overacting ones there only to look pretty.
They, too, merely remain in the picture as bodies. Moreover, unlike Garland, Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Lady Gaga and even Bradley Cooper, the actors in this one don't do their own singing. We get none of this in "Aashiqui 2," which, instead, casts two relative unknowns in the leads. Judy Garland's tragic image was the most striking case, with the lead male's alcoholism becoming an allegory for her real-life drug problems and difficulties with the Hollywood studio system, the press and her fans. In the first three iterations, the leading actresses were all attempting a comeback on some level. "A Star Is Born" is at its best when the scenario-originally about Hollywood filmmaking and only later, in 1976, 2018 and this version, about the music industry-reflects the real-life images of the stars that made it. This body is filled with generic Bollywood escapism into emotionalism, including sappy songs. Only the body remains, which is the least alluring part. Unfortunately, the filmmakers here stripped "A Star Is Born" of all of its self-reflexive intelligence, as well as the superior innovations in production-leaving merely the plot and reworked scenes. Even the Hindi language here is comprised of many borrowings from English. ("Aashiqui 2," itself, by the way, was also remade-in Telugu as "Nee Jathaga Nenundali" (2014).) "Aashiqui 2," however is a combination of two traditions, of Bollywood and Hollywood. I'm sure there've been more than two of those, too. In India, a sequel may not mean the same thing it does in Hollywood, apparently, as the title of "Aashiqui 2" would suggest that it's a continuation of the narrative from "Aashiqui" (1990), but it's not instead, this is another remake of a familiar Hollywood scenario, "A Star Is Born" (made in 1937, 19 before being once again remade in 2018), while supposedly being a repetition of the themes of the first "Aashiqui," which seems to merely mean that it's another romantic musical.