heroine movie review in hindi

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Heroine movie review

Madhur bhandarkar has just given us his weakest female protagonist yet. that itself lays bare the irony about the film. rating:   .

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Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar

Unlock Your Mind This summer

A female superstar struggles through the trials and tribulations of being a Bollywood actress.

Kareena Kapoor Khan Arjun Rampal Randeep Hooda Lillete Dubey Shahana Goswami Divya Dutta Pallavi Sharda Helen Ranvir Shorey Mugdha Godse Meenakshi Thapa Sanjay Suri Raqesh Bapat Sujata Sehgal Dilnaz Irani Pooja Chopra Sakshi Benipuri

Director Director

Madhur Bhandarkar

Writers Writers

Madhur Bhandarkar Niranjan Iyengar

Releases by Date

21 sep 2012, 24 sep 2016, releases by country.

• TV 6 Zee One
• Theatrical 12A

140 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by sydney ★★½

as a scathing indictment of the bollywood machine this is pretty weak, but there is a lot of interesting stuff here about career women & fame in general - how hard it is to get ahead unless you act like a man & then getting shunned when you are too forceful, trying to be a hundred different things and doing all of them wrong, having to humiliate yourself or make yourself weak for people to like you, chasing after anything that seems like it might make you happy because you don't know what the difference is between what you want and what they want, etc. there are some truly great scenes and i especially loved the section about doing the independent film.…

Review by Suraiya 🌝 ★★ 4

Kareena Kapoor was glamorous. No one could've pulled this role off better than she did. I was more focused on the realism of this plot. I'm like, this is not Bollywood. All this unnecessary drama doesn't exist.

Then Kangna happened. I feel like this is her biopic, or maybe she got inspired by this.

Although, I did see glimpses of the future here, like Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli (Kareena and Randeep), Anurag Kashyap (Ranveer Shorey), Kangna and Hrithik (Kareena and Arjun), and most of Bollywood's male-centred movies where you don't notice the actress/she's just there as a romantic interest.

Review by jack ★

One star for bebo.

Review by navi ★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

kareena kapoor owns the movie and i can bet you’ve never seen here like this before. and my goodness does she look beautiful when she cries. she’s the only part of this movie worth praising though. there was nothing memorable to take away from this. i get it. “the industry is toxic, etc etc.” this feels excruciatingly long. i was waiting for it to get better. it doesn’t. 

i could’ve rated it higher if it weren’t for that nonsensical epilogue scene. disappointing. 

~ kareena looked so glamorous. arjun rampal did well and was nice to look at too. 

~i was NOT at all expecting the lesbian encounter but hey! they had chemistryyy.

Review by gamberge ★★½

Sad that we couldn’t see the lesbian scene

Review by BrianNaas ★★★

This is an off-beat Bollywood film that would have almost worked better as a parallel film. The musical interludes are well done but interrupt a personal and emotional drama that makes you feel like an intruder. It is a peek into Bollywood behind the scenes and it isn't pretty. Petty rivalries, insults thrown like grenades, rumors spread like a virus, everyone happy to step over or on another actor to get ahead. Smiling to their public, looking glamorous for the constant paparazzi who are like flies on the wall while either seething inside or gloating outside and wanting only to stab someone in the back. You are only as popular as your last film was successful and with a few…

Review by nakshatra ★★½

she kim kardashian-ed her career damn

Review by aliza ★★★★

kareena was AMAZING 

the 2 years later at the end was very unnecessary though

Review by MaKa ★★★★★

I really don’t get the bad reviews ! I can only agree on one little detail , one or two characters can’t act for sure but we don’t see them more than 3 minutes. But Kareena Kapoor WHAT A QUEEN ! She was spectacular ! I fell for her even more now that I watched this movie ! And I know those kind of struggle are real. And I’m sorry but I shipped Mahi and Promita 🙈 and I’m happy and upset about this part because it was really good to put a little girl on girl action but the next day promita said she regrets it but maybe she didn’t to keep Mahi close to her. And i was…

Review by Sona Chaturvedi ½

What happens when you make all the wrong decisions being an actor

Review by rodica ★½ 1

Did they blow their “fuck” budget in the first 40 minutes?

Review by Ramya Rao ★★★★

this was camp idc idc

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Release date: 21 September, 2012

Heroine movie.

The spotlight followed her, the camera loved her, the paparazzi couldn't get enough of her... Mahi Arora was a 'Superstar'... in every sense of the word!

Not only was she on top of her game, she was also single, fancy free and footloose. She was beautiful, famous, successful and very-very rich ...  and of course still young. In short a case of pure perfection.

This is what the world would have you believe about her. It is said that paradox exists in the darkness behind the spotlight. Unfortunately, Mahi's inner world was in direct contrast to her outer life. After all uneasy lays the head that wears a crown. Prone to intense mood swings, in fact secretly bipolar, insecure, unsure and very lonely. Mahi's only source of happiness was love, her insane, all pervasive, all consuming love for the reigning superstar who hadn't quite committed to her.

While all her contemporaries were busy strategizing career moves, endorsements, 'alliances' and even marriages; Mahi, unmindful of her career was only focused on somehow getting her love requited and in her attempt to do that begins a journey spiraling downwards. This quest for love starts taking her to disastrous depths, yet always saving her just when she's at the edge. The story goes through various ill fated relationships and career roller coasters all the way to a point where Mahi is forced to risk everything she had.

Her career, her sanity and her life all at once go through a spinning twist.

Could Mahi retain her position as the No. 1 Heroine of her times? Was her True Love ever going to be requited? Was Mahi going to lose everything she cared for? OR was there a way of saving herself to emerge as a true Heroine . . . of Life???

These are questions that only can be answered by Mahi Arora herself.

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BH Special: Madhur Bhandarkar Stands By ‘Heroine’

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Madhur Bhandarkar says after the demise of Sushant Singh Rajput people have been telling him that Heroine revealed the reality of Bollywood

Heroine | shooting the brothel sequences | kareena kapoor.

Day 1 on the sets of Heroine

Theatrical Trailer (Heroine)

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• Kinorium 6.8 100+
• IMDb 5.0 4608
• Critics 50% 6

Heroine (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

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• 1 Salim-Sulaiman & Sunidhi Chauhan Halkat Jawani 3:58
• 2 Salim-Sulaiman & Rahat Fateh Ali Khan Saaiyaan 3:30
• 3 Salim-Sulaiman & Aditi Singh Sharma Main Heroine Hoon 3:32
• 4 Salim-Sulaiman & Shreya Ghoshal Khwahishein 3:57
• 5 Benny Dayal, Salim-Sulaiman & Shraddha Pandit Tujhpe Fida 5:01
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Following the completion of his film, Jail (2009), Bhandarkar began toying with the idea of making a project on the Hindi film industry. Along with writer Niranjan Iyengar, the director began developing the story about the life of an actress and later approached UTV Motion Pictures with whom he had worked on several occasions. Bhandarkar, who was keen on using the title Heroine for his film, donated to Guddu Dhanoa's charity. He later explained that he had been subconsciously preparing for the movie ever since he joined the industry.

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In this Heroine film, Kareena Kapoor , Arjun Rampal played the primary leads.

The Heroine was released in theaters on 21 Sep 2012.

The Heroine was directed by Madhur Bhandarkar

Movies like Panchayat Season 3 , Heeramandi , The Sabarmati Report and others in a similar vein had the same genre but quite different stories.

