Title Song Kahan Hai?

My decision to watch a movie or not mainly depends on its trailers and only partly on the cast. I believe that the cast does not make much of a difference to the movie. It is mostly the plot and other works which attracts me. So when I watched the trailer of Dil Dhadakne Do, I was very excited about the movie. The trailer did let out a little part of the story; wait, most of the story. Yet, I was excited.

Reading the reviews in most of the newspapers and other online websites, I was disheartened to see that the movie was not as good as the trailer turned out to be. I decided to watch it anyway. When I looked at the poster outside the theatre which said that the movie was 170 minutes long, it somehow made me feel happy.

Most of us thought it would relate to Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Milengi Na Dobara, and the movie did turn out to be like that. It started with the introduction of the main characters – Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor), who plays as an industrialist patriarch, his wife Neelam Mehra (Shefali Shetty), their daughter Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra) who has an unhappy married life and their son Kabir (Ranveer Singh) who has been brought up to look after the family’s business but is instead interested in flying. It is only now you are told that the narration was done by another important member of the family, Pluto— the dog (in Aamir Khan’s voice).

The family decides to celebrate Kamal’s and Neelam’s 30^th wedding anniversary on a cruise for two weeks. The couple however is in an unhappy relationship and only worry about how to improve their business. They wish to set up their son with the daughter of their long lost enemy to accomplish this. Ayesha, however, decides to go through with the divorce and falls in love with her childhood friend, Sunny (Farhan Akhtar). Kabir adds another person to this madness, Farah (Anushka Sharma) who works as a dancer in the cruise, and who he falls madly in love with.

It felt like a few characters were necessary but not as important as the director has portrayed. This is mainly because of their performance.

The most appealing thing in the movie is the bond between the sister and the brother. Kabir no matter what, is on Ayesha’s side. And at one point he even makes her think about the divorce seriously and supports her the most. Actually, of all the characters, I loved Kabir because he was the only one who tried solving most of the problems. He had to deal with his parents, his love, his sister and finally he’s the one to unite the family. “Yeh hi toh problem hai! Koi asli baat nahi karna chahtha hai!!” he exclaims in the last 30 minutes when there is a sudden realization among everyone.

I was constantly looking for the title song, but it was not played in the movie or along with the credits at the end. This is something which I found very different from the other Bollywood movies. However, this song was a hit during the promo and is famous on all music channels.

The movie ends with Kabir managing to unite the family by jumping into the sea to find Farah who was fired from work. Before this happens, Kabir mentions to his dad that he was the lifeboat. Hence, Kamal and the whole family get on to a life boat to save Kabir.

It’s assumed that Kabir is dropped off at the shore and it’s also clear that this trip changed their relationships with each other for the better. It leaves the rest to the audience’s imagination, and ends on a good note stressing on how conversation is a key aspect and how family comes first.