Kapoor — to portray a mediocre B-grade starlet — Mahi Arora — and in the casting is his only salvation.
Kareena Kapoor makes the film worth its salt. She manages to hold Heroine’s threadbare plot together by her acting skills alone. She looks drop-dead gorgeous when she’s in the skin of a screen siren but even when she’s plain faced and in pain (which is most of the film) you tend to forget the star and lose yourself in the character of Mahi Arora. There are other characters who lend the film some substance. As a philandering star, Arjun Rampal gives a decent performance and relevant eye candy. Yester year item girl Helen makes a cameo comeback to serve as a wizened, aging actor and provides some food for thought. Lilette Dubey, as always is a joy to see on the screen. And Ranvir Shorey as the madcap, independent art film-maker is effective in his role.
The problem is that everyone and everything about Heroine is just so predictable.
We’re introduced to Mahi Arora when she’s at the top of her career. But we are given no evidence as to how she got there. She looks gorgeous when dancing to Halkat Jawani but then young, nubile item girls around her get just as much praise from producers and directors. They’re also given preference at award shows. She’s also in love (which is more of a fatal attraction) with Aryan Khanna (Arjun Rampal) but the director gives us nothing to base this obsessive love on. There are no moments, no memories and no magic that might explain why she fell in love with him in the first place. The story telling is weak, the script even worse.
When Mahi’s love is unrequited, she falls apart. She also falls apart when her films begin to flop, when the media asks an embarrassing question in a press conference, when she loses an endorsement, when Arjun doesn’t propose, when Angad (Randeep Hooda) does propose, when the adoption agency rejects her as a suitable parent and… even when her own parent calls. So we know that falling apart is kind of routine with Mahi Arora. And the routine becomes tedious and repetitive and downright frustrating.
The biggest mystery behind Heroine has to be, “what was Madhur Bhandarkar thinking?” Not only is this film a poor sequel to Fashion (the characters are devised in the same salacious, homophobic and disapproving manner) but it is altogether regressive for a film that claims to be women-centric. What’s so honorable in sketching a character that is on self-destruct right from the word ‘go’? Heroine is anti-woman, anti-glamour and anti-films, because the director categorically takes all the elements apart, one by one. The only thing or person to emerge winner after this destructive passage of time is Kareena Kapoor, the actual heroine. And that’s the biggest irony of all. If KK had been anything like Mahi Arora in real life, she wouldn’t be the star she is today.