The soundtracks and background music were composed by Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant for the movie Heroine.

The movie Heroine belonged to the Adult,Drama, genre.

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Heroine is an 2012 Indian drama film directed, written, and co-produced by Madhur Bhandarkar. Revolving around the life of a once successful film actress whose career is on the decline, the film features Kareena Kapoor as the protagonist. Wikipedia

Starring Cast

Heroine Reviews

Despite an entertaining first half, thanks to all the unintentional laughs, Heroine slips into a slush of melodrama post interval. By this point, it feels interminably long and boring. Bhandarkar loses his grip on the script, and it’s evident that his storytelling now desperately needs reinventing.

‘Heroine’ has every single stereotype associated with Bollywood that we are familiar with, from our newspaper supplements, tabloid gossip, sensational TV programmes, fanzines, social networking platforms.

Heroine is quite stupendously glossy, with every actress soaked in bronzer, and much flattering lighting. And the actors really aren't the problem here, each of them -- even the disastrous ones -- earning more than their fare share just for keeping straight faces through this malarkey.

At one point in Heroine, a character asks: Iss glamour industry mein kaun fraud nahin hota. This film certainly is one.

The film that Bhandarkar has made is indeed disappointingly mechanical. Mercifully, Kareena does demonstrate that she has a feel for the character. But, then, why wouldn’t she? After all she plays herself in Heroine.

Very clearly the written material at hand draws from unflattering accounts of various real and reel Hindi film heroines of the 80s (unfair to name them because a couple of them are not even around to defend themselves); who were in messy situations with their married co-stars.

All said and done, the film may be a one-time watch. But if you expected too much out of the film, it may not be worth the anticipation and your money.

Kareena Kapoor does a good job and, heck, you even get to see her in a pseudo lesbian scene along with other steamy scenes. If that’s enough to drag you to see Heroine, go ahead. Give it a miss otherwise.

On the whole, HEROINE is yet another hard-hitting motion picture from Madhur Bhandarkar. For persistently choosing women-centric themes, for consistently winning national acclaim and most significantly, magnetizing moviegoers in large numbers to view his cinema, the efforts of the maverick film-maker deserve to be lauded. Watch HEROINE for Madhur's imposing direction, for Kareena's superlative performance, watch it also for its fearless, inspiring and enlightening storyline divulging the scandalous realities of the movie industry. Try not to miss it!

Heroine has an episodic feel to it. The movie is a merger of various personalities, which unfortunately don’t fall on the same page in the end. Making it seem disjointed and amateurish. There is a line in the film which Mahi, a bi-polar patient, tells her mom, “My life is fully under control.” Well, the same can’t be said about the film.

What is also missing is a soul in the film.

All the glamour and the sensational allure of Madhur’s great Bollywood expose is let down by a limp screenplay, lame dialogues and an astonishing two and a half hr runtime. Sadly it was such a good material at hand, sadly none of it is explored to the best of its potential, sadly none of it is as earnest as the lead trying to play it.

Does ‘Heroine’ work? Yes, but only because of Kareena Kapoor. From doing the raunchy act in ‘Halkat Jawaani’ to the scenes where she is battling depression and popping pills, to the I-don’t-care-attitude of a confident actress, Kareena makes Mahi memorable and lovable.

Audience Reviews for Heroine

Just a couple of months more before we herald in 2013 & if there is one thing that stands out this year other than the blockbusters then it has to be the plethora of films with strong female characters. Starting from Vidya Balan's "Kahaani" to Priyanka's "Barfi", the list promises to get longer with an interesting array of films lined up for the coming months. The latest that promises to join the list is Kareena Kapoor courtesy Madhur Bhandarkar's "Heroine", which had been in the news right from the onset with Aishwarya Rai who was slated to play the protagonist having to make way for Kareena owing to her impending pregnancy. So can she live upto the hype??? The world of glitz & glamour has always made the public look at it with awe & bewilderment, but everything isn't as rosy as it appears is what Madhur Bhandarkar tries to convey through his latest venture.Mahi (Kareena) was the numero uno of the industry & she had it all, be it beauty, wealth or success. But just as the saying goes, 'it's lonely at the top" & that was exactly what Mahi felt. She always felt insecure due to the non-commital nature of her lover & superstar, Aryan (Arjun Rampal), which finally leads her to the brink of self destruction. Her mood swings & unpredictable nature made her market value come down with hardly anyone willing to cast her in their projects. Sensing the need to get back to the front of the pack, she hires a ruthless PR (Divya Dutta) who carefully plans & manipulates her career moves. But will it be wrecked yet again by her impulsive nature??? Madhur Bhandarkar has always been synonymous with hard hitting reality films touching upon various aspects of society be it the dance bars, corporates or the fashion world. In his latest venture, he has chosen his own field, Bollywood; which he is bound to know better than any other sector. However, his celluloid version comes across as being quite lame as it treads a pretty predictable path with stereotypes like gays, bitching actresses, kitty parties etc & ingredients thrown in from real life situations which though failed to evoke the wow factor. It's true that I dont know much about the inside of the industry but still what we get to understand is that all actresses are sluts who have to compromise to stay on top. I feel that aspect should have had more clarity rather than generalising it for the sake of sensationalization. As for other technical aspects, it seemed fine with the styling by Manish Malhotra deserving praise. What actually makes this film work is undoubtedly the brilliant performance by Kareena Kapoor. She has put her heart & soul into the character & makes Mahi believable be it her mood swings, unpredictable nature or violent rage. Arjun Rampal seemed fine while Randeep Hooda has done an impressive job along with Divya Dutta. The rest of the cast seemed apt with Shahana Goswami, Ranveer Shorey & Helen standing out from the pack. Verdict: The film will definitely have a good opening but it wont be able to make much inroads especially with "Barfi" running strong which is ironically also UTV production. However, it should be able to hold its own in the coming days & should be a viable venture. In short, though the film lacks the sizzle of "Fashion", Kareena absolutes rocks. So, it wont hurt giving it a try!!! Rating: 2.5/5 Regards...Ben

Kareena Kapoor plays the role engagingly enough to keep you mildly interested in this story of the perks and perils of stardom. However, the plot and characters are too similar to Madhur Bhandarkar's earlier satires like 'Page 3' and 'Fashion' to appear anything close to fresh. In the end you indeed come out feeling like you just read a whole lot of page 3 columns for the last 3 hours. I'm giving it 5 stars only because the main cast made it tolerable. Ranvir's role as the Bengali art film maker was particularly well played.

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• Halkat Jawani
• Tujhpe Fida
• Khwahishein
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Except for a difficult performance by Kareena Kapoor and the lost character she plays, Heroine is one dramatic scene after another without anything substantial.

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Heroine - Preview

The opening line of the trailer says that all heroines in the film industry – Hollywood or Bollywood – are moody, crazy and over-emotional.

So, if you are expecting anything non-stereotypical out of Heroine , your expectations are set to order even before you begin to think of the film. Anyway, we don't expect Madhur Bhandarkar to go deeper than what we already know of the worlds he is delving into.

But, what I have liked about Madhur Bhandarkar 's Traffic Signal , Fashion and even Jail , is that the story is engaging. The ups and downs of the protagonists, however predictable, are depicted while holding my interest.

