Mohit Suri might have given romantic superhits like Aashiqui 2 but he has lost his touch recently. We suggest he take a break and come back. The poor display of the gripping dilemma surrounding the latest trend of friends-with-benefits relationships among the college going population is disturbing and unpleasant. The movie does not hold the meaning it was supposed to. The best aspect of Mohit Suri’s movies is the beautiful romantic tunes he is able to deliver, but even with talented and experienced artists like Mithoon, Rishi Rich, Farhan Saeed, Tanishk Bagchi and Raju Singh he failed to deliver. The story of Half Girlfriend, based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel with the same name, is the journey of a desperate guy who got hooked onto a girl out of his league. Riya (Shradhha Kapoor) on the other hand is trying to portray the typical DU girl and insists on speaking English, which she can’t. After making out with him and leading him on several times, Riya finally gets married to her childhood friend.

Mohit Suri knows how to throw melodious music to hook audiences and he does that to stretch a thin plot for almost two-and-a-half hours. Suri isn’t the only one guilty here. Even if you ignore Shraddha Kapoor’s “rich people have severe domestic issues” expressions, you can’t do the same with Arjun Kapoor, who seems to be sleep-walking through the film. Those who have read Half Girlfriend would remember that a dialogue from the book had made the social media go crazy: Deti hai toh de, warna kat le. It has been changed to ‘rehti hai toh reh, warna kat le’ in applause-worthy surprise. Half Girlfriend is fast-paced but is not that good to make us miss the absurdities of the screenplay. Characters forget how they were talking in the previous scene. There is an absolute lack of intensity between the lead actors and everything is so clichéd. In the end, it remains the story of a friend-zoned Arjun Kapoor who doesn’t know how to wriggle out of a destructive relationship. I can ignore his accent, but how can I not see his unwillingness to do justice to his role? Half Girlfriend is confused, forced and takes the audience for granted. In one word: disappointing.

Based on a book by Chetan Bhagat, Mohit Suri's new film is a preposterously dimwitted romance, irresponsible enough to lead on many a stalker-to-be. (The only good thing about this film is that it'll win you a round of charades, its full title being 'Half Girlfriend - Dost Se Zyada Girlfriend Se Kam'.) Half Girlfriend is about two halfwits who belong together. It is a film that claims to celebrate romance and undying passion and gates both Bill and Indian, but all it does is applaud a spoilt man who believes he's a scapegoat. He is not. He is, in fact, a man who hands the woman he loves a butcher knife, gets down on all fours, sticks his neck over a earthen pot of biryani and goes baaaaa. Off with his head.

What’s a half girlfriend? Madhav Jha, Bihari bhouy, bheak in Ingliss, doesn’t quite know. Neither does college mate Riya Somani, the girl he has fallen for, who describes herself thus, with dead seriousness, without a shred of irony. Madhav (Arjun Kapoor) and Riya (Shraddha Kapoor) take a full two hours and some, to find out. Under Mohit Suri’s baton, and staying faithful to Chetan Bhagat’s source material from his novel of the same name, the two give us some laugh-out loud, felt moments, but which ultimately get stymied by too much sufi-fuelled song, and some missteps. I half liked Half-Girlfriend. Could it have been better? The book, despite its shortcomings, feels more an organic whole: the film, which was what the book was always going to be, tries too hard. When a character says: ‘sentiyaa gaye ho ka’, not once, but twice, he is not just talking to the characters around him, they are not just having a conversation; he wants us hear him, and grin at the Bihari-ness/ desi-ness of it all. I enjoyed the first half. Suri knows how to create drama, and sweeps us up in places, enough for us to ignore the constructed-ness of the characters and the plot. In the second, which is doused in melodrama and swelling `gaana’, I was left with that looming question: is half better than none?

The assumption that many have read Chetan Bhagat’s 2014 novel of the same name should be a safe one because Bhagat’s fluff has its own following. But, Half Girlfriend is definitely not one of his best works. So, Mohit Suri (Aashiqui2, Ek Villain) gives us a celluloid outing that is thoda fun and largely exasperating. The frustrating bit for Madhav and for the audience is that Riya is commitment-phobic. Her dost se zyada but girlfriend se kum stance seems non-negotiable and stops you from investing in her halfway through the film. The first half breezes through, but post interval proceedings hang; in tandem with the hangdog expression worn by the hero. Arjun is sincere, but seems too urban for an ideal `Bihari’ fit. And Shraddha, who looks her loveliest here, lacks gravitas. As far as the ensemble music album goes--Manoj Muntashir’s Phir Bhi Main Tumko Chahoonga, the only track that has real recall is lyrically-adequate but Mithoon’s tune is not compelling enough. Finally, half girlfriend or boyfriend is that person many of us have encountered on campus. However, do we really want to relive those memories? It depends entirely on the mood.