Dil Dhadakne Do (5 Jun 2015)

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Parmeet Sethi, Rahul Bose, Zarina Wahab, Ridhima Sud, Vikrant Massey

Director: Zoya Akhtar   Story & Screenplay: Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti   Dialogue: Farhan Akhtar

Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy   Cinematography: Carlos Catalan   Casting: Nandini Shrikent

Duration: 170 minutes

For unperturbed existence, a society requires steadiness, which requires discipline, which gives birth to a list of dos and don’ts, which become unnecessary rigid and complex with time, as people start misusing them to suit their personal objectives and/or hide their personal shortcomings. Resultantly, these so called social rules and diktats give way to a perturbed society, which functions like a robot i.e. without any heart. Life becomes all about never ending materialistic gains, small time personal goals and jazzy & fake public appearances, whereas, it should be about strong and giving relationships, unconditional personal freedom and eternal true love. This is what the movie urges via both it’s screenplay and title ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’, meaning to say that the society needs to switch from the dead beat robot mode to the heart beating human mode.

Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor), a Delhi based business magnate, decides to celebrate his 30^th wedding anniversary with full grandeur, on a cruise ship to Greece and Turkey, along with his family, friends and business associates. And thus, the luxury ship is boarded by him, his wife Neelam (Shefali Shah), son Kabir (Ranveer Singh), daughter Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra), her husband (Rahul Bose) and mother-in-law (Zarina Wahab). They are accompanied by - Kamal’s younger brother’s family, Kamal’s company manager, Neelam’s full-of-gossip girlfriends and others.

As expected, all host appearances are fake and they gradually unravel. Beneath the champagne glasses, lavish buffets and content Mehras, lie – a bankrupt Kamal, who pops pills even to digest the cruise’s lavish bills, a lonely and on-the-edge Neelam, a trapped in unhappy marriage Ayesha and a confused Kabir, who is highly expected to, but has zero interest and ability to take up his father’s business!

Sood (Parmeet Sethi) and family were earlier uninvited, as they happen to be family foes with one of Mehra’s existing guests on the cruise. But if Sood’s left-at-the-altar daughter (Ridhima Sud) gets engaged with Kabir, then Sood will not think twice before investing in Mehra’s sinking company, thereby making it profitable. What better way than a cruise to let the two kids meet and gel? Keeping this in mind, the last minute invitations were sent to the Soods.

However, Sood’s daughter ends up falling in love with the aforesaid family foes’s son (Vikrant Massey)! Kabir, the supposedly trump-card son ends up falling in love with Farah Ali (Anushka Shetty), the lead dancer of a dance group on the cruise! Kamal’s company manager’s son, Sunny Gill (Farhan Akhtar) joins them midway, and he turns out to be Ayesha’s ex-flame (re-kindled)!

In short, gradually things get topsy turvey for conservative and upper class Kamal and Neelam Mehra, whose prime objective in life is to appear prosperous and well settled in the eyes of the society. The movie gradually unfolds myriad confusions, confrontations and eventually right actions.

‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ is a wisely made movie, depicting the problems and dilemmas of the Indian upper class, with the backdrop of a cruise liner and a comical approach. This saves the film from being corny and boring. Ugly lines of frustration are well hidden by well toned bodies, designer wear and smart dialogues.

It’s an effective satire on – gender bias, social ridicules in the name of culture, and, use of children as business deal bait. Like – post marriage, Ayesha sold her jewels to start an online portal ‘Musafir’, and turned it into a successful mega operation. But still she is discouraged from doing business talks at the food table by her mother-in-law. Her husband feels elated that he has ‘allowed’ her to do her own business. Her father is dismissive about her achievement. Rather, he waits for the day when she will make him a grandfather; the Mehra couple blast their children for seeking/supporting divorce. They term them uncultured, while Kamal Mehra’s infidelity trips in the garb of business trips are quite an open secret, and his wife still chooses to stay with him, simply because she has nowhere else to go; and, Kabir is pressurized to get a scene going with Sood’s daughter, so as to revive the family business.

By now it’s well established that, the Zoya-Reema duo’s cinematic offering is sure to be heartfelt, original and well crafted, very much like a la Aamir Khan, who also happens to have lent his voice to the narrator of the movie, Pluto Mehra, the pet dog. They duo were pretty good with their last and second film (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara), but they are brilliant with their current and third endeavor. While the former could only touch base with the upper class metro youth, the latter touches the Indian pulse. Zoya Akhtar, the director  captures the settings and emotion of upper class urban India, like Anurag Kashyap does the same with rustic rural India (Gangs Of Wasseypur). Also, she well handles the presence of multi star and supporting cast.

This is one of the best roles essayed by Anil Kapoor till date. He lives and breathes the role of a super rich business class Punjabi family patriarch. His appearance, dialogue delivery, pauses, and reactions are just perfect. The scene in which he stands up for his daughter and catches Rahul Bose by the neck, requires years of acting and passion for acting. Shefali Shah has matched him very well. Be it anger, frustration, or curt wife-type responses, she is bang-on in all the scenes. A steely scene between Priyanka and herself, enacted at a ‘hamam’ (Turkish bathhouse), is again a difficult one to crack. In the movie, Priyanka has the best defined character. In most of the scenes, she is required to play the submissive one, and she has played that well. It’s a welcome change from the usual robust and hero like Priyanka. Ranveer Singh is very natural and brings most of the comic relief. His pun filled soliloquy after a vomit scene is a treat to watch. Priyanka and Ranveer look very natural as brother and sister. Anushka Sharma has an extended cameo. Out of the three songs, she performs cabaret-cum-ballet dance on one, an impromptu jig on another, and shines in both. In fact in the former number, her body language, kind of reminds you of Catherine Zeta-Jones in ‘Chicago’ (2002). It’s a difficult dance that requires lot of speed and abundant grace, and she has managed to strike the right balance. Rahul Bose has a small role. For a change, he has also attempted quite opposite of what he has played till date i.e. the middle class submissive metro guy. Here, his character is rich, rigid and conservative. Almost everyone has looked well and acted well. Costume Designing is quite in tune with the characterizations. Casting is also apt. There is striking feature resemblance between Shefali & Priyanka and Anil & Ranveer. Cinematography is also good. There are lot of aerial angles, which well capture the Mediterranean sea region and charming Turkish locales.

Last but not the least, it’s an almost three hour long movie, and you don’t feel bored for a single minute. This really calls for a round of champagne.