Somehow though, Heroine doesn't look like it is going to go beyond Fashion . How much more different are the stories really going to be? And despite being pretty much sure that, like many others I am looking forward to a meaty performance by Kareena Kapoor . If there is one area in which we cannot complain about when it comes to a Madhur Bhandarkar film, it is the scope it provides for its lead character.

Unfortunately, this time around the music is disappointing. The first time I read a tweet from Salim Merchant (Salim-Sulaiman duo) announcing the song 'Halkat jawani' , it was annoying, because I for one, have had enough of these item numberesque songs with slang that is used just for the ring the words have to them.

Anyway, I don't mind if Heroine is a decent, enjoyable story though I wouldn't expect an indepth peek into 'the' industry.

Music Reviews : Milliblog - "typical, lethargic and tedious Bhandarkar’ishness." Music Aloud – "6/10" dunkdaft – "disappoints by a soundtrack that has nothing notable to offer." Bollywood Hungama – "3/5" Bollyspice – "3/5" Apun Ka Choice – "3.5/5" Happy Sing - "even though not really make me believe in Salim-Sulaiman, is fairly okay."

- meeta, a part of the audience

Welcome to the world of 'babes', one-upmanship, over-reaction. Welcome to the cut-throat world of the Hindi film industry, Bollywood. Or so you are made to believe. Heroine doesn't sink in any deeper than these two lines. However, like a Madhur Bhandarkar film, it does spend quite some time with its lead character, Mahi Arora ( Kareena Kapoor ). Mahi's character builds interestingly but unfortunately her story has nothing out of the ordinary to hold the film together. It's almost as if the character wasn't written but just happened to happen.

It's great that Heroine picks not a typical top star as his lead character, nor is she a struggling actress who's rise we see from the very beginning. Her journey is told to us from somewhere in the middle. At a point in which she's most distraught and finds her way to a police station for a reason that is not told to us immediately and when you do find out, you can't believe the pettiness of the issue. I doubt the character or the writer/director knew why she was there.

But meanwhile, Kareena Kapoor gets to insecure, distraught, failure, glamorous of course and bipolar! Though she seemed more depressed than bipolar, but hey that's nitty-gritty, right? But, the point here is that whatever Kareena is asked to do, she works really hard in getting it right. She looks gorgeous even when she is dispirited. And I mean this in a good way. She takes every opportunity she can get and the labor shows. It is not an effortless performance.

The character offers her enough layers too - a woman who wants to do well in her career and is a decent human being too. But as it turns out, even if she is willing to put in her best, try everything within her control and resist from sinking low, it's not enough. And after all, she is a woman and thus is needy. There are other times, where Mahi behaves aggressively, over-reacts and takes actions the repercussions of which she hasn't taken into account.

Interestingly, the only really good looking actress in the entire clutter of 'top' heroines in Heroine is Mahi. The rest, aren't half as magnificent. Yet, she struggles as a 'star', if not a beginner. For a change, you also have the male leads in sensitive roles, who have their own shades of gray, however unbaked they are. None of the other side characters add any meaning to the film except for maybe Shahana Goswami 's Promita.

With such textures, you'd hope the story would hold your interest. It meanders, it stretches, it disengages you from the characters. And towards the end it just gets overbearing. And at times, you feel like some sequences, especially ones revolving around sexuality, have been added just to titillate without much relevance to the story. The run-of-the-mill songs slow the film down too. The two and a half hours run-time doesn't help its case either.

There is this underlying equation that Madhur Bhandarkar seems to point at, which is annoying as his audience, because it comments about the audience. While belittling the hard-work that people put in their work, Heroine implies that the entire film industry lives in a cut-throat environment where manipulation is the key to success. They do it to so their films do well with the masses. And the masses supposedly decide the fate of a film depending on the controversy surrounding it. Full stop. There is no if or but there, the question about the film's quality or content is a distant one. The audience's love for their cinema is based solely on the associated scandals. And what is poor media to do but to report on these with dramatic effect if that's what the audience wants. !?!? Really? Is that what we are? Naïve and basically stupid.

What it all boils down to then is the same question we could ask about most Bhandarkar products – Is Madhur Bhandarkar 's Heroine about "Bollywood - behind the scenes" or is it telling us the story of its heroine , her ups, downs and in-betweens? If its the former, you'd get more out of reading your city's daily edition let alone film magazines. And if it's the latter, atypically so, Bhandarkar doesn't engage despite having his heroine perform to the best of her capabilities.

56 reviewers ( ? ) - 5 yays 8 so-so 43 nays

Warning: clicking on "full review" will take you to an external website that could contain spoilers.

Thumbs up, by Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama : ...the viewer would experience explicit contentment to witness the truth behind the made-up faces of the film world, the shadowy secrets that lie behind the enchanting veneer.... full review

Thumbs up, by Divya Solgama, Gomolo.in : ...Helen is outstanding in her small role. Imran Khan, Shilpi Sharma, Rakesh Bapat and few more are horrible. ... full review

Thumbs up, by Meena Iyer, indiatimes : ...The film is made enjoyable by some pithy dialogue credited to Niranjan Iyengar.... full review

Thumbs up, by K N Gupta, SmasHits.com : ...a great birthday gift from acclaimed director Madhur Bhandarkar for his muse Kareena Kapoor on her birthday.... full review

Thumbs up, by Gaurav Malani, Times of India : ...Before you can absorb or brood over one aspect, another is put forth. The climax, particularly, is well-etched leading to a trademark Madhur Bhandarkar culmination.... full review

So-So, by Naresh Kumar Deoshi, Apun Ka Choice : ...Performances by the supporting cast, including Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda and Divya Dutta, are passable, but a sequence of Kareena with Shahana Goswami and another with Helen deserves a special mention. ... full review

So-So, by Shabana Ansari, DNA : ...The character seems tailor-made for an actress of Kareena’s calibre. And she takes the viewers into the mind of Mahi as she battles personal demons while maintaining a cool facade.... full review

So-So, by Kanika Sikka, DNA : ...Shahana Goswami is brilliant, but it is unfortunate that her role is limited. Helen has a charming role and she plays it effectively.... full review

So-So, by Nupur Barua, fullhyd.com : ...The music is average, as are the costumes. What brings the movie alive is the acting.... full review

So-So, by Fatema H Kagalwala, India Entertainment : ...It is a high-pitched dramatic film that rides itself upon the eye-ball grabbing antics of its protagonist and Kareena Kapoor lives out her role with admirable flair. ... full review

So-So, Movie Talkies : ...Bhandarkar's Heroine is sure to give you a jolt of deja vu and remind you of Fashion that had impressed everyone a few years back. However, the director fails to realize that the same formula may not necessarily work again... full review

So-So, by Aakash Barvalia, MoviezADDA : ...the basic storyline of the film had a very strong and powerful drama to engage the viewers, but the screenplay of it had only engaged selected kind of people, who are either into the industry or somewhat familiar with the real inside story of Bollywood. ... full review

So-So, by SpiceZee Bureau, Zee News : ...Arjun Rampal, as the confused, non-committal, playboy Aryan Khanna, gives a believable performance.... full review

Thumbs down, by Stefan S, A Nutshell Review : ...Subplots were also haphazardly added into the film, making it more bewildering, and sprawling a lot more than necessary.... full review

