No, filmmakers don't have any rights to subject this to Bollywood fans time and again! That's the feeling you get half through the screening of a 'cliched love story' called 'Barsaat' that was tagged as a 'sublime story story'.

Much was expected from this Bobby Deol, Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra starrer. Why not? After all producer-director Suneel Darshan is the man behind one of the most successful film of recent times - Andaaz - and carries a strong reputation of coming up with family dramas that have touched Indian hearts. But alas, that's not the case with 'Barsaat' as the story of the film is so predictable and the execution such ultra-dramatic that you want to tear your hair in frustration, especially in the second half.

The movie begins with a young boy and a girl cycling in the rain and enjoying their moments together. Scene 2 and you have Bobby Deol as Arav Kappor on the frame who is fast minting money in the USA. You know at this very moment that the man is none other than the young boy shown in the first frame. Soon enters sweet’n’sexy Anna [Bipasha Basu] who falls in love with him at their very first encounter. But this doesn't necessarily result in reciprocation by Arav as he is a car designer and is busy working on his dream to get his BIG break.

Some cliched moments later, he gets a job at nothing less than BMW chaired by Shakti Kapoor, who also happens to be Anna's grandfather. All this while Arav is unaware about Anna's true identity and soon sees himself falling in love with her. No issue as a couple of scenes later, her identity is disclosed by the grandfather who proposes to get them both engaged.

Game, set, match for Arav who conveniently forgets that he has a past. Ironically though everyone in the auditorium remembered that the girl in the first frame would have turned into Priyanka Chopra by now and waiting for him in a Himachal Pradesh small town.

The fact is bigger than that as this girl [Kajal] was also married to Arav just 3 years back. Oh, now how are we expected to digest Arav ignoring this fact? Accepted that he fis orced to marry by his 'zabaan ke pakke' parents [Gajendra Chauhan and Beena] who had given a 'vachan' to Kajal's granny [Farida Jalal]. Though the glitz of making money in his country of dreams made Arav averse to an idea of marriage, since granny doesn't know how many more years she would survive, he relents only to leave back for USA on the very first night!

Well, now Arva has conveniently forgotten about the 'vachan' to 'desi' grandma and has said yes to 'videshi' grandpa. But then for remarriage, he also needs to first break his first marriage and hence flies back to India. And yes, this is where Priyanka Chopra as a grown up Kajal is also introduced with 'Aaja Aaja Piya', a rather lovely song. But little did she know that Arav is not here for taking her away. In fact he has come to break away from her completely by asking her to sign divorce papers.

Not to relent so easily, she tries to woo him to the fullest. But does she succeed? Meanwhile Anna and her grandpa fly India for a traditional marriage ceremony. What happens in the end? Well if you have seen 5 Bollywood love triangles in your lifetime and have sat through the first 5 minutes of the movie when the 2 kids are drenching themselves in rain, you absolutely know the answer !!

Predictable to the core, Barsaat offers nothing, apart from some real melodious music by Nadeem Shravan, that allows viewers to appreciate their outing to some extent. Being stuck to a formula is fine as more often than not it works, but if you do not disguise the formula with deft execution, chances are high that the movie may turn out to be utter run of the mill. This is what happens in the case of 'Barsaat'.

The first hour or so of the movie is a basic love story which could be passed on by a section of masses due to some lavish skin show by Bipasha that leaves little to imagination. There are false hopes of drama being upped to a level when Bobby comes back to India. There is an immediate thought of 'what now'? But soon this too gets diluted and the movie continues to drag along. After every 15 minutes, one expects a twist, but to no avail.

Absolute feeling of disillusionment comes towards the latter part of the second half. When everything seems to be all set for Arav after Kajal has signed the divorce papers, they are suddenly shown spending more time than ever with each other. Arav's visit to her factory, their nostalgic moments while plucking mangoes from the trees, their moments together in the rain, a kiss [that unfortunately gets disrupted] - one wonders why is all this happening when they have mutually decided to separate? The justification of all this to Arav's guilt isn’t convincing either.

All this while the dialogues, especially in the second half take you all the way back to the 60s-70s. In nutshell, no respite in either departments. Thankfully, the music by Nadeem Shravan comes as relief after every 10 minutes and each of the 7-8 songs in the film are actually quite welcome. Salim Suleiman prove that they can give background score for a typical Bollywood love triangle, what with Kumar Sanu's signature 'alaap' making an appearance every now and then. W.B.Rao comes up with average cinematography while sticking to the basics and providing a very 90s look to the movie.

To give credit to the director, he tries to pep up the proceedings with a few good scenes here and there but they are so far and few [and subsequently surrounded by predictable stuff] that the sheen is lost. One expects the drama to pick up when Priyanka resolves to get her husband back but her loosing this battle also ends up in the viewer loosing the interest in the movie.

Bobby Deol enacts his part well but is let down by poor characterization. Bipasha displays her anatomy but in a different way than her previous films. While she was downright seductive in most of her earlier films, here she is a sweet woman who is genuinely in love with a guy is just happy while wearing revealing outfits. She emotes well too and tries to get into a conventional Bollywood heroine. Priyanka Chopra looks lovely in her 'salwaar-kameez' outfits and acts as per the requirement of the character. But calling 'Barsaat' as THE movie for any of the three actors would be an overstatement.

While newer and better ideas are coming up with every passing year, there are still some movies that are stuck up in the age old world. The movie doesn't stir your emotions either with the Bobby-Bipasha or Bobby-Priyanka love story.