There is no doubt that thirty minutes into Lafangey Parindey you make up your mind that Sarkar has stepped up with this one and although not flawless it will be a major improvement to the rather disastrous Laga Chunari Mein Daag. For starters, he's chosen a story that is rather well structured and unique although it has its share of de ja vu moments. Despite those moments the film remains to hold ground thanks to innovative script. Perhaps Aditya Chopra ought to hand over the pen to new names more often because the credit of Lafangey Parindey's script goes to Gopi Puthran while the shame of the script that Pradeep Sarkar endorsed for Laga Chunari Mein Daag was credited to no one but Aditya Chopra himself.
Puthan has written a story based in aamchi Mumbai where people are struggling on a daily basis to make ends meet and demanding to make those ends meet through morally correct and legally endorsed ways is just not a priority, at least its not for the Nandu's (Neil Nitin Mukesh) of the colony. A trained boxer, Nandu fights blindfolded and brings in the big bucks for his boss. Enter Pari, the rollerblading, dancing, and feisty Pari. It essentially a love story between these two characters wound up creatively with twists and turns that their life style contains. Having said that the film has an innovative script it cannot be denied that it doesn't have some of the usual clichés that you expect from a film that despite all the covering is essentially a love story. The film has a good section of it dedicated to a talent-show competition so naturally you expect a predictable climax, big performances by the lead couple and emotional dialogues in the final performance. As well as that it has the same old romantic dialogues wrapped up in the Mumbaiyaa language. However, despite all these clichés it doesn't bore you and keeps you interested.
Puthan keeps you interested with a story that flows at a progressive pace and doesn't drag at portions where you expect it to i.e. preliminary performance scenes of Neil and Deepika are run through quite quickly because naturally we only care about the final performance.
N Natarajan Subranmaniam also scores points for the fabulous cinematography of the film that steps away from the glossiness of Yash Raj films and yet doesn't become too dark, which could have been an obvious change for a film set in the real Mumbai.Performances, of course, is the part you're all most interested in analyzing. Neil Nitin Mukesh shows growth once again but still remains a bit distant from the 'flawless' mark. While his dialogue delivery has improved he remains to carry only one expression throughout the film. Of course rollerblading and dancing all at once is definitely not something we recommend he try again! Ever! Nonetheless he's a promising young star in the industry who's definitely someone to look out for. More than Neil, however Deepika Padukone turned out to bag the 'look out for me' tag in this film. The actress steals scenes very elegantly and shines exceptionally in various portions. Her dancing catches your attention with her carefree and confident persona on the roller blades. More importantly it's her dialogue delivery, which you really sit up and take notice of. The actress has truly emerged from her first movie where she wasn't even given the chance to dub for herself. One hopes to see her grow even more in coming years.
Thus it has turned out that Yash Raj did the right thing by giving Pradeep Sarkar a second chance after Laaga Chunari Mein Daag. However, the real star of the film is Gopi Puthran who's writing is a major reason why the film impresses despite its many obvious flaws. At the least the film gets you your money's worth with the usual makings of a Yash Raj film, that is that it is essentially a love story, however with a new covering.