Thumbs down, by Anna Vetticad, annavetticadgoes2themovies : ...Heroine is actually fun in places where the focus is completely on politics in the film industry. The little trick Mahi pulls on a rival heroine (Mughda Godse) is worth a chuckle.... full review

Thumbs down, by Baradwaj Rangan, Blogical Conclusion, The New Sunday Express : ...Acknowledging the positive dimensions of fame would leave Bhandarkar with nothing to expend his moral outrage on. (And I have to wonder if that well isn’t running dry. After all these films, all these fulminations against the seedier side-streets of our society, how much more moral outrage can one man still possibly have?) ... full review

Thumbs down, by Bobby Sing, Bobby Talks Cinema.com : ...In fact that is the biggest failure of this project since it only stresses upon the negative side of a coin and tries to sell itself like an evil film to the audience... full review

Thumbs down, by Pooja Rao, Bolly Spice : ...he focus is on the wrong-doings around her, not so much on her fight against it.... full review

Thumbs down, by Suparna Thombare, Bollywood Life : ...On the face of it, Heroine had great scope to be developed into an interesting story. But director Madhur Bhandarkar gets confused – he wants to reveal the big bad world of Bollywood to the outsiders and tell a human story at the same time.... full review

Thumbs down, by Charu A Mahesh, Buzz in Town : ...Problem with Bhandarkar’s script is that it has no structure and the director he has tried to rope in every possible stereotype to show the bad world of Bollywood... full review

Thumbs down, by Deepa Gahlot, cinemaah : ...He picks a subject, puts a woman at the centre and then proceeds to degrade her completely. In the process, he also passes off broad generalisations as research, stereotypes as characters, silly lines as satire or profound truth, and some standard shock-value scenes. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Mayank Shekhar, Daily Bhaskar : ...For most of the movie, we watch instead her trip from being a “zeroine” to a “zeroine” in a mad, sad jungle.... full review

Thumbs down, by Khalid Mohamed, Deccan Chronicle : ...More than obvious traits of moviebiz are repeated ad nauseum... full review

Thumbs down, by Ankur Pathak, Desi Martini : ...One of the few characters that feel genuinely real apart from a fabulous cameo by Helen is Divya Dutta's Pallavi - Kareena's PR who is delightfully dispassionate in her job and consistently remains so without showing any sympathy. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Kshitij, Desi Martini : ...Randeep Hooda & Arjun Rampal ham their way through the film. Shahana Goswami is great.... full review

Thumbs down, by Ameetbhuvan, Desi Martini : ...It is a pity indeed that more than her herculean effort, it is the supporting performances of Shahana Goswami and Divya Dutta that leave a much stronger impression.... full review

Thumbs down, by Rony D'Costa, Desi Martini : ...An actor is as good or bad as her choice of films and Kareena Kapoor proves it by choosing to work in a Madhur Bhandarkar film.... full review

Thumbs down, by Smita, Desi Martini : ...Too weepy, too rambling, too long... full review

Thumbs down, by Aniruddha Guha, DNA : ...Kareena's impressed much more in films where she's put in less effort than what she does in Heroine.... full review

Thumbs down, by Deepa Deosthalee, Film Impressions : ...THIS IS NOT A FILM REVIEW It is a heartfelt lament by a depressed film lover who visits the cinema week after week in the hope that someone will regale her with stories of heroines she can look up to... full review

Thumbs down, by Vivek Bhatia, Filmfare : ...Kareena Kapoor plays Mahi with utmost ease, making each and every characteristic believable... full review

Thumbs down, by Trisha Gupta, FirstPost : ...Heroine contains every single one of the Bhandarkarian tics we have come to watch out for over the years... full review

Thumbs down, by Rubina A Khan, FirstPost : ...Kareena Kapoor looks stunning in every Manish Malhotra outfit as Mahi Arora and performs her part extremely well – as well as the askew screenplay and her mercurial character graph would let her.... full review

Thumbs down, Free Press Journal : ...Bhandarkar may have managed to touch new heights in terms of production budgets but his craft appears to be caught- up in a time- warp... full review

Thumbs down, by Martin D'Souza, Glamsham.com : ...It's a surprise Bhandarkar does not show the HEROINE 'sleeping' with the director to get a role. SURPRISE! SURPRISE!... full review

Thumbs down, by Anupama Chopra, Hindustan Times : ...Kareena Kapoor works very hard to give Mahi depth. She looks sensational, but is also brave enough to risk being ugly on screen, literally and figuratively. Sadly, Bhandarkar has saddled her with a character without an arc. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Rajeev Masand, IBN Live : ...But these moments offer little entertainment in a film weighed down by its terrible writing.... full review

Thumbs down, by Vinayak Chakravorty, india today : ...Madhur unleashes a veritable guessing game straight off real-life Bollywood with individual scenes. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Shubhra Gupta, indian express : ...Pretty much everyone, including good actors like Sanjay Suri and Ranvir Shorey, is turned into a cipher.... full review

Thumbs down, Indicine : ...His movies are getting repetitive and stereotypical.... full review

Thumbs down, by Roshni Devi, koimoi : ...Arjun Rampal is alright as Aryan with Randeep Hooda bettering him as the suave Angad.... full review

Thumbs down, by Sanjukta Sharma, Live Mint : ...Kapoor’s performance is the film’s only redeeming factor, although there is no surprise to it.... full review

Thumbs down, by Janhavi Samant, MiD DAY : ...Heroine takes the vivacious, sparkly, irreverent Kareena Kapoor and smothers her into a dull lackluster protagonist. She tries her best though and manages to shine in some scenes.... full review

Thumbs down, by Saibal Chatterjee, NDTV : ...After one shot, this wedded-to-the-cause-of-true-art dada tells Mahi that she is “talking like a machine”. Feel the character, he insists. The film that Bhandarkar has made is indeed disappointingly mechanical. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Mansha Rastogi, Now Running.com : ...Much like his earlier films, there seems absolutely no flow in the narrative, leave alone a storyline. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Afshan Shaikh, Planet Bollywood : ...There’s very few positives to pick out from this movie as it feels like a badly remade Page 3 and or Fashion.... full review

Thumbs down, by Raja Sen, Rediff : ... But soon things devolve into utter lunacy, with Kareena's mascara eventually channeling Heath Ledger's Joker... full review

Thumbs down, by Sukanya Verma, Rediff : ...Formulas have a shelf life too. And styles fade. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Reuters : ... Bhandarkar doesn’t really want to tell us a story, he just wants to string together incidents that allow him to comment on the film industry, take potshots at a couple of people and insert dialogue like “he has the hot for you babe” (yes, not hots, but hot).... full review

Thumbs down, by Ruchi Mehta, Roochster : ...Arjun Rampal and Randeep Hooda have done a good job even though they had small roles. Mugdha Godse said, “Shits!” which sums up her acting skills and how she talks in real life.... full review

Thumbs down, Sify Movies : ...Other than the central cast, almost everyone's acting is unforgivably bad. Even the central cast, for some bizarre reason, speaks their dialogue as if they've learnt the words by rote and are at a poetry recital. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Bhawana Somaiyya, Star Blockbuster : ...Galloping through an incoherent script that fails to define stages and phases in the actor’s career, Kareena plays Mahi Arora on an even keel without any dramatic fluctuations. We don’t know how old she is and for all that she goes through, she is well preserved without any signs of ravage or degradation.... full review

