Don’t tune into this frequency!

Like De Dana Dan that released last week, Radio also assaults your senses (mainly your ears). The self-indulgent film tries too hard to be cool.

Radio tells the story of Vivaan Shah (Himesh), a superstar RJ whose wife Pooja Talwar (Sonal Sehgal) divorces him but he continues pining for her. The newly and unhappily single Vivaan befriends the crazy, lively and impulsive Shanaya Dhingra (Shenaz Treasurywalla) who falls for him before you can say ‘I love you.’ She becomes his ‘Mystery Girl’ on air and soon has her own radio show. Her crazy family headed by Zakir Hussain (he drinks beer like coffee) thinks they are a couple. The rest of the film is about how Vivaan realizes who he truly loves.

Like Quentin Tarantino’s movies, Radio (though it is nothing like Tarantino's cinema) is also told in chapters for the sake of being cool and unique. The stamp of ‘It’s Complicated’ on every chapter in annoying! The non-linear format serves no purpose and adds to the confusion instead.

Radio is not even original. A few songs are copied from English numbers (Teri Meri Dosti is uncannily similar to Shania Twain's Don't be stupid), Jaaneman's video borrows elements from Ronan Keating's When you say nothing at all and the ladder scene between Himesh and Shenaz takes you back to Richard Gere and Julie Roberts in Pretty Woman minus the passion and chemistry.

The songs are said to be the USP of the film yet Radio isn’t Himesh’s best album to date. He has composed much better songs like Jhalak dikhla ja, Naam hai tera, Sohniye and Dil keh raha hai, among others.Every five minutes, you’ll hear either Mann ka radio or Zindagi jaise ek radio on full volume. There are other songs too with pathetic remix versions that gyrate on your nerves. Rafa dafa is the best song of the lot and Teri meri dosti is sweet.

Each dialogue is a ‘gem.’ Sample these: ‘12 baj chuke the. Mere kismet ke 12 baj chuke the’ and ‘Ye aasu uske hai. Nikal jaane do saalo ko! Several scenes are very silly (like the characters breaking plates all the time, calling it an 'accha shagun, the Paranjabi lassi scene and the pointless chandelier shattering scene). They also end abruptly leaving you confused about their purpose.The editing is choppy and the camerawork, hazy. There are some continuity glitches too as Shenaz’s hair length keeps changing from one scene to another.

Himesh is very bland, stiff and needs to loosen up. He plays his unhappy, non-smiling self through most of the film and shouts a lot. He laughs and smiles in only one scene: the scene where they smash plates for the first time. It’s quite funny. Himesh manages to look sad but we rarely see his face lighting up, even when he gets together with his ideal girl. He hardly has any chemistry with either Sonal or Shenaz. It is high time that better sense prevailed over him and he went back to composing music.

Among the other cast members, Sonal Sehgal is passable and looks very pretty. Her character is more unstable than unpredictable. Shenaz is pleasant, rosy and quite plump (not that we’re complaining). She does the bubbly act well but doesn’t convince in scenes where she has to be angry. She looks like a cross between a streetwalker and a clown in her opening scene. Paresh Rawal is utterly wasted. His Jhandu Lal Tyagi character is based on Radio One’s Ghanta Singh and it has no relevance to the plot.

Radio is the kind of movie you watch with a bunch of friends and have a laugh passing comments and making fun of it but that is not a risk worth taking.

Janhvi Patel/Hill Road Media