Making a statement like "watch the story behind stardom unfold" really ratchets up the viewers expectations even before they go for the movie and this can definitely go two ways as far as the fate of the movie is concerned.
As the movie starts Madur Bhandarkar(MB) seems to be obviously confused about how to narrate the movie as he keeps shuttling between a journalist(the audience is not told who she is and what she is actually doing) talking about Mahi Arora(Kareena Kapoor) and at times continuing the movie without her narration. Neither does he delve on Mahi Arora's inspiration behind becoming a film star and how good she is as an actress. This makes her characterisation very weak to begin with and doesn't help matters in the latter half of the movie when things are left to the imagination of the viewers. At 2 hours and 40 minutes the movie feels too long and could have been wrapped up sooner without confusing the audience even more about Mahi's motivations in her life and her long term goals.
Whatever said and done credit must be given in some areas as it is well cast and packed with a powerful performance from Kareena Kapoor. Ranvir Shorey excels as an eccentric parallel movie director and Divya Dutta gives a solid account of herself as a PR representative. Arjun Rampal and Randeep Hooda also do their parts with required conviction. The screenplay and dialogues are also quite juicy and keeps you engaged at most times except during the last half an hour.
All in all Heroine is one of those movies which leaves you feeling like you had a bottle of plain soda when the credits start rolling at the end of the movie, lots of fizz that hits you but no discernable flavour. MB tries to weave in too many contemporary media stories into the movie and in the end fails to send out any singular message. The movie succeeds in parts but as a whole its meets the fate of one of those boxers who dominate all the rounds till the second last one only to get knocked out in the last round.
