Hamari Adhuri Kahaani **
Dir:Mohit Suri
Starring: VidyaBalan, Emraan Hashmi, Rajkummar Rao, Sara Khan

Mahesh Bhatt has never shied away from plumbing his own life for story ideas. So here he is again penning a tale reportedly based on the relationship between his father and his step-mother. VidyaBalan plays a woman apparently abandoned by her husband (Rakkummar Rao) and forced to raised her young son on her own. Then multimillionaire and hoteling magnate Emraan Hashmi (battling demons of his own) enters her life. Just when you think she’s found a second chance at happiness, her absent husband reappears. Will she choose love or duty?

Whatever its basis, the plot never manages to convince and nor do the characters. Balan, Hashmi (much more restrained than usual and to good effect) and Rao do what they can with their roles but even they can’t overcome an idiot plot (and some very ordinary dialogue). Director MohitSuri, riding high on the super success of his last two movies Ek Villain and (the overrated) Aashiqui 2, also tries hard to create a melancholic atmosphere but also runs afoul of the plot and the screenplay. There are a couple of nice songs (music is often the strongest part of any Vishesh Films productions) but that’s really not enough reason to take two hours out of your life to watch this film.

Cut to chase: Unconvincing characters, even more unconvincing plot.

The first Pitch Perfect filmcame out in 2012 and was a decent enough hit on the big screen at the time. Then it found even greater success later through cable, video-on-demand and DVD sales as well as the popularity of its soundtrack which spawned the big hit "Cups" sung by leading lady Anna Kendrick. So a sequel became almost inevitable and here we are three years later as we catch up with the all-girl college a cappella group the Barden Bellas.

The Bellas are getting ready to graduatebut, unfortunately, they hit a bum note when one member of the group, Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) suffers a major wardrobe malfunction (and that’s putting it mildly) when performing in front of Barack and Michelle Obama. The only chance of redemption for the Bellasis if they can win the World a cappella championship. Will they be able to do it? What do you think?

Unfortunately, this follow-up to the cult hit doesn’t quite hit the right notes. Most of the cast from the first movie are back plus there’s Emily (Hailee Steinfeld), a freshman and new member of the Bellas. The first time around the plot revolved around the cynical and feisty Beca (Kendrick) but the sequel gives as much screen time (if not more) to Fat Amy and Emily. That’s fine but other characters – particularly Beca’s boyfriend (Skylar Astin)- and quite a few sequences are perfunctory to the plot and hence the movie feels a lot longer than its running time of almost two hours. There are some laughs – Elizabeth Banks (who also directed) and John Michael Higgins get most of them as the almost clueless commentators covering the a cappella competitions - and the sing-off musical numbers are fun (though there’s nothing with quite the same impact as "Cups") but the screenplay remains mostly forced and disjointed and you somehow end up not really caring.

If you absolutely loved the first movie you’ll probably like this one. But for the rest of us it proves a disappointment. But Pitch Perfect fans shouldn’t lose hope. The sequel is a global smash-hit and a third entry in the series, scheduled to hit the screen in 2017, has just been announced

Cut to chase: Pitch perfect it isn’t.

Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz