Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Dhadak - goodish but unSairatful


When I had watched Sairat, I couldn’t get it out of my head for a week – the story, the songs, the ending! Sridevi has been my all-time favorite actress. So my intention of watching Dhadak was two-fold – to relive Sairat and to find Sridevi (and then we complain of nepotism). It is hard to give an unbiased review of the movie, after being such an ardent fan of the original. So pardon me if I sound like the annoying mom who compares her two children, even when she knows she shouldn't.

The story about star-crossed lovers is not new in Hindi cinema – from Ek duje ke liye to QSQT. It generally offers a good launching pad for debutants too as it makes the viewer go “awwww” and fall in love with them. In Dhadak we have the rich upper caste, Parthavi (Janhavi Kapoor) and middle class lower caste, Madhu (Ishan Khatter) in a love story going wrong for the wrong reasons – caste! The setup, Dharma style is more opulent compared to Manjule’s simple setting - a lavish Udaipur resort here instead of a ‘wada’ (haveli) in a village. I don’t think that hampered the story that much. Some of the aerial shots of the Udaipur are fascinating yet I missed the simplicity in the scenes from Sairat – with the fishing net falling into the lake in slow motion or the flock of birds flying in the distance and Parshya running in the sugarcane fields.

The cast derives praise – especially Ishaan. Fifteen minutes into the film I had forgotten about Parshya and was involved in Madhu’s story. His boyish charm parallels Parshya’s. Parthavi however lacked the spunk of Archi. The loveable haughtiness in Archi is way above Parthavi’s. I went to find Sridevi but ended up searching for Archi – alas she wasn’t there. Parthavi however shines in the post interval drama when she seems to be at ease playing the lover who’s matured too soon thanks to circumstances. Ashutosh Rana as her father and a hard-core politician plays the part of tough, strict father with ease. I missed Parshya’s friends though. Madhu has two best friends too but I missed Sallya and Langdya.

The songs, sorry to say, are no comparison. The music is the same, but the lyrics seem to be stretched and twisted and then stretched a little more, just so they could fit the music losing the naturality of the original songs. The lyrics “pehali baar hain pehali baar hain ji” are no comparison to “yaad laagla yaad lagla ra” the “ji” forced in comparison to the natural “ra”. To compare the cult song Jhingaat (my heart cringes every time a non-Maharashtrian calls it the ‘Zingaat song’. It’s Jhingaat!), I loved the dab step but again the lyrics fail. The title song however is soft and hummable.

One of the highlights of Sairat was the ending. Towards the very end the name ‘Dhadak’ starts making sense as you feel your heart palpitating at twice the rate. It’s like sitting on a roller coaster the second time. You know there is a deep plunge coming up after the climb to the climax, because you have already experienced it once, yet in your heart you hope this would be different; happier. Happy or sad I shall not say as it would be a spoiler - all I will say is this ending is equally ‘impactful’! You'll know what I mean after you see it!

All in all, Dhadak is a good film. I am glad a Marathi film that I loved so much is reaching a larger audience. If you live outside India, and can’t lay your hands on Alphanso, you eat the next best mango available – say Kesar, right? Dhadak is that Kesar for the non-Maharashtrian crowd who couldn’t feast on the Alphonso.

Rating:
For those who have watched Sairat: 2.5
For those who haven’t watched Sairat: 3.5