Thumbs down, by Swati Rohatgi, STARDUST : ...The length of the film is another deterrent. At 148 minutes, Heroine appears like an endless soppy saga of a moping actress. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Sudhish Kamath, The Hindu : ...There’s nothing that ruins a deliciously bad film than seriously sincere acting... full review

Thumbs down, by Reel Reptile, Upper Stall : ...Rampal sleepwalking through a role based on a 'famous superstar', and he tries his best to exercise his facial muscles while driving a static car, on set, with Kareena and her red nose screaming into his ear. ... full review

Thumbs down, by Rumanna Ahmed, yahoo! India : ...I guess Kareena had hoped that this would be a National Award winning performance and to give credit where it's due, Bebo's neurotic portrayal of Mahi Arora is not all bad. But if this one was an acid test for her abilities as an actor, she is yet to prove her craft.... full review

54 tweeters ( ? ) - 9 yays 4 so-so 41 nays

WhatzInAHandle : Not bad that a movie was taken on such known facts.But wonder how the cinema-wallahs reaction 4 this would be.Secret is officly OUT #Heroine

tejash316 : Watched #Heroine movie. #MadhurBhandarkar hits a nail right on the head about #Bollywood. Great performance by #KareenaKapoor. Good music.

rahulkumar205 : heroine is such a great movie by madhur bhandarkar

priyujadeja : Watched Heroin Last Night... Just Superb One... Kareena Acted So Well.

payalraghani : Heroine nice movie .. Loved kareena n randeep <3

i_am_mak : kareena kapoor was awesome in #heroine superb film

DeathRattle7 : #heroine Movie was GOOD...Kareena as always fabulous and nice acting.. Randeep was also good... @KareenaK_FC

Babiejaan : Saw Heroine yest..Awesommee..cud relate to sm scenes coz even I'm from the industry..Kareena was Brilliant..she surely deserves an award..

AjayDev_ : Excellent movie heroin..! Thumb's up for gorgeous kareena with her excellent acting n beauty..!

SahilAnand37 : #Heroine: Not something what I expected it to be. Though I don't know what people mean by it, I would say it anyway: one time watch! :D

KocharAnand : Watch #heroine only for #kareena

ketkiangre : #heroine: snap review- Kareena promising, movie drags, wait for it to play on tv unless you hv extra dough to spend

aman_punia : Heroine was a good movie but the ending kinda sucked #spoiler

yearning4d_sky : Boring,disjointed,confused story telling .sHe has dun gud n matured acting.not. Worth it.

wanted_a_life : such a waste is @Heroine The Movie...................stunning degradation in madhur's class :(

VeerS91 : The title 'Heroine' is ironic. Because that's what Bhandarkar was snorting while making the movie

UdaasPriest : Lalbaug Ganpati Mandal received 2 cr in donations during weekend. That's 1,99,99,800 more than what Heroine movie grossed over the weekend.

ThatPungiDude : Finally watched heroine yesterday and all I could see were cigarettes n alcohol..

Sushil156 : Even Gals in the office hated #Heroine ! Their Comments: No story, Fashion movie copy, same characters. #Trash

Sumitcaring : Aishwarya Rai wud be happy 4 leaving HEROINE coz only the best scene in the film is INTERVAL :D

ShivaniBasnet : Loved kareena's performance in heroine ...movie was not as good as expected though.

shamal_46 : Heroine.. Glamour doesn't make a movie..

RoomanaKhan : #Heroine Bekar Film watched only cause of Kareena she superb so I m not asking 4 my $1.

rahul871 : #Heroine utter disappointment!!

PyaliSays : :: Madhur Bhandarkar becomes the first man to make a same movie with 3 different names - Page 3, Fashion & Heroine. Chutiyapa !!!

oldmonkchants : "Heroine" has a happy ending.You feel extremely happy that movie is finally over.

Neetish : The Dirty Picture - Entertainment = Heroine

Muizansari : "HEROINE" ouchh pakaau he boss!!:-@

Mrs___T : #heroine epic failure!!! What a waste of money!!

MinorityReview : Heroine Movie Review - Should have been called Psycho. Too superficial and poorly made - Minority Review http://www.minority-review.com/heroine-should-have-been-called-psycho-too-superficial-and-poorly-made

Mehreeny : Heroine was sucha dragggggg! Please don't watch it.

MarooshaD : Heroine #worstmovie

IrusRaj : Madhur Bhandarkar: A man who perfected the art of using a big canvas to show nothing #Heroine is a damp squib Babes

Infamous_Duke : Kareena kapoor is worth the watch but not as #heroine

iMeditatinNinja : #barfi must watch #Heroine don't watch

iam_ishita : Sacrificed my sleep to catch #Heroine first day first show! Well, it wasn't worth the effort. Horrible movie. :|

honeyizzsweet : Had seen #heroine.. didnt like the movie but Bebo undoubtedly superb.. she is the reason ppl can bear the movie story.

FizzaJasmine : havent seen an indian movie in yrs. #heroine #fail only thing that helped was the GORGEOUS faces onscreen #ArjunRampal can u BE any hotter?

Eventwalla : #Heroine A mashup of all madhur bhandarkar movies #TrueStory :P

Diksha_Sahni : #Heroine seems a rejig of page 3 &fashion. stereotypes (gay designers, junk jewelry wearing journalists) exaggerated bore one to the core.

DeccanGypsy : The LMAO Truth --> RT @diogeneb Aradhya to Ash: "Mom, you escaped doing Heroine thanks to me. You're welcome"

debashis4u : Worst ever film - Heroine, wasted 3 hours :(

Curious_Saint : Got a really bad headache yesterday. Thanks to the movie Heroine. What a juvenile movie!

Cryptoterra : Heroin or zombie apocalypse. Choose your own adventure.

cpsingh9955 : Please don't watch Heroine. Full paisa waste

cniloy : Couldn't have said it better than this. Heroine review | http://in.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-reviews/heroine-review-172402016.html via @Kunal_Guha

chirpncherp : So true... I was... RT @mindlessmoron #Heroine has a happy ending. You feel extremely happy that the movie's finally over!

beingAnnee : Watched heroine today ..kareena acted sooo welll loved her <3 ...but the movie was not tht good.. expected alot from the movie :S

atanu4ever : #Heroine: an unrealistic movie directed by a so called realistic director. Genius of Kareena wasn't enough for the rescue.

aravindsati : #Heroine is 1 of d most borin movies ive seen in recent tyms,felt lyk wchin a mix of dirty pic n fashion wid absolutly no plot or storyline!

amlansinha2011 : watched heroine, so bogus movie

agarmettea : Heroine is monotonous, characters-shallow & caricatures. Its outright ridiculous movie & a fine piece of garbage.

AbhishekJSoni : Yesterday i cudnt tweet as i was in a shock state as i saw #heroine, even got bad dreams. Today I'm back

AanamC : I didn't know a movie with so many beautiful clothes by @ManishMalhotra1 could go so wrong! #Heroine

6 readers - 2 yays 3 so-so 1 nays

Yay! Thumbs Up, by Sanya : Worth a watch!

Yay! Thumbs Up, by silvan : Waiting for the film

So-So, by Amul Garg

So-So, by guddu : Heroine ; :(

So-So, by Suman

Nay! Thumbs Down, by ligne : not worth even a watch on tv!

