sumanbarthakursmailbox Ashutosh Gowariker's What's Your Raashee? is an excruciatingly painful film to watch. For the most part humorless and misguided, the film lumbers along for an unforgivable three-hours-and-thirty minutes, during which even the most patient viewers might contemplate suicide. Harman Baweja stars as Yogesh Patel, an unmarried Gujarati boy working in Chicago, who is desperately summoned home as the last rescue for his debt-ridden family in Mumbai. He will inherit his grandfather's property on marriage, and hence his folks persuade him to tie the knot immediately so they can pay off their loans. Despite his reluctance, Yogesh succumbs to the emotional blackmail and says yes to be married in ten-odd days, after agreeing to meet a dozen prospective brides, one each from the 12 zodiac signs or raashees. Using what is unquestionably an interesting plot device, the director casts Priyanka Chopra as each of the dozen girls. Within the film, however, the resemblance between the prospective brides is justified by using a ridiculous explanation offered by Yogesh's grandfather. The encounters between Yogesh and each of the girls get repetitive soon enough, and the screenplay slips into something of a cyclic mess, with each meeting-scene between boy and girl predictably followed by a song. It takes extremely skilled writing and superlative acting to create 12 distinct characters using the same actor; and while Priyanka Chopra throws herself into the challenge, she is let down by a poor script. Apart from a few characters that stand out because they're sharply written and convincingly performed, most of the girls appear as clones of each other because the only thing separating them is a single quirk and their costume. So you have a gawky small-town college girl, a sexy microbiologist from Kampala, a die-hard romantic raised on the movies, an honest middle-class girl hoping to rebuild her life after a break-up, a dominating businesswoman looking for a contract marriage, a kooky damsel who's convinced she knows Yogesh from a previous birth - and at this point, you still have six girls left to go. As if this story wasn't tiring enough already, Gowariker squeezes in two pointless sub-plots - one about Yogesh's philandering uncle and a detective hired to track his movements; the other about a loan-shark's henchmen stalking Yogesh's brother to return the money he's borrowed from them. The humor in What's Your Raashee is of the broad, juvenile variety, the kind that might amuse six-year-olds. If you survive the film's plodding pace and make it to the final act, you're expecting to be gratified by a smart ending. After all, which girl does Yogesh Patel eventually choose? Prepare to be disappointed by a cop-out climax that clearly indicates the writers had no idea how to clean up this mess they made. In sharp contrast to Madhu Rye's novel, Kimball Ravenswood from which it is adapted, What's Your Raashee is a regressive, old-fashioned picture that suffers on account of too many silly jokes, too many unlikable characters, and way too many songs. Even the references to such social evils as child marriage and dowry are fleeting and appear gratuitous. Despite the earnest efforts of Priyanka Chopra, the actress can't pull off the impossible task of making every single one of these characters a credible, flesh-and-blood person. Truth is, I'm not sure anyone in her place could. Harman Baweja, meanwhile, is endearing in a role that doesn't demand much. Director Ashutosh Gowariker who's delivered compelling dramas previously, appears out of his depth here tackling urban comedy. Like his epic-sized victories, Lagaan and Jodhaa Akbar and even the well-intended, cult-favourite Swades, Gowariker's What's Your Raashee? is unfortunately an epic-sized failure. Here's hoping his next effort will erase the memory of this film forever.

Parvez I like all Ashutosh Gowarikar's earlier creations, but when I read the reviews of "Whats your rashee?" I decided against watching the movie. It was forcing of my 3 1/2 year old son which made us go to theatre to watch the movie, believe me its an amazing movie. I don't know why critics love to hate good movies, people like Rajeev Masand think themselves to be god and write whatever they want. But once you watch the movie you will see the brilliance.People are hating 12 songs but those songs take movie forward, length of the movie might be long but I didn't get bored for a single second. No character looks out of place. of course critics like to watch some steamy scenes but this movie does not have one hence critics don't like that. Movie progresses so nicely. Priyanka Chopra steals the whole show but without the support of Harman Baweja it wouldn't have been possible.The whole plot seems so convincing. This is a must watch movie. Please don't go on length of the movie and the thought of 12 songs may be stopping you from going to theatre but those 12 songs are short and sweet. I am not a very big fan of Ashutosh Gowarikar, but this movie just blew my mind off. Go watch it now.

