I had never seen a Madhur Bhandarkar film before,but had heard he makes 'hard-hitting cinema'.Well,watching Heroine,made me feel that it would surely hit the pockets of the producers hard,very hard indeed.The film starts with an overhead shot showing a jeep.These are the best 1.5-2 min. of the film coz you feel maybe something is going to happen.The rest of the film is an insult to the viewer's senses & Kareena's(Bebo hereon) acting prowess.Bebo seems to be a director's actor: she trusts him completely & gives it her best shot but what if the trust is misplaced? The camera is more concerned with Mahi's(Bebo's character) cleavage than with her emotions.The rest of the cast is downright zombiefied:absolute dearth of emotions in their dialogues,add to that the truckloads of make-up.Randeep Hooda is the only saving grace.Arjun Rampal? he's a dumbass actor.How is he still getting films? The answer would reveal why Bollywood movies are considered so low on the world map.The character of Mahi is filled with inconsistencies.At one place,she is the bitch of Bollywood but when she's at the receiving end,she acts like a sissy.The film doesn't qualify as fiction coz there's not enough for that(even granting that people maybe zombies,really) If you make the mistake of believing it to be non- fiction you will start to hate Bollywood.Other than that,every character smokes,talks crap & is overly(/entirely) clichéd.The film's climax cheats the audience.Throughout the film you can't help sympathising with Bebo for her valiant attempt.Pity she committed to such a project. Highly UNrecommended.Go watch Barfi! instead Going with a generous 2/10.

So that's why i have left Bollywood movies.The more you anticipate for them,the more they disappoint you.The latest experience was Kareena Kapoor's much-hyped "HEROINE".Oh God,i don't know where to start.The extended scenes or the dialogues that felt like they won't end ! I don't know why those movies,which looks so promising in the trailer,turn out to be so irritating.I won't spoil this movie for you. But remember there is nothing left in Bollywood now.All my hopes are now on Preity Zinta's Ishkq In Paris.Yes i have been a fan of her since childhood.And she chooses scripts very wisely ! The Trailer looked quite interesting.Anyway please if you haven't watched the movie yet.Then don't.It's seriously awful and makes you remember those 2000's bollywood movies.A sheer waste of time.

Heroine (A)-----------------my Rating : 3/5 NOT BAD* It is a romantic drama of an actress in Bollywood......* It shows the reality behind the Stardom from this we all came to know the secrets and happenings behind cinema in real life... * Music and BGM were superb and pleasant for the audience to watch and has Halkat songs which are catchy as my favorite was "main heroine hoon" and obviously "haltkat jawani".... * Manish malhotra costumes were superb for Kareena's figure....According to cast, Kareena showed her performance in an average range but she is quite HOT in songs not as HOT as vidya balan in "the dirty picture". Randeep Honda and Arjun did their best - Story was not engaging but it was interesting in first half but lacks in second half thus fails in very fair screenplay... - It is not a perfect Madhur Bhandarkar film as we expected from his previous flicks.... - It has more vulgar scenes which has more cleavage dresses...Finally this movie is a clean one time watch....So enjoy it ....The film is based on the life and times of a superstar heroine from the dream factory we call 'Bollywood'. The film is an entertaining, daring, emotional, shocking, glamorous, scandalous behind the scenes account of the reality behind the world of glitz and glamour that our film stars inhabit. — at Sathyam Cinemas.Heroine (A)-----------------my Rating : 3/5 NOT BAD