This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review .

Plot Summary

The ups and downs in the life of an actress, Mahi Arora ( Kareena Kapoor ) from the Hindi film industry and the struggle she has to go through to remain in the game.

What Worked

• That women in her life empower Mahi – her therapist, her publicist and her Bengali co-star.
• The way Mahi handles sexual overtures.
• Kareena Kapoor 's eagerness at being a good actress in the Bengali director's film.
• Kareena Kapoor in ethnic wear – simply gorgeous.

What did not

• The opening sequence. And the way it connects later. Pretty lame.
• The title song sounded like title songs of thrillers.
• The journalist as a narrator.
• Abbas Khan ( Sanjay Suri ) shows up at every party and yet he is introduced with another character telling him how he never attends parties.
• The therapy scenes. A psychiatrist prescribes medicines under duress? Really?
• Top stars behaving like college boys when talking about new heroines in the industry.
• The lame image-building formula put down by Mahi's publicist ( Divya Dutta )
• The Bengali film world caricature, sure it was funny, but too much stereotyping.
• Angad ( Randeep Hooda ) complaining about losing a year as if his biological clock is ticking!

Nitty-Gritty

• Lovely jhumkas (hooped earrings) worn by most women through the film.

Parental Guidance:

• Violence : None.
• Language : A few cuss words.
• Nudity & Sexual content : A couple of making out scenes, references to sexuality and loads of skin show.
• Concept : The drudgery of a Heroine's life.
• General Look and Feel : Filmy. Glamorous even when characters are down and out. Yet, it carries a dark ambiance around itself.

Detailed Ratings (out of 5):

Heroine - cast, crew, links.

Heroine - Trailer

If you cannot see a video above, click here to see it on YouTube

Comments (12)

Click here for new comment.

Promo looks good, hope it's not just another typical style of Madhur film....

@Silvan, yeah let's hope so!

I do not have any special reason to hope for anything different than the usual Bhandarkar template... but being a Bebo fan, I hope she makes the most of it (though am sure comparisons with 'Fashion' and Priyanka will be inevitable, and Bebo will turn up at the losing end :P)

Bahut intezaar karaa rahe ho aap :P

@B H Harsh lo ji!

Hi Meetu, Thanks for the review. I want to ask one question. How different do you find this movie from Fashion? In terms of the main character, the general theme, the sequence of events etc. Thanks!

:( Poor Kareena , her efforts went entirely wasted due to lack of interesting plot. Had it been made in an explosive way, the film might wouldn't felt so boring and lame.It was a tiresome experience watching except for some humor and intimate scenes. I feel bad for Kareena , and i hope she won't disappoint us again.

The movie is surely worth a watch. If anybody thinks that it's similar to fashion. Then he/she might be wrong. I watched it with some of my friends at Wave Cinemas and I happened to like it a lot. In fact, all my friends liked it way too much. The movie proved nice in terms of the story depiction but one thing that I felt about it was that the other characters somehow got lost in it. This didn't happen with fashion and I think that was the reason why it got so much of acclamation. And heroine focussed just on Kareena's role. The only downfall point I felt.

@Lil The overall broad stroke is similar, but there are a few differences. I found Fashion a much stronger story of its protagonist.

@guddu oh well..

@Sanya Yep, there are some similarities and some slight differences with Fashion.

Direction: 2 Story: 3 Lead Actors: 3 Character Artists: 2

Dialogues: 2 Screenplay: 1 Music Director: 0 Lyrics: 1

@ligne yeah, pretty much. But, I liked the fact that she was all grey and was trying to figure herself out. Only problem was they didn't take it further. :(

Leave a Comment

Access Bollywood

Hindi movie reviews and streaming video news.

Movie Review: Heroine (2012)

Buy the DVD at Amazon

Let me illustrate the failure of director Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine with an anecdote from the showing I attended. During a completely serious moment late in the film, Arjun Rampal’s character, Aryan, tells Kareena Kapoor’s Mahi tenderly, “You look beautiful.” The audience laughed.

Heroine is so overwrought and lacking in subtlety that it’s impossible to take seriously. Emotional switches are flipped on a dime, accompanied by dramatic musical cues that are unnecessary because Kapoor’s instantaneous turns from happy to sobbing, shaking fury make it impossible to misinterpret Bhandarkar’s intent.

Kapoor plays Mahi, a superstar actress whose position at the top of the Bollywood hierarchy is threatened by newcomers willing to bribe entertainment journalists with shopping vacations. Mahi’s personal life is on the fritz, too, as her married actor boyfriend, Aryan, dawdles on his way to divorce court.

The couple breaks up, Mahi abuses pills, goes through a PR makeover, dates an athlete (played by Randeep Hooda), and does an indie film to gain some acting chops. The indie film debacle results in a night of drunken lesbianism with a co-star (played by Shahana Goswami). Mahi cries a lot through the melodramatic course of her career, angrily smoking cigarette after cigarette, as if they are responsible for her personal and professional troubles.

Kapoor’s performance is all over the place. I don’t fault her, because I think it’s what Bhandarkar wanted. The problem is that, no matter what she does, Mahi is always wrong. Things always end badly for her. She’s a character with no control over her destiny. It’s hard to connect with a character in such a helpless position. The moral of the story seems to be, “Don’t become an actor.”

When not in emotional roller coaster mode, the film is too “ inside baseball .” I’m interested in the film industry, and even I couldn’t care less about scenes in which Mahi discusses changes to the marketing budget with her production team.

The good elements of Heroine are limited to Goswami’s awesome cleavage and multiple shirtless shots of Hooda and Rampal. The dance number “Halkat Jawani” is entertaining, too.

There are two scenes from Heroine that will stick with me because I’m not sure how to explain them, both involving reading material. In one scene, a slimy co-star invites Mahi back to his hotel room, hoping to seduce her. Before she arrives, he places a James Patterson novel on a bedside table. What is this supposed to signify about him? “Hey, Mahi, I know nothing turns chicks on more than popular genre fiction.”

In another scene, an argument between Mahi and Aryan is observed with fiendish glee by up-and-coming actress pretending to be engrossed in an Archie comic. Why Archie ? What’s the symbolism? What does it mean?!?!

• Heroine at Wikipedia
• Heroine at IMDb

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22 thoughts on “ movie review: heroine (2012) ”.

I guess I did the right thing by deciding to avoid it even before its release 🙂 I like the way you started the review Kathy 😀

Good call, Keyur. Thanks! 🙂

Well,After Joker this seems to be punching bag for the critics..Though they suggest its still slightly better than Joker. Honestly,I was never looking forward to this film.I don’t consider Kareena as a very good actress.Just okay!The film had been in the news for the casting issues.Ash was actually supposed to do the film but dropped owing to her pregnancy.Well,I really adore Aishwarya.So I am happy she stayed away from this mess. 🙂

Not even Ash could have saved Heroine, Anushka. The story is better organized than Joker’s was, but all of the dialog is so direct and obvious. It’s as though the film was written for space aliens who know nothing about movies or the movie industry. Hey! Maybe Heroine was written for the aliens in Joker! 😉

once I told u when trailer was released that it looks like dirty picture, is it similar? I mean first she becomes a successful actress later failure no work then drugs. I will not watch this movie coz I hate madhur bhandarkar movies. they r all same. in interviews he says that I make realistic cinema n people love him for that. that’s what he thinks. is this realistic? I dont think so. he uses tried n tested formula in all his movies like fashion or page 3. halkat jawani is good though

TS, Heroine’s only similar to The Dirty Picture in that they are both about actresses with troubled lives. Actresses with easy lives aren’t worth making movies about. 🙂

Bhandarkar’s problem is that he makes movies about adult topics, but he writes them as though he’s telling a story to children. He explains way too much. I’d call that condescending, not realistic. If you’ve seen the video of Halkat Jawani, you’ve seen all you need to see of Heroine.

