DIL DHADAKNE DO

Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar’s latest project is DIL DHADAKNE DO under direction of Zoya Akhtar with an ensemble cast.

 

In her last movie 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara', Zoya Akhtar showed that she can tell enjoyable stories without letting the audience be distracted by the beautiful visuals and Zoya has done it once more with 'Dil Dhadakne Do', a family drama set aboard a lavish cruise.

 

The movie starts off with the introduction of the dysfunctional family of the Mehras which consists of Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor) who is not just a self-made successful businessman, but also a self-proclaimed one at that! His wife is Neelam Mehra (Shefali Shah) whose life is all about wicked, sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek one-liners. Despite having a million differences with each other, they pretend to the world that they are the 'best couple', only because their whole world revolves around the anxiety of 'log kya kahengey'. The Mehras have a daughter Ayesha Mehra (Priyanka Chopra), who is not just the 'inheritor' of acute business acumen, but also is a successful business tycoon and the owner of an extremely successful online travel portal. Her success can be gauged by the acknowledgement given to her by the 'Forbes' magazine. Then there is the 25 year old carefree boy Kabir Mehra (Ranveer Singh), who is in charge of spearheading the once-successful-now-struggling AYKA industries. But the fact of the matter is that, while his heart lies in flying (he owns a private plane), he was thrusted the family business by his 'strategically planning' parents. The Mehra family will be completely incomplete without the mention of their family dog cum family member named Pluto Mehra (voiceover by Aamir Khan). Bitter reality strikes the Mehra family when they get to know that their company AYKA is not just running into losses, but also is losing its credentials and reliability from the market. Around the same time, a big celebration is being planned in the lavish 'Pullmantur Sovereign Valleta' cruise liner for Kamal and Neelam Mehra in lieu of their 30th wedding anniversary. Being firm opportunists, Kamal and Neelam grab this opportunity with both their hands and convert this event into a matchmaking event between Kabir Mehra and Noori Sood (Ridhima Sud), the only daughter of Lalit Sood (Parmeet Sethi). The Mehras firmly believe that if their 'plan' works out, then, AYKA can be easily bailed out of financial losses by the 'Mr. Moneybags' Lalit. But, what happens on the cruise is out of anyone's imagination. While Kabir falls madly in love with the London based 'Muslim' artiste Farah Ali (Anushka Sharma), Ayesha realizes that she cannot pretend to love her dominating and egoistic husband Manav (Rahul Bose) because she finds her true love in the journalist Sunny Gill (Farhan Akhtar). Besides this, there are many other dirty linens that gets washed in public. Do the Mehras become successful in their plan of saving AYKA by marrying off their son to the rich Soods, does Kabir marry Farah Ali or Sood's only daughter Noorie, does Ayesha come out of the failed marriage and what 'role' does Pluto Mehra play in the whole family drama is what forms the rest of the movie. 

 

If Zoya wanted to show that private jets and Prada bags cannot guarantee a blissful life, she has done it in a commendably effective way in 'Dil Dhadakne Do' and the cast successfully translates this on the silver screen. Kapoor as Kamal Mehra is truly a joy to watch and despite being a fan of his 'tapori' roles, this reviewer could not help but think that this might be one of Anil's best roles in a long time. Shefali Shah is a superb actress, was proved way back when she had starred in 'Satya' and the actress simply takes your breath away with her talent when she evokes sympathy and scorn in equal measures as the neglected wife, who can be too cold in her practicality.

 

Ranveer, who has made a career out of playing the self-confident brat, is another pleasant surprise. Kabir is humble and unsure but supportive when it comes to his sister and Ranveer does a bang on job in his role while Priyanka adds another feather to her cap with this movie as the nervous Ayesha, whose life seems to be closing in on her. Farhan and Anushka do not get much screen time, but they provide able support to the story.

 

With 'Dil Dhadakne Do', Zoya shows the ugliness and pain of high society that lies beneath the practiced smiles and stiff upper lips. In spite of being an ensemble cast, Zoya does justice to each and every character and comes up with an entertaining yet touching family drama that shines the light on certain bitter truths about Indian families. On the other side, the climax is quite expectable and the voice-over by Pluto, the family dog (Aamir Khan), gets too preachy to be amusing at times.

 

Overall, it is worthy to watch for performances and the Zoya’s direction.