Movie Review – Dil Dhadakne Do

A lazy film which is not as bad as it is claimed to be but not good enough to be appreciated

It was one of the movies I was interested to watch for the casting, more than anything. They are not my favorites but the casting was weird. Together they didn’t look like a group. Much until recently in ‘Chekka Chivantha Vaanam’, I haven’t seen a worst ensemble. As it was by Zoya Akthar, I was of the opinion that I could be rest assured at least of the feel-good factor. But as it tanked at box office and widely negative reviews post that, the movie went out of my scanner.

The film opened with a voice over by a dog Pluto Mehra (Aamir Khan) which was supposed to be cute but wasn’t. The cutesy thing was pretentious and didn’t work. But Aamir khan does a fabulous job in dubbing. When we come to other characters, we have an ever-charming Anil Kapoor as a cunning effervescent Kamal Mehra. Ranveer Singh, whom I wasn’t a fan back then but I’m now, does a fabulous job in just doing the right things, Priyanka Chopra, again someone whom I’m not a fan, does a fabulous job too. Rumors are abound saying it was a role for Kareena, I guess she too would have done a fabulous job. It looks like a role tailor made for her. Remaining lead characters are so-so, so they don’t have much to do.

But Rahul Bose and Shefali Shah are truly interesting choices for the film, who stand out amongst all. Especially the latter as the wife of a millionaire. It’s really tough to gauge her character, Neelam Mehra. Even when Kabir goes full on blasting her, she still maintains her composure and does her role fabulously. In spite of so many people doing so many diverse roles in an interesting manner, they don’t come together well. Of course, it’s a story about disoriented family but even for that disorientation, a certain bit of orientation is necessary. it has to be cutely chaotic for a fun film to work, which doesn’t happen here. As a team, they are wayward.

I guess the whole dog thing and the way certain scenes were framed and the set pieces were handled, looked very much like a Paul Thomas Anderson film gone wrong. The scene they walk up to the cruise is certainly the best scene which looked to have been taken right out of the PTA film, but otherwise it has gone totally wrong. It made me think how wonderful if the same story had been made by PTA.

Another reason which evoked curiosity while watching the film is the travel. This time, it’s Istanbul, which is at the top of my foreign bucket list. But she has shown the place like a tourist, not traveler and the place doesn’t really have any significance, many a time, we don’t even get to appreciate it. Even though it was the same in ZNMD, at least it worked partly due to the fun nature of script. Here, wish the place was more absorbed in the script, like how Allen does for his films. When it comes to Zoya Akthar, she did the best use of a place in ‘Gully Boy’, the gully which the ‘Gully Boy’ stays has so much significance in the story than the friends who bachelor partied in Spain or a family who went on a cruise to Istanbul.

One of the best parts of Zoya Akthar’s two travel films is that it’s unapologetically upper class. She does it with elan. That’s why, mostly the indoor shoots work brilliantly. Even though the entire crew seemed to have loved the cruise experience, wish it had been more organic and natural. Many scenes didn’t give that feel of floating, which is one of the things she could have used seriously. In spite of all these shortcomings, thanks to the top-notch performances, the film doesn’t bore you, even though it doesn’t woo you.