When you see trailers of a movie which falls under the Yash Raj banner, with beautiful locations such as Singapore and Priyanka Chopra showing off a new hairdo and her long and lean legs, you can't help but expect something trendy and funny. This despite the fact that the plot seems generic, where there is the nerdy geek who falls in love with the popular babe. Therefore you take out time (two hours to be exact) to watch a movie in hopes of being even mildly amused, if not largely entertained, and instead you're left with a bitter taste of how-you-have-wasted-your-time in your mouth. It is not unusual for Yash Raj Films to produce meaningless love stories. However, those meaningless stories have a purpose: to make the audience laugh or cry. Mostly, these movies manage to do that successfully, therefore stealing top positions at the box office (although the last few years have seen YRF films struggling to attract audiences). Pyaar Impossible falls short of any such expectations, which is rather unfortunate, as there were certain elements in the movie which could have worked. Let's start with the leading lady, the National Award-winning actress, Priyanka Chopra. Priyanka has come a long way indeed, from the innocent looking girl-next-door in Mujhse Shaadi Karogi to the fiercely ambitious model in Fashion, by not just polishing her looks, but by improving her acting skills as well. Therefore the most alluring factor of the movie was definitely this dusky beauty. Secondly, the cast and crew were made up of many young talents. For instance Jugal Hansraj, actor-turned director, started off his career as a child. Being young and bursting with experience, he brought along a unique perspective and a refreshing feel to the film. Also, Uday Chopra, the writer of the script, comes from an incredibly talented family which has maintained its name and reputation in the industry for the longest time, thus bringing further talent to the plate. Or so one hoped. However, the movie still doesn't work, for so many reasons. Firstly, there is absolutely no chemistry whatsoever between Priyanka and Uday. In fact, Priyanka looked better with the antagonist in the plot, who is trying to lure her towards him. Secondly, even with a clichŽd plot and a predictable ending, the writers could've added some seriousness to the script, making the dialogues slightly more mature. There were some scenes where the characters kept talking to each other and you're staring at the screen, thinking WTH? For instance, when they're showing a million dollar deal being made between two big shot companies, they are seen sitting discussing the deal as if it's two five-year-olds talking about who gets to eat the bigger piece of cake. The adorable child star did not help either. I mean is that how 6-year-olds talk nowadays? Really? Though she was extremely cute with her light eyes and straight hair, why did she have to be such an over-smart brat who killed the innocence by being 'intelligent' enough to come up with the conclusion that she should somehow set her 'nanny' up with her mother. At one point she actually goes to sleep over at her friend's house so that Uday can get some alone time with her mom. Also, another absurdity in the film is that everything seemed unbelievable. For instance, the kind of clothes Priyanka wears when she is in the office. We understand that the filmmakers are trying to cash in on her smouldering looks, but come on! Making her wear hot pants the size of boxer shorts, and tops which one would think twice about wearing even when going to a club, just doesn't make sense. Another funny thing that comes in notice is that even though the second half of their lives in the movie has been shot entirely in Singapore, there are Indians everywhere! The CEO, all the top officials in the company where Priyanka works, the janitor, the nanny who comes to look after Priyanka's daughter while she's at work - none of them is a Singaporean, or any other ethnicity. So maybe, at a subconscious level, the movie is trying to send out a message that Indians are taking over everywhere. Whatever the reason for that may be, it's clear that there are many things that are overlooked. And as a consequence, Pyaar Impossible is plagued with flaws. Maybe the credit of all this 'childish-ness' goes to the young new director. Or maybe the script was so flawed that it could not control these small things that added up to something large: A big failure. It's slightly sad to see Priyanka picking up films such as these after entertaining and successful films like Kaminey and Dostana. It's also disappointing to see no charm or grace emitting from Uday either even though his character did require him to be somewhat of a loser. However, being the male lead of the film, he should have been able to own the screen in any shot, rather than blend in the background. In conclusion: Skip this Yash Raj production. Don't bother.

Ð Manal Faheem Khan