Siddarth Annan's light romantic comedy takes an abrupt, 11th-hour turn for the melodramatic that imbues it with unexpected resonance without seeming completely contrived.
Bachna Ae Haseeno grows more serious and interesting as it contemplates the various permutations of romance in a culture with rapidly changing sexual mores.
Two and a half hours of this will try anyone's patience, so stave off the boredom by speculating about Kapoor and Padukone's off-screen romance; it looks like all that angsting paid off.