Such was the success of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, that Zoya Akhtar's third directorial venture became one of the most anticipated films of the year. Months of waiting for another great cinema experience that touches upon existential problems of the crème de la crème of Indian society, telling us once again, that having money does not lead to a happy life (a much needed truth in this country), finally came to an end on June 5th. Too bad that it had to end in disappointment.
Dil Dhadakne Do is the story of a highly dysfunctional and obscenely wealthy Punjabi family from Delhi that belongs to an even more dysfunctional, not to mention highly regressive and patriarchal world. That right there could make one wonder whether this premise could even spawn a good Zoya Akhtar film. The answer, to put it concisely, is no.
What made Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara wonderful was its characters that felt like real people, simply because Zoya Akhtar knew these characters and the world they belonged to. On the other hand, Dil Dhadakne Do is a product of stark indifference to the tenet "write what you know," for Akhtar does not know these characters, and her knowledge of their world is superficial at best.
To make up for this, Akhtar has created a world that is part real, part Bollywood fantasy, because of which the characters, as is so typical of Bollywood films, exist in some sort of limbo between the world they're supposedly rooted in, and the light-Bollywood-dramedy realm, which superficially alters their very essence, leading to very inorganic situations and character graphs.
The dialogue, written by Farhan Akhtar, makes matters worse. In a bid to combine his father's brand of dialogue with a more contemporary style of speaking, he gets stuck in the same limbo as Zoya, due to the very same reason - he does not know how these characters are supposed to talk. In fact, it is transparent that the better scenes in the film are the ones that draw from the experiences of the writers, such as the scene where siblings Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra) and Kabir (Ranveer Singh) share a bowl of ice cream.
The film is packed with more characters and threads than Zoya Akhtar can handle, and there is an annoying feeling of characters disappearing for much longer than they should. Worse still, is its slow pace, because of which one often zones out. It also makes the film too long, so that the climax has to be heavily contrived and very rushed.
Shefali Shah, Ranveer Singh, and surprisingly, Priyanka Chopra, have delivered really good performances, which seem even better considering the mediocre dialogue and characterisations. Anushka Sharma also does well in her small role, and her sizzling chemistry with Ranveer Singh is probably the best thing about the film.
Despite all her talent, Zoya Akhtar has definitely bitten off more than she can chew this time around. Just like her brother, she is also a victim of the conditioning that Bollywood 'insiders' undergo, developing certain ideas about the sensibilities of the Hindi film audience, which leads them to juggle two worlds - the one that they inhabit, and the one that exists only in Bollywood films.
The juggle was not successful this time, and Akhtar dropped the ball. In setting out with a premise that belongs more in a Dibakar Bannerjee film than a Zoya Akhtar one, she ensured that the film would be muddled and confused. Trying to deal with matters like the entrenched patriarchy in Delhi's high society only made it worse, and one the most anticipated films of the year also turned out to be one of the most disappointing.
