323. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (Won't Get Life Back Again)

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated the midnight audience for Harry Potter as being the best I had ever been in.
Today was the polar opposite.
I'd actually thought that at 5pm on a Thursday, there would have been no one but me watching the Bollywood  bro-mance Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara at Nottingham Cineworld.
How wrong I was.
In fact as soon as I saw a pushchair on its own next to the disabled seats with a baby inside sleeping, I feared the worst.
I sat away from said baby but five minutes into the movie the teenage girls arrived in the row behind and decided it was party time.
I moved but by that time baby's family (including two-year-old) had moved a bit nearer the bleating infant.
Thus, For nearly two and a half hours I sat with my finger in my right ear in the furthest seat to the left of the auditorium.
Please forgive me, therefore, if my review is slightly tainted.
Actually, Zoya Akhtar's movie is perfectly fine if a little predictable.
Three old school chums have agreed that when one of them gets engaged the ensuing bachelor party will be a trip where they each test each other.
For example, they go to Spain and the first outing is deep sea diving.
Get the picture?
The guys in question are Abhay Deol, Hrithik Roshan and Farhan Akhtar.
Farhan, who was so good in Karthik Calling Karthik last year, was on the writing team here.
And so, the movie becomes a voyage of discovery of all three. Their relationships with each other and the women in their life all go through the mincer with mixed results.
There is humour, bonhomie and a fair few tense moments and, it being Bollywood, it all ends in a jolly song.
Zoya Akhtar also delves deep into Spain, its countryside and traditions to give a splendid portrait of that country.
On the whole it is, in the words of Mark Kermode, perfectly fine without being particularly memorable.
It deserves 6/10.
PS Of course, it being Bollywood there were absolutely no boob shots but I was rather taken aback to see Roshan slipping his tongue out during a snogging scene with Katrina Kaif. Ugh.