If in case you were to watch Dhadak after having watched Sairaat- This is how you will FEEL

If it had to be Sairaat VS Dhadak - Sairaat WINS HANDS DOWN!!!

Well, after a lot of deliberation, I realised Shashank Khaitan’s Dhadak produced under the banner of Dharma Productions is one of those films that will get a lot of PAID POSITIVE REVIEWS, therefore an honest opinion is a must so that justice is meted out to the paying public!

We watch cinema for entertainment, for understanding a milieu better and for an escape that is more than necessary! Some films do all the three for you while some some want to make you escape the film itself!

That’s Dhadak for you! How much ever I try, I cannot escape the fact that the film is a remake of Nagraj Manjule’s Sairaat. That’s what it essentially is!

Sairaat was a masterpiece that gripped your very senses, you want to fall madly in love after watching the movie.

The smile that comes upon your lips watching Parshya (Akash Thosar) dancing madly amidst the sugarcane fields or blissfully lying on the swing against the backdrop of the serene lake upon realising his love for Archie (Rinku Rajguru) lingers all the while. It is real, it is raw!

On the contrary, when you see a Madhukar singing “How do I tell you, How much I love you” in his pathetic broken English, or spraying perfumes in all the nooks and crannies of his body to impress his girl Parthvi – makes you laugh. Not out of happiness or the innocence of love but because of the idiocy of whoever has even thought of the scene! You laugh so hard that tears of sorrow start trickling down your eyes! This sorrow stems from the pangs your heart and mind is ridden with because of your decision to watch the movie!

The very first scene in Sairaat is that of a tensed cricket match on which rests dignity of the entire village. Contrary to it, the food gulping competition in Rajasthan looks a FARCE! I mean, what kind of a super-human-ability will be required to eat a heaped bowl of Mithai, finish it all in a second, move on to two big ghee laden ‘Ghewars’ (A Rajasthani sweet) and then eat as many hot and burning green chillies as possible. Mind you - You must do it all when the competing parties are almost done with theirs. Guess what, Madhu (as he is affectionately called in the film) does it and emerges the winner - Slow claps!!!

Madhu is always with his other two aides – well, actually - pied ninnys! In Sairaat, Pradeep Bansode played Langdya, he just looked funny, perhaps because of his gait and his face as well but he was sensible enough and had an uncanny thought process in him. He was an integral part of the film. He managed to stir our hearts. Be it in the scene when he realises that the girl he desires, hates him because he is not good looking enough, he cries his heart out at first and then laughs it off and tells Parshya “It doesn’t matter if I don’t have a fair chance at love, I don’t deserve her, I will make sure you get Archie.” While in Dhadak, the character is pulled down to nothing but a caricature in the dwarfed friend who is as silly and stupid as a dodo! Imagine, the girl is making the phone call and they are dancing to just the ring of the phone instead of hurriedly answering it. Especially because they were waiting for it the entire night! HA HA HA – Well, that’s Shashank Khaitan’s idea of comedy for you!

In the scene where Parthvi’s brat brother slaps the professor for reprimanding him because of using the phone in the class is a BORE! The sheer build up of the scene, breaks the intensity down to pieces. And finally, when the professor is slapped, we are like “Thank god, it’s over and done with…Let’s proceed to the next scene!” On the contrary, the same scene in Sairaat was wonderfully written. The character was shown to be short (shorter than the professor), he had an expression that would make the audience believe, he would burst into tears after the chiding, but he breaks that thought process by slapping hard on the professor’s face! That’s what I call a jolt!

Should I even mention the dialogues in Dhadak? – “Mithai Pe Makkhi baithegi to Malaria Ho jaega, Arrey Pagal Malaria to Machchar se Hota hai”, and people are expected to laugh at such lines. Know what? People do laugh, they laugh at the sheer absurdity of the film! You can’t pass off idiocy as being funny or comedic!

Another aspect that led us to wonder is how the ‘Bhowmicks’, (a surname that is used by the Kayasthas in Bengal and who are very much Hindu), are shown to practice Christianity and pay regular visits to the church! Khaitan who was born in Kolkata doesn’t seem to know the metro city at all! The Rajasthani accent that the characters are supposed to be adept in becomes a huge minus point as well.

Coming to the performances, Ishaan does a good job but he could have done better. He has been let down big time by the bad direction and even worse screenplay! At times, where is the direction? I ask! The actors have been given the leeway to do whatever they want to, however they please. At least, that’s what it seemed like. And if that wasn’t the case and they were directed indeed, it was a pathetically shoddy job done! Jahnvi’s Parthvi just looked like a rose in every frame. Every guy would desire her. But the moment she utters any dialogue, lousiness takes over and things don’t quite reach the culmination. She lacks the zing of Manjule’s Archie (Rinku Rajguru). She did try, this was her first and she has a long way to go!  

Ajay-Atul’s music redo was impressive as long as the Hindi lyrics were unheard. The moment you hear the hindi lyrics, you are turned off and how! The Hindi lyrics sound as thought they have been stuffed into the music.

The hindi version of the ‘Zingaat’ number is another level JOKE! The carefully choreographed song in Dhadak is no match AT ALL to the randomness of the original version! Having said that, ‘Marhami Sa’ was serene!

The ending was EPIC! Don’t get me wrong, It was! Parthvi goes out to get sweets for her brothers waiting at home - leaving Madhu and her child with them. She makes the purchase and walks back; the audiences suddenly hear a Dull THUD and then utter silence! And after a long-drawn weird expression laden shot san the soundtrack, the camera is tilted to the ground, where we see Madhukar and her child lying dead in a pool of blood. Well, there was silence in the cinema hall. Out of shock! Because the kind of crap that was strewn all over throughout the movie finally ended abruptly and more than that, in a darkened cinema hall, if there is nothing playing on the screen, there will be no sound anyway.  After some time, we thank god for the ordeal to have ended! So, is the daughter is spared?! Or no? I wonder even more because, in one scene I clearly remember, Ratan Singh (Ashutosh Rana) who plays Jahnvi’s dad says point blank, when I find my daughter I am going to kill her. Does that really happen?

And the one liner in the end attributed the film to honour killing! Oh, I see! This was about honour killing and not the caste thingy! I get it! Absolutely! Oh wait, in the scene where Madhukar’s father warns him not to mingle with Parthvi, does he mention that she belongs to a higher caste?! I might be wrong in hearing that! HAHAHAHAH