"Arranged Love" is a great story, especially within the uber cliché Rom-Com genre. It's a refreshing break from so many recent Rom-Coms that play out almost exactly the same script, with changes in setting and character names.
The problem is, it's way too Bollywood: It relies too much upon the crutches of melodrama and exoticism, which end up choking the potentially good performances by a solid cast. As a result, what had the potential to be something great ends up being a safety dance -- Bollywood style -- of superficiality, leading us right down the same path of the cliché Rom-Coms I thought for a moment that it just might transcend.
Basically, entertaining, until the shoulder-shrug ending.
The problem is, it's way too Bollywood: It relies too much upon the crutches of melodrama and exoticism, which end up choking the potentially good performances by a solid cast. As a result, what had the potential to be something great ends up being a safety dance -- Bollywood style -- of superficiality, leading us right down the same path of the cliché Rom-Coms I thought for a moment that it just might transcend.
Basically, entertaining, until the shoulder-shrug ending.