As the title indicates, this is the story of a Bollywood heroine (in fact a collection of some episodes from her life and career). People keep on coming in and going out of her life and she finally ends up running away from the arc-lights and the sounds like Light, Camera, Action, Cut etc., i.e., instead of being a crowd-puller, feels better being a part of the crowd. She is indecisive or confused as to what she actually wants from her life - a successful career or a love-filled life with the man of her choice. And as a Hindi maxim tells - Duvidha Mein Dono Gaye, Maaya Milee Na Raam (in the condition of being in a fix, the person may get neither God nor wealth), she finally gets none of them.The way every coin has two sides, the same way every world or field has two altogether different sides – one bright one and one dark one. And the so-called realistic filmmaker – Madhur Bhandarkar has typed himself as a filmmaker concentrating on the dark side only of the field he is dealing with in his movie. The problem is that he always takes his audience for granted and wants it to believe whatever he shows as true.Madhur Bhandarkar has not shown any strugglers or acting lessons or a sincerity towards the profession. Instead he has chosen to show only the successful heroes and heroines and their activities involving mud-slinging, leg-pulling, scores-settling and dirty politics. And just like Fashion, he has shown smoking, drinking, drug-consumption, unsocial behaviour in the parties and casual sex (both heterosexual and homosexual). Is this all the film industry contains ? Is this the only scenario of a heroine's life ? After spending more than a decade in the film industry, do Madhur Bhandarkar and Kareena Kapoor want to tell the world that this is what they experience in this line ? Madhur Bhandarkar has shown that hype is everything and bad publicity is also considered as commercially beneficial. Well, this applies to this over-hyped film itself.In the beginning sequence of Subhash Ghai's Pardes (1997), Amrish Puri says to a Westerner, 'In your country, love means Len-Den, i.e., give and take whereas in India love means Dena Dena Dena, i.e., give give give. However Madhur Bhandarkar has shown that in this industry (which he himself is a part of), there is only give and take. Every talk, every gesture, every emotion, every relationship is artificial and motivated by self-interest. Well, he and Kareena Kapoor know better.Chums and dress-designers hovering around heroines are shown as speaking and behaving quite theatrically. Every female smokes. Every heroine is addressed by the talking person as 'babes' or 'baby'. Partisan media persons believe in settling their scores with the stars. Awards are negotiated. Heroes' possessive wives decide the heroines of their movies. Heroes do editing themselves, cutting the roles of those who do not come to their terms. Heroines devote more time to backbiting (or bitching) their contemporaries. Well, at least this is one fact which is confirmed through Kareena Kapoor's own life because she used to do it with her rival heroines till a few years back. For the rest, I am not sure to be fully true. All the same, how can I challenge the perception of Madhur and Kareena of their own line of work ? The hard-hitting dialogs serve Madhur's purpose best. In one dialog, the ruthless PRO (Divya Dutta) of the heroine says that in the film-line, if you utter a lie with confidence, people consider it as truth. And in another scene, one party-woman says to her talking companion that who is not a fraud in this film industry. Well Madhur, do you say the same about yourself too ? The movie leaves such an impression only.Technically, the movie is good. Music is in line with the mood of the movie. Though engrossing, the movie appears to be too long and the director seems to have attempted to cover as many facets of the cine-world, as possible which has, after a point, made the movie as burdensome. It has got reduced to a collection of some good and some bad sentences instead of being developed into a well-written impressive article.Performances are all good. Even those who have been forced by the director to go over the top, have not disappointed. Kareena Kapoor has taken her heart out to invest in this movie and this movie seems to be a take on the real life and career of this aging actress (completed 32 years). All others have done well. Special praise is deserved by Divya Dutta as the PRO and Helen as the heroine of the yesteryears. In addition to the entertainment value, it's the performances and the track of Helen which can be considered as the pluses of this movie. Madhur Bhandarkar's realism seems to be a different name for tried and tested entertainment only.The biggest thing that the movie subtly conveys is the dictum which I learnt quite late in my life – 'When you chase things, they run away'. When the 'heroine' in the movie chases love, love runs away from her and when she chases success in career, success runs away from her and all of her efforts prove to be counter-productive only in the end. Hence the great lesson rendered by default is never to run after anything. Let it go after a point.Finally, I conclude my review with a dialog of the PRO to the heroine in a scene – 'Either you manipulate others to your benefit or get ready to be manipulated yourself'. Madhur Bhandarkar seems to have grasped the essence of this dialog and this time he has manipulated.