Review by: Danish Lakdawalaa
We all know Shashank Khaitan’s Dhadak is remake of very recent Marathi hit Sairat and launches the star children (all hail to nepotism). I haven't seen Sairat, so for me, I experienced it as a standalone film. Set in the locales of Udaipur and Kolkata; Dhadak is a love story and revolves around a lower-class boy Ishaan (Madhu) who falls in love with an upper-class girl Jhanvi (Parthavi) and is about their struggles to be with each other.
First of all, the way class divide is depicted in the film is not convincing. Both their father's own a restaurant. Only because Jhanvi's dad has a political connection doesn't make Ishan's family appear middle class and just like this unconvincing class divide, as an audience you don't buy the whole love story . Screenplay lacks the required grip/pace and moves extremely slow. Imagine you have a longer runtime of a typical Bollywood film and yet you are not able to convince the audience that extreme love of the protagonists. Most of the scenes are stretched. The story hardly moves in the first half.
Anyway, for the love birds to be together, they have to elope and leave their city. The struggle of this high-class girl to adjust to this low-income life is the second half but due to Dharma production trademark treatment it looks caricatured. Director Shashank Khaitan takes the comfort route and ends up creating a 'sanitized version of a hard life’, typically how Karan Johar would define it in his films, which again isn't convincing. Washing clothes for the first time isn't such a big thing. I wish the director had explored more realistically and gave these scenes some depth. The culture shock faced by Parthavi is disappointing and unconvincing. We don't see the pair suffer and hence your emotional investment is less.
Cinematography was excellent but is pointless especially when the performances and narrative doesn't move you. Ishan tries hard to act and does a decent job. His performance combines maturity and subtlety but isn't perfect. Jhanvi's presence is refreshing however her dialogue delivery is too bad. Her expressions look plastic in parts. She lacks energy especially when her character demanded that. Her range appears limited. Music is also average apart from the famous Zingaat. Madhu's friends have not much to do. The short heighted guy makes the scenes appear foolish and is used for cliched deformity related humor. Ashutosh Rana does same thing that he's been doing for ages but that doesn't move you either. Because of all these issues, you don't end up feeling for the characters, story and the climax. This one's a half-baked film which leads to sheer disappointment and a waste of time. I go with 2 stars.
We all know Shashank Khaitan’s Dhadak is remake of very recent Marathi hit Sairat and launches the star children (all hail to nepotism). I haven't seen Sairat, so for me, I experienced it as a standalone film. Set in the locales of Udaipur and Kolkata; Dhadak is a love story and revolves around a lower-class boy Ishaan (Madhu) who falls in love with an upper-class girl Jhanvi (Parthavi) and is about their struggles to be with each other.
First of all, the way class divide is depicted in the film is not convincing. Both their father's own a restaurant. Only because Jhanvi's dad has a political connection doesn't make Ishan's family appear middle class and just like this unconvincing class divide, as an audience you don't buy the whole love story . Screenplay lacks the required grip/pace and moves extremely slow. Imagine you have a longer runtime of a typical Bollywood film and yet you are not able to convince the audience that extreme love of the protagonists. Most of the scenes are stretched. The story hardly moves in the first half.
Anyway, for the love birds to be together, they have to elope and leave their city. The struggle of this high-class girl to adjust to this low-income life is the second half but due to Dharma production trademark treatment it looks caricatured. Director Shashank Khaitan takes the comfort route and ends up creating a 'sanitized version of a hard life’, typically how Karan Johar would define it in his films, which again isn't convincing. Washing clothes for the first time isn't such a big thing. I wish the director had explored more realistically and gave these scenes some depth. The culture shock faced by Parthavi is disappointing and unconvincing. We don't see the pair suffer and hence your emotional investment is less.
Cinematography was excellent but is pointless especially when the performances and narrative doesn't move you. Ishan tries hard to act and does a decent job. His performance combines maturity and subtlety but isn't perfect. Jhanvi's presence is refreshing however her dialogue delivery is too bad. Her expressions look plastic in parts. She lacks energy especially when her character demanded that. Her range appears limited. Music is also average apart from the famous Zingaat. Madhu's friends have not much to do. The short heighted guy makes the scenes appear foolish and is used for cliched deformity related humor. Ashutosh Rana does same thing that he's been doing for ages but that doesn't move you either. Because of all these issues, you don't end up feeling for the characters, story and the climax. This one's a half-baked film which leads to sheer disappointment and a waste of time. I go with 2 stars.
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ReplyDeleteThe division between the two families is on the basis of caste system. Madhukar's family belongs to a lower caste. Because of this the problem arises and not for the financial status. The film represents a dark reality of some parts of India where honor killing took place because of marriage between different castes
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