‘Happy New Year’ is about six losers who cheat their way into the World Dance Championship as Team India. The championship provides cover to pull off a diamond heist during the contest’s finale. Director Farah Khan and actor Shah Rukh Khan set out to make a movie that represents all the things we love about Bollywood in one epic movie.
First the tried and true storyline. Charlie (Shah Rukh Khan) has spent 8 years planning to revenge his father who died in jail falsely accused by villain Charan Gover (Jackie Shroff). Our hero Shah Rukh, plays an English-speaking Boston University topper, whose toned body, agile moves, and charm have been delighting audiences for over twenty years now. Our heroine, Deepika Padukone as Mohini, a gorgeous bar dancer equally toned, graceful, and sweet. She is broughton board to teach the team how to dance. The couple’s growing attraction is expressed in looks, gestures, awkward moments, and old-fashioned shyness.
Quirky characters fill out the rest of Team India. Boman Irani, is Tammy, a Parsi momma’s boy who’s a sex symbol to the older woman in his neighborhood; Sonu Sood, as Jag, an ex-army bomb expert who is deaf in one ear; Abhishek Bachchan, is Nandu, a drunk who needs money for his mother’s operation; and Vivaan Shah, is Rohan, a nerdy computer whiz kid who never gets the girl.
‘Happy New Year’s’ music ranges from patriotic, to romantic, to comical. ‘Manwa Laage’ is a melodious love song, picturized on Mohini sweetly daydreaming about Charlie and setting various items in the room on fire. ‘Lovely’, which serves as Mohini’s sexy introduction, is a mix of Middle Eastern and Punjabi sounds. ‘Indiawaale’ is a catchy anthem that shows Team India’s love of India.
Other elements that make for a most entertaining movie are the film’s location in the lavish Atlantis Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates; action scenes, including Charlie’s intro as a street fighter, shot in slow motion; and, an exciting fight high atop a helipad in Dubai. For Shah Rukh fans, director Farah Khan is one of his biggest, there is the enjoyment of recognizing dialogue or scenes from many of his movies. If you love Bollywood movies – the characters, the emotions, the romance, the action, the music, the crazy storyline, the pure entertainment – you will love “Happy New Year”.
