Half Girlfriend | Novel By Chetan Bhagat | Hindi Movie 2017 Review

Half Girlfriend is an Indian romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name written by Chetan Bhagat. The film is directed by Mohit Suri and features Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead roles.

Principal photography commenced in June 2016 and filming locations include Delhi, Mumbai, Patna, Dumraon, Varanasi, New York City and Cape Town. The film released worldwide on 19 May 2017.

Brief Summary

The story begins with Madhav Jha, a rural boy from [Simraon, a village in(an imaginary name) Buxar, Bihar, as he comes to meet the author Chetan Bhagat and leaves behind a few journals from his half-girlfriend who he believes has died. Chetan Bhagat calls him up the next morning to hear his story. He starts by describing his trouble entering St. Stephens, as his English was quite bad. Being a good basketball player, Madhav gets admission through his sports quota.

The rich and beautiful Riya Somani is a girl from Delhi, and is also selected through the sports quota. Madhav and Riya become close friends due to their association with basketball. Madhav wants to make her his girlfriend, but she refuses. He demands that they get physical. Offended by his obscene ultimatum (Deti hai to de, warna katle), Riya parts company with him and tells him not to talk to her anymore.

A year later, Riya marries her childhood friend Rohan and settles in London, where Rohan has a big business. Finding Delhi unbearable on grounds of losing Riya, Madhav settles in his hometown and helps his mother, Rani Sahiba, who runs her school. Seeing the condition of the school – no proper classes or toilets – Madhav decides to meet local MLA Ojha for financial help, but the MLA refuses to help. An opportunity comes when Ojha informs Madhav about Bill Gates’ visit to some schools in Bihar. Madhav tries his best to convince Gates to fund his school, but to do so he has to prepare a speech, preferably in English.

In the course of his struggle, he comes across Riya, who is now a divorcee. Riya helps him prepare the speech. The two are successful in their fundraising, but, after the speech, Riya leaves a letter for him which states that she has lung cancer. Riya’s letter confesses her love for Madhav but states she has three months to live. When Madhav attempts to track her down, he finds that she has cut all ties in India and has disappeared.

After three years, it is revealed from Riya’s journals that she is alive and that she had faked her cancer. Madhav goes in search of her in New York. After three months of extensively searching, he finds her at a jazz event and the two reconcile.

The book ends with the author visiting the rural school in Dumraon, three and a half years later, and seeing that both Madhav and Riya are successfully running the school, and have a son, Shyam.

Half Girlfriend Official Trailer

Cast

  • Arjun Kapoor as Madhav Jha
  • Shraddha Kapoor as Riya Somani
  • Vikrant Massey as Shailesh
  • Rhea Chakraborty as Anshika
  • Seema Biswas as Madhav’s Mother
  • Anisa Butt as Shailesh’s wife

Production

Film went into production in March 2016. Prominent shooting locations included St. Stephen’s College in New Delhi and Times Square and the UN Headquarters in New York City. The basketball action in the film is by Rob Miller and the ReelSports team.  Around 200 students from different colleges were roped in to play extras as some of the scenes demand Delhi University students in the film. The trailer was released on April 10.

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