Manoj Arya There is plenty to criticize about Ashutosh Gowarikar's What's Your Rashee. For instance its infinite length, fact that Harman can't act Saala, some Gujju not so funny dragging sections, but there is one thing that really can't be ignored is Priyanka Chopra on screen in twelve different forms with costume designer working on her wardrobe one after another and mostly handing her almost backless Cholis. Guy is Chicago settled NRI Yogesh (without h) Patel who is being tricked to fly back India (same as in Hadippa second in this week), has a task at this hand. Find a bride in seven days, marry the girl possibly rich and payback the debts of his uncle with dowry and fortune he will be inheriting for writing birthday cards to his rich maternal grandfather. Jetlagged or strained on one insomniac night he picks up a book same as film's title and decides to meet one girl of each rashee (sun sign).He meets one after another caricature girl with distinct trait, a good natured Virgo doctor, a sensuous sagi saadhvi (astrologer), a mysterious Scorpio with passion for modeling, a business hotshot looking for contract marriage and prenup agreement, a minor Gaaon Ki Gori, a Cancerian with a past, a plucky Gemini, odd fish Pieces who believes in reincarnation and soul mate and there are many more. Most of them come with a song-n-dance routine and many are good distracters.Astrology is fascinating stuff. I remember jumping on Goodman's Love sings and Sun signs, parallel cross checking with each girl guy traits I know of. It was fun and sometimes astonishingly interesting read. So does our reputed director of Lagaan and Swades trying reinventing himself with a comedy cum musical succeed? Not really and I am not surprised. There is already a problem with this kind of premise as twelve characters will be fighting for screen time, limiting character developments and lack of coherent story but at the same time it can be funny vignettes quilted together with a common thread. Unfortunately writer-director Ashutosh Gowarikar lacks the comic flair required for this kind of material to pull off an interesting encounters one after another. He seriously needs a good editor who can chop and cut the flab instead of stuffing it with each and everything you shoot (three hours plus for a comedy? come on!). Harman Baweja is as bland and flat as they can get. Leading guy demands charismatic persona that can click with audience as a groom running on stopwatch looking for the perfect bride in game of luck and chance. Gowarikar also can use a new casting- director.So saving grace is Priyanka Chopra with her screen presence keeps it going. Despite limitation of script she survives the challenge and walks out clean from this astro-mess of a story. Honestly I wasn't grossly disappointed as I switched off my brain when found what movie is up to (it took half an hour to introduce Priyanka Chopra). Instead, fancied lying on couch on one of those late nocturnal sleepless nights in front of my TV set with a glass of beer. If you decide to watch it anyway, my advice will be, don't take any of it serious, feel like catching it on tube and you might enjoy it rather than resenting. And watch if for Piggy Chops.

varun899 I was really looking forward to watching this movie. As they say too many expectations disappoint and that's what happened with me tonight. WYR is a big disappointment.We all know the story still I will summarize it here hopefully without any spoilers. Yogesh Patel is an NRI who is forced to find and marry a girl within 10 days. He does not have much time so he decides to meet 12 girls – 1 from each rashee and each played by Priyanka Chopra and ultimately ends up marrying one of them. The movie has its good moments – and most of them belong to PC.It is PC's best performance so far undoubtedly. This girl surprised everyone with her performance in Fashion and then in Kaminey and once again in WYR. Harman Baweja is huge improvement from Love Story 2050. He seems to have a good handle at comedy and does not disappoint. Darshan Jariwala is excellent as always. Dilip Joshi is funny and plays the role of a Gujarati business class person very effectively.Music is very fresh and soulful. Baring one or two songs all of them are very well composed, written and sung. Jaao Na specially is very soothing. However, while watching the movie you realize they are forced in storyline. Nice camera-work. They have captured various facets of Mumbai including Marine Drive, Haji Ali, Kamla Nehru Park as well some areas of Navi Mumbai effectively.The movie also has some really good social messages against dowry and child marriages. However, I have some very basic questions for AG:1. Was it really required to have one song per almost every character? 2. Was it really required for the movie to be 3 hours and 20 minutes long?The biggest minus of the movie is its screenplay which is really weak. I am OK with long movies; I enjoyed Jodha Akbar even though it was equally long. But when a really long movie starts to bore you and you have to look at your watch several times during the movie - it definitely raises such a question. Seriously, WYR does not have content good enough for so much time. Had it been wrapped up within 2.5 hours it would have been a much more interesting movie.I also found some of the stories (Tula, Dhanu and Sinha) pretty much unrealistic. The plot about whole 4 crore lost in share market is very weak and fact that the entire movie is based on it is bizarre. Stories involving each of PC characters should've been much shorter and preferably without those annoying songs. The movie also gets predictable towards the end. At least an hour before the end I correctly guessed the girl whom Yogesh Patel would marry.Overall, one should watch this movie once and only once for PC. She should win Actress awards for this. However, be prepared to be bored for this marathon rom-com.P.S.: I have not read Kimball Ravenswood by Madhu Rye. It's a very popular novel so I believe the movie adaptation has gone wrong and original story must be really good.