Movie Review of Dhil Dhadakne Do by Zoya Akhthar

Dil Dhadakne Do, directed by Zoya Akhthar is an honest portrayal of the emotional turmoil of the members of a super-rich family, which outbursts in various forms as the family goes on a cruise to celebrate the 30^th wedding anniversary of ‘the Mehras’ couple. How the family reconciles and re-discover the long lost bonding is what the movie is all about.

The Mehra couple (played by Anil Kapoor and Shefali Shah) has 2 children- Ayesha(Priyanka Chopra) Kabir (Ranveer Singh). Like in a typical Indian family, it is Kamal (Anil) who decides what is best for each of his kids. While he marries off Ayesha, a budding self-made entrepreneur , to Manav (Rahul Bose), he tries nurturing Kabir into a businessman hoping that he would take the reins from him in the future. Kabir, however, has little interest in running his dad’s business but has his passion elsewhere. Neelam (Shefali) is a disgruntled housewife who manages to stay cheerful, despite being at the receiving end of the insults and betrayals inflicted by Kamal. The family has a pet dog named Pluto, which according to me is the most entertaining character in the film as it offers its perception, with a sarcastic tone, about eccentricities of human nature. Aamir Khan has voiced over for this character, making it more likeable!!

The Mehras decides to throw a big party to celebrate their 30^th wedding anniversary by taking their friends and families through a cruise. During the cruise, Kabir meets Farah (Anushka Sharma) and he falls in love with her at first sight. Zoya subtly showcases two different kinds of women in the movie- one, who succumbs to the situation and blames the circumstance for their plight; the other, who overcomes all odds with conviction and marches on their chosen journey. While Ayesha and Neelam fall under the first category, Farah belongs to the second. Rightly so, Kabir calls her ‘Fearless Farah’. Meanwhile, Neelam and Kamal plan to get Kabir hitched with their arch rival’s daughter, Noorie, due to vested business interests. Both Kabir and Noorie ,however, are not interested in each other.

On the other hand, Ayesha is undergoing a troublesome married life and her mother ignores her feelings as mere rants and brushes aside stating that all marriages have problems and one should learn to live with them. Enter Sunny (Farhan), Ayesha’s ex, who joins the cruise at his father’s request, Ayesha’s feelings for him gets re-kindled. How Ayesha musters up courage to speak up her mind to her parents and her husband will make the viewers, too, to introspect on their relationships.

Zoya has also captured the sibling bonding quite well, with Kabir and Ayesha emotionally backing up each other in times of need, leaving the viewers wanting for such relationships in their lives as well. As with all suppressed emotions which would eventually find its vent, Kabir takes it out on his parents and blames his mom too for covering it all up to portray the picture of a happy family before the society. The scene which lasts for almost 5-6 minutes is the soul of this movie and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ranveer Singh has nailed this scene.  What Kamal does to salvage his family is what the readers will get to know in the climax.

Overall, this is an ordinary story, which every family could relate to but the depth of the dialogues, screenplay, top notch cast and profound perceptions of Pluto make this movie a very delightful one to watch and relish. If I could cite one such observation that Pluto makes, it would be when Kabir and Farah undergo a temporary break up due to miscommunication and the summary of the observation is that humans don’t share their feelings to fellow humans when they are together and they think of all things that were unsaid when the other person is not with them and spends the rest of their life repenting for not doing so. This movie has also got powerful message to the parents, kids and couples on important traits of letting go, being open minded about kid's choices and  the importance of caring, supporting and respecting your life partner's choices and feelings.