It’s a story of three different-minded yet emotionally-connected friends getting together after a long time before one of them ties the nagging knot. The victim is Kabir (Abhay) and this tying the knot is a knotty affair for him as it is nothing more than a funny accident. He lets himself slide through others’ overpowering emotions and ends up proposing a girl named Natasha (Kalki) who ecstatically agrees to this proposal as she claims to love him. Before virtually hanging himself by the mundane marriage knot, he plans of arranging a bachelor trip – a boys’ hangout to some fab place.
This hangout just can’t happen without either of his two closest pals, his pact-mates Arjun (Hrithik) and Imran (Farhan). Arjun is totally into money-making as he’s a financial broker and enjoys keeping himself proudly stuck in his business drudgeries. Imran, on the other hand is a facetious freak by nature, freewheeling flirt by behavior, writer by profession, poet by passion and yes, a royal pain in Arjun’s ass. The trio heads on for a 21-day road trip to the beautiful Spain to enjoy the seventh heaven. Men turn to boys (bwoyz) and go crazily “mental”. Three of them break their comforting shells and quench for the thrill of the moments full of uncertainties. State of uncertainty has its own excitement and charm. All put themselves in top gear before plunging into spine-chilling adventures. During this trip, one charming babe, the diving instructor, Laila (Katrina), a totally contented and never-regretting soul joins the pack and shares the life-secrets through easily understandable demos, especially to her love-at-first-sight Arjun.
Now, everyone, sooner or later, comes across one solid transformational threshold in his life which takes him to the state of fearlessness; a state of being so light yet so powerful that gives him the courage to boldly go for what he wants. Here, our three heroes experience the same Buddha-moment in this Spain trip of three weeks. Nicely woven by Zoya Akhtar, all these independent realizations are immediate results of the encounters with their greatest individual fears. Hydrophobic Arjun, having deep-dived in the mid sea, washes him off his fears and finds the beauty of life while his swimming underwater translates to pleasing introspection. Acrophobic Imran gets rid of his fear in skydiving by nosediving from the plane. Socio-phobic Kabir overcomes his problem by being true to his ownself rather than pretending for society in order to please everyone.
Overall, Abhay is really good. Hrithik is really cool. Farhan is super-duper-cool. Katrina, for a change, is a hot life-coach and Kalki is a role-filler. The movie certainly has the potential to touch a chord with the audience of all ages. The concept is fresh and the contexts are new; for instance, showing gift for mom being misinterpreted as engagement ring by a girl, silly school pranks, punching situational poems, catchy adventure sports of surmounting shortfalls, Tomatina festival and emotional bonds within the bounds of practicality etc. Bollywood was thirsty of something so refreshingly youthful since long. This movie for which a few may gently complain of being a little overstretched is yet undoubtedly very much enjoyable. ZNMD claims by meaning Zoya Nailsdown a Master Director.
