Much like the waves of the sea in which its cruise ship sails, there are crests and troughs to Dil Dhadakne Do. Unfortunately, the crests don’t really take your breath away and the trough bring down whatever good was done, literally with an anchor
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara had that touch of subtlety about it. In sharp contrast, Dil Dhadakne Do chooses to be over the top and boisterous. There is more than one sequence, wherein a point is made in the subtle manner it should. And then suddenly from nowhere there is a need to reinforce it with all that subtlety of a steam train. Club that with an over the top climax which leads you to wonder if Zoya is even the captain of this particular ship any more and it doesn’t add up to a memorable voyage, overall.
While suitably glossy in its visuals as well as the context of its plot, it lacks depth in its content and a story of this kind should ideally have been told at a faster pace and in shorter length. At 171 minutes Zoya takes too long to tell a predictable story. It starts off on the wrong foot, taking too long to introduce all its characters and that too with boring descriptions. Aamir Khan and the dog are a nice touch but they get too repetitive and preachy despite their good intent.
Then as the plot warms up, the dialogues take too long to be delivered and the camera lingers unnecessarily where it could’ve and should’ve easily been snappier. The humor seems forced and lacks the innocence of her previous offerings.
If the ship manages to stay afloat for its rather long journey it is in large measure due to its ensemble starcast – who all show up to the party in top form. Anil Kapoor pulls off an act with a maturity that makes you wonder why he has to do movies like Slumdog Millionaire and pander to Hollywood when he has this kind of acting capability. Shefali Shah isn’t as impressive but is equal to the task. Ranvir Singh is in his comfort role yet again and does a really impressive job. However, the real scene stealer standing tall amidst this glitterati is Priyanka Chopra. She is simply stunning in both her looks as well as her performance and lights up every frame she is in with amazing screen presence. The combination of Priyanka Chopra and Ranvir Singh is explosive and their scenes together are amongst the best.
So much so, that Anushka Sharma almost looks like a minnow amongst these stalwarts – particularly so in one dance sequence where she’s struggling to find her steps and Priyanka Chopra doesn’t miss a single one. Farhan Akhtar is completely under-utilized, let’s just leave it at that
The top notch performances make the journey seem shorter than it is and is a major boost to an otherwise average movie. The ending in particular is highly disappointing especially the ‘message’ if you can call it that – much like Finding Fanny, it makes little sense and is an unconvincing justification of the movie title. It’s a far cry from the soulful and heartwarming ending of ZNMD.
If Zoya Akhtar hadn’t shown us what she can do with ZNMD, we might still have excused all or at least, most. But given that we’ve been witness to what she is capable of, such pedestrian fare becomes disappointing. Here’s hoping her next one can truly make the heart miss a beat.
No comments:
Post a Comment