Well, I hated Halkat Jawani as I just can’t bear abuses. So I guess I have nothing to see in Heroine 😀

Uh-oh. There were no subtitles on the song lyrics at my showing of Heroine. What is “Halkat Jawani” about?

Jawani means youth and Halkat is an eyebrow-raising abuse in Marathi which is slowly gaining acceptance in Hindi. It translates to mean, worthless or characterless. But it is used in extreme situations for very bad people. It is generally used by people who have stooped low. Due to this, many over here are offended by the use of such an abuse in a song, including me 🙂

Thanks, TS and Keyur, for explaining the song title. 🙂

Most welcome, Kathy 🙂

Thanks for finding a trailer with English subtitles, TS! This looks like my ideal movie. I love romantic SRK, and Anushka is ADORABLE. Between Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Talaash, November is going to be a great month.

one more common thing in bhandarkar movies is gay charachters. all his movies have that. i liked his movie dil to bacha hai ji cos it was a comedy, even that movie had a gay charachter.

Yep, Heroine has them, too, TS. I would applaud Bhandarkar’s inclusion of gay characters if he wrote them as real people and not just flappy-handed, lisping stereotypes.

Halkat is a slang used for someone who is mean, does not care for anybody. N jawani is youth. Hence Halkat Jawani is ‘mean youth’, as in youth that doesn’t care for anything, anybody, that doesn’t listen to anyone else and does what it wishes to.

So i watched Heroine here in united states…was expecting little bit more since i thought fashion was better movie than this one. Well Kareena tried her best and she was better than most of her other movies and showed a lot of emotions in the movie pretty naturally. She was a good fit for the character but for the movie to be a hit she is not enough. She should’ve been paired with an actor who is more talented than her basically so that ppl will appreciate her but also go see the movie for someone else. I am sure she wants to have a movie that is centered around her but its just not gonna work……..story was little bit broken also and didnt have that “put together well” element to it. something was missing…….too much of kareena that we cannot digest….in my mind they kept showing how angry she is how emotional she is how misbehaved she is over and over and over and i was like ok ok i got the point and what else…her dresses were amazing……i want some of those dresses pleeeeeeeeeease. plus kareena shouldnt do intimate scenes she just looks too fake in those..i do like Madur as director and appreciate how he brings some issues on screen that ppl dont want to show and talk about………but for a hit movie……..you have to do all these in a clever way so that ppl will want to see it and more of it….just slapping some dialouges out there not enough bro……….

Well said, KS!

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Heroine Review

From All the reviews on the web   Showing 12 Reviews  

Heroine Movie Review by Top Critics

Ratings :2/5   Heroine Review by   Rajeev Masand   Site:CNN IBN

Heroine, directed by Madhur Bhandarkar opens with genuine promise, but very quickly collapses into a heap of lazy stereotypes. Sadly, the film offers no original insight into the minds of movie stars or the inner workings of the Mumbai film industry this is a movie that might well have been made by an avid reader of gossip rags. Despite an entertaining first half, thanks to all the unintentional laughs, Heroine slips into a slush of melodrama post interval. By this point, it feels interminably long and boring. Bhandarkar loses his grip on the script, and its evident that his storytelling now desperately needs reinventing.Im going with two out of five for Heroine. Its pack-up for this one!

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :3.5/5   Heroine Review by   Taran Adarsh   Site:Bollywood Hungama

HEROINE astounds you with its brutal bluntness. Also, the director illustrates the heartrending and lamentable realities of the movie world brilliantly. On the flip side, although the writing borrows from reality and has ample shock value, the writers could’ve avoided a few episodes in Mahi’s story, which seem unimportant. HEROINE is Kareena’s film all the way and she delivers an award-worthy performance.On the whole, HEROINE is yet another hard-hitting motion picture from Madhur Bhandarkar. For persistently choosing women-centric themes, for consistently winning national acclaim and most significantly, magnetizing moviegoers in large numbers to view his cinema, the efforts of the maverick film-maker deserve to be lauded. Watch HEROINE for Madhur’s imposing direction, for Kareena’s superlative performance, watch it also for its fearless, inspiring and enlightening storyline divulging the scandalous realities of the movie industry. Try not to miss it!

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :—-  Heroine Review by   Komal Nahta   Site:ETC

The story, penned by Madhur Bhandarkar, Anuradha Tiwari and Manoj Tyagi, is quite dark and depressing. Even the screenplay, written by the trio and Niranjan Iyengar, has plenty of sad and depressing mom­ents and very few happy ones. In that sense, the film lacks very much in entertainment value.On the whole, Heroine is too stark and dark to be entertaining. It is not universally appealing. It will go down well sectionally only. Business in the big cities will be good during the weekend only, but its fate in lesser cities, lesser multiplexes and B and C class centres will be way below the mark.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :2/5   Heroine Review by   Anupama Chopra   Site:Hindustan Times

The first half, though, has a delicious, camp quality to it. Its hugely entertaining, unintentionally of course. But in the second half, everybody gets serious and the laughs go out of the window. Mahi weeps and weeps and then, weeps some more. Helen, playing a yesteryear superstar, gives us the moral of the story: that selling your soul for the glitter of glamour will always, always end badly.Mahi is just a trembling mass of furiously smoking insecurity from beginning to end. And shes just not interesting enough for us to spend two and a half hours with. At one point in Heroine, a character asks: Iss glamour industry mein kaun fraud nahin hota. This film certainly is one.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :3/5  Review by   Meena Iyer   Site:Times of India (TOI)

Very clearly the written material at hand draws from unflattering accounts of various real and reel Hindi film heroines of the 80s who were in messy situations with their married co-stars. The film is made enjoyable by some pithy dialogue credited to Niranjan Iyengar. Heroine would have been crisper had it not digressed to cover every Bollywood insider account. Of course the saving grace of the film is Kareena who not only looks drop-dead gorgeous but is also adept as the girl interrupted. Heroine is Kareena’s Dirty Picture. The actress has shown ample cleavage and partaken in some really intimate bedroom scenes. Definitely worth a dekho!

