Dhadak Review: A not so conventional love story that sends chills in the END

My Verdict -  Watch Dhadak as a standalone film and not as a remake; it shines like gold! The Direction/Screenplay could have been way better - 

3 out of 5 Stars!

Unlike Nagraj Manjule’s rustic and realistic 2016 filmization, Shashank Khaitan’s Dhadak caters more to the urban audience, which is why it doesn’t seem like a deliberate, flat-out rewrite! Khaitan who has also written the screenplay for the film turns the austere story of love and destruction into an innocuous fairy tale about the shining power of puppy love, set in an insulated universe where head on collisions result in a few artfully placed bruises and class differences arise merely to test the resilience of youthful affection. Well at least till the first half, in the second half things turn a bit awry. The situation grim and the characters go berserk!

In a bid to be different from the original, this sugary confection which turns morbid only towards the end is very carefully carved, so much so that it turns quite bland (well, just at times). The pan-India audiences have been kept in mind, because a story of this sort hasn’t really seen the light of day for eons now especially in the mainstream Bollywood repertoire. The makers seem to be well aware that the feel good factor is one of the few reasons for the viewers of today to swallow a film!

Quite like Parshya, Madhukar Bagla (Ishaan Khattar) may be the politest, kindest, most well-adjusted teen in the cinema history. Of course he is also cute, (we are not made aware of his I.Q.) and extremely popular (at least within his own circle), but all of this not without his faults which become glaring during times of adversity - his distrustful nature and insecurities come to the forefront and gives rise to conflicts which could have been easily evaded!  He has secretly carried a torch for the doe-eyed beauty Parthvi (Jahnvi Kapoor) but has never spoken to her- not for anything else but for the fear of plain rejection!

Once the ice is melted, though, things proceed apace and the two are soon inseparable, tastefully and quasi-chastely kissing away in a secluded car amidst the forest. Yet one major obstacle threatens their love’s endlessness: Jahnvi’s father Ratan Singh’s high caste stature and her familial background which looks down on the low caste Madhukar and resents any attempt to distract her from assuming a place in the long line of political genealogy.

For finally, Dhadak is less about the hand-holding pair and their music driven montages of carefree bliss and the verdant greenery of pristine foreign locales than it is about clans, generations and lineage! (Just like the original)

In Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) and the second installment of the franchise Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), Khaitaan proved himself quite skilled, if not specially innovative at limning his characters’ emotional travails. And in this one, the slightest modicum of realism occasionally eludes him. His teenagers are as they should be at times obnoxious and at times well-behaved; they dance as though in a fit which could be equated with rowdiness but at the same time, a bowl full of Mithai and another with Ghewar (one kind of Rajasthani sweet) and another with green chillies cannot be gulped by even the most super-human-being as Madhukar does in the opening scene, with an ease that is incomparable with anything for that matter. We are also left to wonder, how the ‘Bhowmicks’ (a surname which belongs to Kayasthas in Bengal and is very much Hindu) practice Christianity and pay regular visit to the church! Well Parthvi is quite the lass who knows how to ride a bike and is quite brash - but is that a justification for the fact that she can also fire a gunshot? If a teenage girl knows how to ride a bike, doesn’t mean she will be adept in firing bullets from the gun! The Marvari accent which should have been stressed upon disappoints as well.

Jahnvi’s Parthvi is at once sweet, beautiful and at once brazen and bold just like Archie (Rinku Rajjguru). The girl looks like a rose in every frame. If not throughout, flashes of her mother’s countenance appear when she cries or just walks down in slow-mo! She has a long way to go, she is here to stay! Her emotional scenes bear the stamp of her mother. (It would be a tad bit unfair to compare her maiden venture with the seasoned repertoire of her maestro mother though, but one just can’t help doing just that.) She is good on her own and does have the capability to shine like a star in the Bolly-firmament. Her lips quiver when angry or melancholic, her eyes well up when emotions get the better of her and she bites her lips when she wants to seduce, she literally has everything that takes to make a star!

Ishaan was too good throughout, but his performance could have been way better. It was the script that was a letdown (just a wee bit). His eyes speak volumes in every scene. A special mention to one scene where, he and his friends escape from the clutches of Jahnvi’s father after their first kiss. His expressions were goose flesh inducing or when he is fuming with anger on Jahnvi after he falsely implicates her of having an affair with her boss. He is a natural! His big squirrel eyes do all the talking and that is more than laudable! He made one thing clear right from his very first film, he is an actor in his own league. He is what we say in Hindi (Ek Lambi Race Ka Ghoda)

Ashutosh Rana doesn’t really have much screen time but whenever he is onscreen, he works his magic. Those big bagged peepers scare the shit out of his daughter whenever he reprimands her in a harsh tone!

Ankit Bisht who plays Gokul, Madhukar’s friend was pretty impressive and so was the dwarfed Purshottam played by Shridhar Watsar. The comic element that was brought out mostly by the latter seem to be borderline silly.

Airbrushed-looking lensing by Vishnu Rao, that captured the beauty of Rajasthan from  the Lake Palace to the pristine Pichola and a sweepingly romantic score composed by Ajay-Atul round out the saccharine bill. It was in one-word mesmerizing. But at times when the music was reminiscent of ‘Sairaat’, the lyrics seemed to be a bit too stuffed. Having said that, ‘Marhami Sa’ was was soulful as could be.

All in all, if you watch Sairaat and then go to watch the film, we bet you won’t like it one bit because you will tend to go back to the original which is sacrosanct! However, if you watch Dhadak as a standalone film, you will be more than pleased and satisfied. The new faces would seem to you like a whiff of fresh air and the shock at the ending will leave your nerves wracked and just like in the film utter silence will ensue!