Break Ke Baad (2010)

An independent-minded young woman with a long-time boyfriend longs to be by herself.

Director:

Danish Aslam

Writers:

Danish Aslam (story), Vishal Dadlani (lyrics),

Stars:

Deepika Padukone, Imran Khan, Lillete Dubey

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Deepika Padukone	...	Aaliya Khan
Imran Khan	...	Abhay J. Gulati
Lillete Dubey	...	Pammi J. Gulati
Shahana Goswami	...	Nadia
Sharmila Tagore	...	Ayesha Khan
Navin Nischol	...	Jeet Gulati
Parzan Dastur	...	Young Abhay J. Gulati
Neelu Kohli	...	Kamal Gulati
Ziyah Vastani	...	Young Aaliya Khan
Yudhishtir Urs	...	Cyrus
Grady McGahan	...	Student

Storyline

Mumbai-based Aaliya Khan and Abhay Gulati have been close friends for over a decade but Aaliya is not prepared to take this relationship to a marriage. Instead, without any warning, she decides to re-locate to Australia, to live with her aunt. Upon arrival, she finds her aunt very stern and organized, and ends up moving out to live with Nadia and Cyrus. Concerned about her safety, Abhay travels there but gets a lukewarm reception. She takes to acting, while he drives a taxi and then starts selling home-made food. He eventually returns home and takes Aaliya totally by surprise when she finds out that he is getting married.

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Plot Keywords:

boyfriend girlfriend relationship | breakup

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi English

Release Date:

26 November 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

After the Break

Filming Locations:

Mauritius

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£85,708 (UK) (26 November 2010)

Gross:

$427,628 (USA) (10 December 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kunal Kohli Productions, Reliance Big Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The poster on Aaliya's (played by Deepika Padukone) room in Delhi is of a movie called Do Shatru. This is a 1980 movie starring Sharmila Tagore, who plays Aaliya's mother in the movie.

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Connections

References New York (2009)

User Reviews

Terrible second half

Debutant director Danish Aslam serves us disappointing fare in Break Ke Baad this weekend - a crisp first half followed by a damp and soggy second half. The teekha first half has Deepika's sizzling act as Aaliya

• bringing some life & vitality to her usually expressionless face.

Imran plays the chocolate boy lover Abhay – a role he has done admirably in the past and is the likable meethi chutney. Together, against my expectation, they both produce a very likable dish and have a crackling on screen chemistry. However, that spark between them is completely doused by the insipid writing in the second half.

The opening credits are a montage of two six year olds falling in love as they grow up, with a shared passion of Hindi movies. The girl grows up to be the impetuous Aaliya who is full of life, but sometimes does not care about anyone but herself. Abhay is the ultra-sweet guy who tolerates all her tantrums and still adores her. Maybe because he realizes he needs her more than she does. However, when Aaliya decides to fly off to Australia to study, the relationship cant take the strain and the 'break' happens.

This is where the movie goes to dogs – as it starts focussing more on other characters and side-plots more than the lead pair. Sharmila Tagore as Aaliya's mother heads a useless track about the ills of the world of showbiz. She also seals my belief that yesteryear's charming heroines lose their expressive faces in the process of ageing (maybe to botox). And hence are better staying alive in old movie reruns rather than acting in newer movies. Jaya Bhaduri, Hema Malini and now Sharmila Tagore – their faces struggle to convey different emotions – and end up looking almost similar in all scenes.

The movie meanders along for quite a while before becoming a coming-of- age movie for both Aaliya and Abhay. And this is the movie's biggest failure – since the scriptwriter clearly doesn't have the maturity to handle this topic as much as he has a handle on romance. The climax is stupid even by the low standards of rom-coms – and which is where you write the movie off as a failure

PS - Something struck me a couple of days after I watched the movie – when you watch the movie, you can tell me if I was wrong or right. I thought Aaliya's character and idiosyncrasies were heavily based on Jab We Met's Geet . None of the Bhatinda Punjabi madness, but a calculated effort by the makers to use that quirkiness and happy-go-lucky nature. But then again, Geet was a million times better than Aaliya would ever be.

You can read more of my reviews at http://bombaycinephile.blogspot.com