It’s Goa. There’s an enormous crowd, which has apparently been waiting for two hours for Rahul Jaykar (Aditya Roy Kapur) to show up. He’s so popular, even when he’s down on his luck, that he can keep them waiting. Yes, just like Rockstar’s Jordan. And his friend Vivek (Shaad Randhawa) is important enough for us to have to wait for the camera to pan to his face, as the organiser complains to him. And then, we see the hero, RJ, in bits and pieces – first, his teeth, swigging at a bottle; then, his eyes, which aren’t bloodshot. Yet, he’s identified as ‘talli’. Drunk as a sailor on land, he can still, apparently, perform.
What happens next is what will continue to happen throughout the film. Someone random provokes him, RJ gets into a fistfight, the security guards take forever to show up, he gets beaten up, he drives off drunk, and the press has a field day. The sad part of all this – aside from the fact that so much footage was devoted to it – is that Aditya Roy Kapur rarely remembers to act drunk. So, one minute, he’s staggering about, his eyes lolling, his speech slurring; the next, he’s walking jauntily, his eyes bright; the next, he’s slurring again.
He meets Aarohi (Shraddha Kapoor) in the most random of ways – a nighttime accident, when she’s apparently on her way back from the market, with fresh vegetables. This is still not the most unbelievable part of the story. Neither is it the only unnecessary scene. It turns out Aarohi was on her way to a gig at bar – yes, with the vegetables too. Our rockstar RJ, who has been on the slide ever since he took to alcohol, apparently still has enough strings to pull to make her a singing sensation. But, he isn’t able to pull them to lift himself out of his rut.
The film essentially comprises one dramatic scene after the other, following more or less this pattern – tantrum, makeup scene, love song, fight. No one seems to have kept track of the continuity either, with costume changes, hairstyle changes, and accessory changes occurring inexplicably in the same scene. In one instance, a mangalsutra that has been either pawned or sold makes a magical comeback.
The motives of the characters are never clear. Why does Vivek try to keep Rahul away from Aarohi? Why do Aarohi and Rahul fall in love? What drove Rahul to drink before he met Aarohi? What is his relationship with his apparently loving father, who offers to fly down from New York right away when his son is depressed (but never does)? The story bounces off random incidents, including a tax fraud case that a single mention is made of, and which is then conveniently forgotten. Finally, the film ends in a manner so bizarre we’re left rubbing our eyes.
The Verdict: Aashiqui 2 doesn’t even follow the formulaic template for a tragic love story; worse, its songs are unmemorable.