Load of rubbish!!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

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.

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.

Ans: Be Madhur Bhandarkar and show people your Heroine! I went in with GREAT expectations. Frankly, I was prepared for both Masala and sleaze which justifies itself in the context and boy was I in for a MAJOR disappointment.I am a big fan of the emotions which are so freely expressed in Bollywood movies but more than anything Im vowed by actors who encompass poise and calm even when they are super charged and hyper. Perfect example Sridevi in Chaalbaaz.Sadly though,poise and grace were the last thoughts on the mind of our leading lady in Heroine, who looked desperate to fulfill herself with Mahi Arora rather than the other way around. It was plain pathetic. 10 minutes in the movie and I was impatient, restless, and ready to jump out.Only the money spent on VIP tickets kept me seated! Overall the movie was a huge let down since Ms.Kapoor couldn't portray what was required. Now please, crying is not acting.Chain smoking is NOT acting. Doing Halkat Jawani is not acting.And going all "natural" without any make-up on is definitely not acting. Rather it is called "lowering the bar to suit your skills which couldn't be lifted in about 12 years of working as a sleaze bomb very effectively". Heroine was a crime! for Madhur Bhandarkar resume and definitely ripped other very capable actors of any true chance to show their genuine skills. Ranvir Shorey was outstanding, the real treat in the movie. I thought he was my reward for buying the tickets , but his role was mercilessly cut short. Helen was the grace and poise Madhur and Kareena could learn from! Randeep Hooda has a very strong presence on screen and he doesn't falter.Again we were deprived of any entertainment he promised to bring. As for Arjun Rampal , he is one of the finest actors today. That poise , grace and devilish good looks combined with smooth emotional ranges that he can portray were wasted as he like all of us in theater, had to cope with the shrieks from Ms.Kapoor. Her presence in the movie ensured other far, far superior actors were misused throughout the movie.So what was lost in those ear-piercing shrieks? Let me try and explain from the perspective of a viewer looking for pure entertainment WITH intelligence (believe me I don't take easy if a movie makes fun of IQ and reasoning powers of it's viewers and Heroine manages to do both INTENTIONALLY). First, who were the characters and just who was Mahi Arora? How did she reach such heights of popularity being an outsider in the industry (which is what we are told through a brief voice over at the beginning). Second, our protagonist tapes her intimate moments to bring the extra kinky out right and this is the same woman who refuses to sleep with the producer of her movie during the most desperate of times and hence deals final blows to her declining career ONLY to leak sex tapes later to boost publicity of a much smaller film.But the sex tapes have no sex in them or did I miss out the best part of our Heroine's acting skills?. Third, she cannot portray a prostitute in a Bangali film, but wait isn't she a Superstar or are we being told that Bollywood actresses can become Superstars without being able to act? Didn't that hurt Kareena? Fourth, she is Bipolar and this is where Kareena has convinced and deceived people, she gets away with the shallowest of performances and gathers praises as well BECAUSE she is bipolar and this is a state of mind she has portrayed in ALL her movies so far save for Refugee and Jab we met. Fifth, why couldn't the movie focus on some other characters AT ALL? or are we being told that success mantra is different in movie business and that A-List stars (which we are told our Protagonist is) don't have any emotional support systems like people who support their professional lives? The whole idea contradicts itself. In fact by taking focus away from ALL characters and meekly putting it on the protagonist , the director takes a leap of faith and commits artistic suicide! Only the B-grade industry wannabes resort to tactics that our director shows a superstar applying to her life and career. Sixth, when the water goes way above her wise head, Mahi decides to run to Europe and live an anonymous life. So how does she ditch her bipolar self? or was she using it to shriek good senses out of her man? what again? Sorry.Seventh, Okay she is a headstrong and stupid person (which is finally something believable) headstrong okay but none of the real-life leading ladies are stupid. Kareena herself has tactically topped all rankings with very flat acting skills or did everyone forget that the movie was supposed to be about a washed out One-hit-wonder? Eighth and I'll end with this, Kareena reportedly would get a cut from movie profits. Now did she influence the production to show-case herself ONLY because let's face it movie business is way too suave, mature and professional (or how can you explain the multimillion dollar worth of business it garners every year?) than what this movie tells us and Mr.Bhandarkar is a smart man (with however many clichés , his previous movies have still been way better!). He wouldn't kill his film by giving Kareena 2.4 out of 2.5 hours of screen time now or would he? I also noticed some bizarre behaviors while Heroine was being heavily promoted on all TV Channels which definitely made me watch the movie, case of sheer irony or Madhur Bhandarkar tried to pull a smart one on us?*bad-taste-in-mouth-when-I-think-of-it kind of awful. I do swear that I'd stick to my earlier vows and would never ever watch a Kareena starrer again*