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :2/5  Review by   Sukanya Verma   Site:Rediff

How do you take a film seriously when all it has on its mind is to somehow convey all the juicy tittle-tattle Bhandarkar has accumulated over the past two years in the name of research.How do you care for a character that’s neither about triumph of spirit nor being a victim of abuse? Unfortunately, in Heroine everything strikes as so deliberate, it’s hard to tell the thin line between bold and sensational. Bhandarkar seems so enamored by his electrifying Heroine he probably forgot to say ‘Cut’ during the last half hour, which seems like a never-ending audition of a nervous breakdown making Heroine overbearing, desperate and agonizingly long.The film ends on an abrupt and futile note making everything that happened before a waste of time.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :2/5  Review by   Saibal Chatterjee   Site:NDTV

The foremost problem with Madhur Bhandarkars Heroine is that behind its gossamer exterior, it is weighed down by banalities that don’t quite add up.In conveying the ebbs and tides of the life of a self-obsessed, impulsive and troubled Bollywood diva, the film taps into the tropes that constitute the Bhandarkar formula. The novelty has worn off. So, all that the audience is left with is an overwhelming sense of d©j  vu.Heroine is drably monotonous, its insights are shallow, most of the characters are caricatures and the lines that they speak border on the corny, if not on the outright ridiculous.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :2.5/5  Review by   Kanika Sikka   Site:DNA

Before the interval, the film is a mess up of fast-paced events. The second half, though slow, manages to bring these events into order to lead to a predictable end.If you are a Madhur Bhandarkar fan, I would recommend you skip this one. One, it may be disappointing; two, youve seen all this before. If you are a Kareena Kapoor fan, its a treat.All said and done, the film may be a one-time watch. But if you expected too much out of the film, it may not be worth the anticipation and your money.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :2/5  Review by   Shubhra Gupta   Site:Indian Express

The only reason to watch Madhur Bhandarkars films is for the way they go behind the headlines and show us the dirt and the hurt thats usually brushed under frayed rags and burnished carpets. In his better moments, Bhandarkar has let us see the stuff thats crawled out from underneath clearly, and weve overlooked the tackiness because it has added to the understanding of the subject. Heroine, Bhandarkars pass at Bollywood, does none of this. It remains a string of drab cliches, despite a strong performance from leading lady Kareena Kapoor.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :1.5/5  Review by   Raja Sen   Site:Rediff

Kareena Kapoor impresses in Heroine, but is let down by the film itself. Unfortunately the sheer mediocrity surrounding her — with everyone in spoof mode, especially the dialogue writers — never lets us feel for her character in what turns out to be a grotesquely long film.

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Heroine Hindi Movie Review by Other Critics

Ratings :1.5/5  Review by   Roshni Devi   Site:Koimoi

Whats Good: Some performances; the title track and Saiyaan song.Whats Bad: The story and script seem to be in an endless loop; stereotypical, uni-dimensional characters; Kareenas frequent breakdowns in the movie.Loo Break: Any number of times.Watch or Not?: Heroine movie irritates more than entertains, but some of the performances are nice.Kareena Kapoor does a good job and, heck, you even get to see her in a pseudo lesbian scene along with other steamy scenes. If thats enough to drag you to see Heroine, go ahead. Give it a miss otherwise.

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :3/5  Review by   Zee News   Site:Zee News

Wronged lead protagonist. Check. Cheating lover. Check. Clinical depression. Check. Manipulative friends. Check. Homos**uality. Check. Rising and then eventually falling and slowly fading in career. Check.These are the main ingredients of each and every Madhur Bhandarkar film. And Heroine is no different really.The premise of the film, like every other film of Bhandarkar’s, remains the same. Lead protagonist who has negative shades goes through the highs and lows in her life, enjoys a period of success and then goes through a low phase only to reform and rebuild herself as a human being.2 for the film and one extra one for Bebo. Three cheers for the film

Visit  Site  for more Ratings :–  Review by   Manjusha Radhakrishnan   Site:GulfNews

For those who are enchanted by Bollywood and its troubled stars, this film is delightfully voyeuristic as it takes you into their s**y-yet-shady world. While the films first half is brisk, the second half meanders but manages to get its act together towards the end. There are some obvious loopholes — such as how a top actress such as Mahi can be this isolated from the human race and reality — but the weak links aside its a satisfying watch.

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Heroine Hindi Movie

Heroine is a 2012 Indian movie directed by Madhur Bhandarkar starring Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Divya Dutta and Mugdha Godse. The feature film is produced by Madhur Bhandarkar and Ronnie Screwvala and the music composed by Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant.

The film is based on the life and times of a superstar heroine from the dream factory we call 'Bollywood'. The film is a... Show more

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar Producers: Madhur Bhandarkar , Ronnie Screwvala Production Companies: UTV, Bhandarkar Entertainment Music Directors: Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant Background Music Composers: Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant Song Lyrics Writers: Sanjay Chhel, Irfan Siddique, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Neelesh Misra , Niranjan Iyengar Cinematographer: Mahesh Limaye Editor: Devendra Murdeshwar Screenplay Writers: Madhur Bhandarkar , Anuradha Tiwari, Manoj Tyagi, Niranjan Iyengar Dialogue Writer: Niranjan Iyengar Original Story Writers: Madhur Bhandarkar , Anuradha Tiwari, Manoj Tyagi

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Shanghai: buoyed by cannes success, indian films continue to shine in china.

"We are all very proud that Indian cinema is getting recognized this year," says filmmaker Abhilash Sharma, as the country takes three awards at Shanghai Film Festival's Asian New Talents competition.

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The 461-film lineup for the 26th Shanghai International Film Festival spans the globe, but movies from India stood out this year, led by Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix winner All We Imagine as Light , tickets for which were sold out in a matter of minutes.

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“We are all very proud that Indian cinema is getting recognized this year, especially starting in Cannes,” says director Abhilash Sharma, who won best director in the Asian New Talent competition for his second feature In the Name of Fire .

Sharma’s In the Name of Fire is set in the rural east Indian state of Bihar and focuses on a struggling mother and child and how their religion impacts their existence. Satya Ranjan won Asian New Talent’s best actor prize for his role as a beleaguered father in the film. “India has a lot of states and a lot of languages, and we have so many remarkable films to share. Global support is something that is incredible for us,” Sharma said.

Manohara K.’s Bird of a Different Feather is also part of the Asian New Talents lineup, with actor Jayashri winning best actress. Manohara K. says it is a story that mixes his own childhood of abject poverty with that of the film’s writer Sonia S., whose own albinism has presented lifelong struggles for acceptance. It’s set in rural Karnataka, the same southwest India location featured in Chidananda S. Naik’s short Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know , which won this year’s La Cinef section at Cannes, that category that encourages new talents and recognizing films from film schools worldwide.

Both Sharma and Manohara talk about the difficulties faced in finding distribution and how festivals such as SIFF play an important role in helping independent filmmakers gain international attention and, hopefully, distribution.

The plenty of reasons for the two directors to dream big. Last year’s Asian New Talents line-up produced two box office hits in China, with the Hong Kong-produced dramas In Broad Daylight and Time Still Turns the Pages getting wide release in China following SIFF

All the attention on India in Shanghai has raised talk once again about the long-touted possibilities of India-China co-productions, a box office dream team considering that combined the two film markets account for an audience of around 2.8 billion people, or over one third of the planet’s population. There’s been much noise generated in the past about and a film co-production treaty was launched in 2014. But only a few projects have ever been fully realized, among them the Jackie Chan-starrer Kung Fu Yoga (2017).

Shanghai-based Prasad Shetty, producer and distributor and a partner at Strategic Alliance, which promotes Indian films in China, was part of the team that helped bring the Aamir Khan-starring wrestling-centered Dangal to China back in 2017. He watched on as that film collected more than $200 million at China’s box office. This year, Shetty has been involved in bringing to Shanghai the Kiran Rao-directed marriage mix-up comedy drama Lost Ladies , which is screening as part of India Film Week, and from his vantage point on the ground in China he sees opportunity — with a caveat.

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