Dil Dhadakne Do (Hindi)
Director: Zoya Akhtar
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Zoya and Farhan Akhtar are known to address the lives and troubles of the well-heeled.
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They also offer slice of life, but with them it is the slice of a buttered toast.
We are on a cruise trip which has been organised by Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor) to celebrate his 30 years of married life. But in fact, it is a façade to hide the imminent bankruptcy in business.
The millionaire father uses his son Kabir (Ranveer Singh), who is apparently reluctant to inherit the empire, as a pawn in a business deal and considers daughter Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra) a liability, despite knowing the fact that it is his daughter who has inherited his business acuAmen.
His son-in-law Manav (Rahul Bose) thinks that giving permission to the wife to set up her own business is a sign of gender equality.
Will Ayesha put up with a chauvinist in the garb of being practical like her mother (Shefali Shah) did all these years?
When an ex-flame Sunny (Farhan Akhtar) surfaces and Kabir finds an energy booster in Farah (Anushka Sharma), masks threaten to come off.
However, the idea of using a family pet as the anchor doesn’t really work.
Such an attempt merely oversimplifies a simple narrative.
One doesn’t need a thinking dog to elaborate on the nuance.
With his epistemological observations on human race, Pluto Mehra sounds like a wannabe Plato. And you don’t have to wait till the end credits to figure out that his monologues are written by Javed Akhtar.
After a point, they become irritating pointers undermining the perceptive power of the audience.
Aamir Khan’s voice doesn’t help the mastiff’s cause either.
It may not have been her original choice but Zoya’s ensemble cast keeps the narrative flowing even in choppy waters.
ANUJ KUMAR