Movie Review: 2 States

Not a big fan of Chetan Bhagat, and I hated 3 Idiots, but 2 States gets 4 stars from me.

2 States is the story of typical Delhite Krish Malhotra and Ananya Swaminathan, from a conservative Chennai family. They meet at IIMA and fall in love. But marriage is a whole new ball game, and a la SRK in DDLJ, they take a conscious decision not to get married until their parents happily agree. But culture clashes and egos rule the roost, and things look bleaker by the day. Will Krish and Ananya's love win over the differences? Will they manage to convince their parents? Or will they lose themselves, while trying to bring their families together?

Beautiful casting, and excellent performances all around. Alia continues her terrific job from highway - although, there is no way she resembles anyone remotely Tamilian! She is cute, she dresses well, and has some pretty good lines that has the audience laughing heartily. Arjun Kapoor is one of my favs from the current lot, and does extremely well as the boy next door that we all can easily identify with. Not the typical hero, except when he puts on his dance shoes. Just the nice guy pursuing his MBA, and falling madly in love, sporting a stubble and specs. The supporting cast is even better. Ronit Roy is awesome as Arjun's angry dad, pairing Amrita Singh, who delivers a gem of a performance, while Revathi plays Alia's mom. Shivkumar, as Alia's conservative dad, is terrific.

The story is straightforward, the camera work is decent, but the dialogues and the execution are excellent. Specially in the first half. The second half starts dragging a little bit, and the family tensions start pulling the movie down. What is handled beautifully is the growth of their relationship -  uncomplicated, natural and contemporary.

Some of the songs are great, and the background score is pretty cool too! Some of the Tamil songs used are fantastic, and the Tamil-Hindi medley sung by Revathi's character is beautiful and very memorable!

If I was an IIMA alumni, though, or one of the employees of Yes Bank, I am not sure I would be too thrilled at the image of my organization as portrayed in the movie. Minor point, but that's one of the reasons I hated Chetan Bhagat's Four Point Someone - it just didn't do justice to the IITs!

Should you watch the movie? Absolutely! One of the best in recent times!