Of "Dil Dhadkne Do", the movie

#DilDhadakneDo This is #ZoyaAkhtar's third outing as a Director. the first film, Luck By Chance, bombed, perhaps because it was too close to reality. Having learnt her lessons from that Akhtar has taken to making movies wrapped in Candy floss, #ZingadinaMilegiDobara, was such, so beautiful that  Hrithik Roshan was only the fourth or fifth most beautiful thing on screen, pure fantasy. One small road trip with best buddies is all it takes to teach you to seize the day, gaze at the stars, have lots of great sex, mend relationships, and have all manner of life-altering epiphanies. the film, wrapped in golden tissue, came to all its realizations amidst tremendous beauty,it looked like a travel brochure for Spain, this one , similar on all the above, is a brochure for Turkey and Greece!! It takes its title from the song that played over the opening credits of Zindagi, and like that film, this, too, is a road movie –rather, a sea movie. A super-rich Punjabi patriarch – Kamal Mehra (#AnilKapoor) – and his wife Neelam (Shefali Shah) invite family and friends on a cruise to Turkey and Greece to celebrate their thirtieth wedding anniversary. As with Zindagi, the metaphors write themselves. Families are like a cruise – you’re stuck with the same people. Sometimes, the voyage is choppy. Sometimes there are clear skies. You may find yourself adrift, but, at the end of the day (not to mention #Ranveer Singh) in a spot of trouble during a business presentation, and he jumps in to save Kabir. There’s an echo of this at the end – Kamal literally jumps in to save Kabir. Some people learn screenwriting from Syd Field. Zoya Akhtar appears to have learnt the craft from a shoelace. Everything crisscrosses and loops around just so, in neat little bows. This is essentially an update of a 1960s family melodrama. It’s all here – the line about how, after marriage, beti parayi ho gayi; the concern over log kya kahenge when they hear about a divorce; the mangni toot gayi tragedy; a father’s expectation that his daughter should gift him a grandson; the rich girl falling in love with her father’s manager ka beta… These tropes are refracted through a soap-opera prism, and staged with an emphasis on setting and character that those older films did not bother too much with. Neelam, for instance, is a stress eater – she worries about her weight and is often seen in front of mirrors. Kabir likes to fly. Kabir’s brother-in-law Manav (an ill-fitting Rahul Bose; just wait till you see him attempt a wolf whistle in a song, but then perhaps that is the point, he is ill fitting, with the rest of the glossy family) – he’s married to Kabir’s sister Ayesha (#Priyanka Chopra) – is a mama’s boy. Mama, meanwhile, keeps announcing that she’s suffering – from vertigo, from asthma, from arthritis. And the family pet, a bullmastiff named Pluto Mehra, likes to dispense trite observations in Aamir Khan’s voice, neon-highlighting the goings-on. Maybe this is Akhtar acknowledging that Khan is the industry’s top dog. On paper, this is a can’t-go-wrong situation. An ensemble cast of good-looking stars, many of them good actors. A director who has the most exquisite taste. And a complicit audience, aware that this is one of those times we are at the doctor’s reception room and, after a cursory glance at the magazines, are going to choose People over The Caravan. Akhtar thinks in English, and has that aesthetic . Each time someone has to say 'what was that' we hear 'woh kya tha', Kamal hears of Kabir’s relationship with Noorie (Ridhima Sud) and asks, “Tumhaare iraade kya hain?” It’s an American father from the fifties asking, “What are your intentions, young man?” Couldn’t he just say something like “Us ladki ke saath tum kya kar rahe ho?” Elsewhere, from a broken-hearted Noorie, we get this gem: “Mera fiancé ne mujhe mandap pe chhod diya.” Oh no, sweetheart. You’d have said you got dumped. After a while, it’s easy enough to overlook this, ( though it does go to the very end, asked if he'd wait for her(Ayesha), Sunny says,hamesha hamesha ke liye, he's thinking 'forever and ever of course!) – it is what it is. Dil Dhadakne Do is like entering a five-star hotel. The outside noise disappears. It’s all very hush-hush. it may seem farcical, terribly upper class, devoid of all outside noise,removed from the dross of the real world,but there are no pretenses to be otherwise, and it does nuance the peculiar issues of the super rich. It's a bit too neat though,every problem is a cliché. Every outcome is preordained. And there are too many characters with too little to do. Son wants to step out of domineering dad’s shadow, daughter wants to end an unhappy marriage, and so forth. Had any one of these issues been stretched to movie length, it may have been affecting, but with Akhtar directing with a finger on the fast-forward button, there’s nothing and no one to care about. Yes, this is a light film and not really a drama, – except the ones that involve Kabir; Ranveer Singh is a lot of fun to watch,essaying his part with aplomb –  I liked the subplot with Ayesha, who’s a fascinating character. She’s an achiever, but her successes haven’t given her much confidence, probably because she’s been so undermined all her life. There’s a great scene where she pushes Manav away in bed and then feels sorry (or guilty; or maybe both) and reaches out to him again. These terrific shadings deserve a life-size portrait. We get a picture postcard.we get to see the travails of a real woman caught between two worlds, unable to be completely in either, till such time as she has her own epiphany, and ofcourse she has one. There's a lesson in empowerment there, as also with Farha's (#Anushka Sharma) character.The contrast with the mother, who has no where to go, and therefore stays with a philandering husband, pretending all is hunky dory, is poignant. The parts with Kabir and Farha  have some zing. I loved the cut to Ayesha’s face when Kabir tells his parents about Farha. You expect a cut to their horrified faces. But here, we see Ayesha thinking, Dude, did you just say what I think you said? It’s nice to see Anil Kapoor’s eighties-style intensity bounce off Farhan Akhtar’s two-decades-later nonchalance. The latter plays a Caravan-style journalist named Sunny, who’s slightly bemused in the midst of all these people. I wanted more of him, indeed I loved him and his blithe elegance.No wonder he  is the one who gets kissed,  Priyanka, Ranvir, sundry Aunties and the bullmastiff all get a lick !!! It's an 'all's well that ends well' movie, common place little stories, woven into several characters, engagingly easy on the eyes. Can't fault it for anything other than the fact that there are too many stories being told in the space of the ten days of the Cruise and it seems fantastic that that much happens in so small a time capsule, and the climax is a little too contrived.the family had dad its moments and I thought Kabir ought to have chased after his lady love on his own, it was his moment, somewhat robbed by the inclusion of the clan. On a personal note,I am taking such a Cruise to the very same lands come September, just hoping all my issues are quick fixed too !!!  ;) Priyanka and Farhan also sing ..here goes, do take a listen. Vinny Jain 16/6/15