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Film review: Dilwale (Rohit Shetty 2015 Hindi)

#Dilwale2015 #spoilers_alert #SRK-Kajol #Rohit_Shetty

Yet another celluloid battle of Bollywood has begun yesterday. Not that the battle matters as much as the films, yet I hope its a win-win for both the giants. Being a simultaneous SRK-SLB admirer it became quite a conundrum to choose my point of entry into this battle. Finally, Dilwale it was.   

So let it be made plain, as might have already come to your knowledge, that Dilwale is no great stuff. At best it leaves you with a light-headed, feel good vibe (like most other Rohit Shetty entertainers); at worst its just another pass-time movie with a staggering budget of about INR 100 crores - almost comparable to the largesse of SLB's Bajirao Mastani. So what does Dilwale accomplish with that kind of money? Cars, lots of cars and a bunch of superstars. Big cars. SRK-Kajol. Shining cars. Sanjay Mishra, Pankaj Tripathi and Mukesh Tiwari. Vintage cars. Vinod Khanna and Kabir Bedi. Latest cars. Varun-Kriti. Modified cars. Fast moving cars. Slo-mo cars. Okay, so that's enough about cars and stars. 

What else do we have?? At the heart of this film are two love stories caught on the opposite sides of a mob/mafia rivalry - and this is where the film becomes somewhat interesting in the first half - that begins somewhere in Bulgaria and finds its closure in India, after hibernating for fifteen years! Goooood...: history does tell us rivalries take their time to heal and end. Cars zoom, explode and shatter spectacularly on the clean tarmac of Bulgaria after love blossoms with the help of VFX-loaded breath-taking cinematography of the foreign locales. Undoubtedly, that twist in the tale at the end of first half with SRK-Kajol doing their 'thing' - really formed the crescendo of the narrative. But, once the twist unveils at the end of the first ninety minutes, everything becomes flat.

However, there is ample amount of drama and humour dished out in the movie to fulfill the love stories. Shetty chooses the way of humour (a hilarious Ramlal-Pogo backstory) to let us know Veer (Varun) can get to stay with his 'Ishu' (Kriti) provided they reconcile Meera (Kajol) and Kaali (SRK). Dhawan's act to labour for his love (Sanon) ( Thumbs Up for Varun! Kriti looks stunning but gets little to do.) is endearing but interspersed with assistance from the talents of Sanjay 'Masaan' Mishra (with a make-over!!), Mukesh 'Gangaajal' Tiwari and Pankaj 'Wasseypur' Tripathi, and Johnny Lever (whose antics do keep you involved in the movie's second half). Sadly, just upping the humour quotient and too little action do not add up very well to make it believable enough as a story of characters who claim - in the film's own words - "We were Mafia" !! Perhaps, in its attempt to incorporate a little bit of everything - romance, comedy, drama, action -  the film ends up lacking something on all fronts.

The film could have offered a more immersive experience if 'Rohit Shetty and Team' could have taken that lovers-caught-on-opposite-sides-of-a-mafia-war plot to the next level by giving more ingenuity to the characters played by Mukesh Tiwari, Pankaj Tripathi and Nawab Shah (who plays Raghav) as well as the stalwart-romantic pair of SRK-Kajol and employing more spectacular albeit meaningful action sequences and dramatic complexity in the second half. And you will know why one is saying this, after you have witnessed the mafia-vengeance overshadow the glossy romance in the first half. Why could the film not have offered a much deeper exploration of the SRK-Kajol magic in their arch-rivals mode rather than the tried-and-tested separated-lovers mode? The director could also have experimented with the narrative structure rather than just giving away everything in one long flashback and leaving nothing for the remainder of the story. Why could this not have been an action-romance-drama rather than a Welcome-ish comedy-drama? And we have seen the director's ability in the action genre - films such as the nationalism-infused Zameen (2003) and anti-corruption Singham (2011) are among his better efforts till date, if one excludes his work in the comedy genre. 

So much potential in the cast and production of this film and yet, probably, Dilwale's feel-good comic vibe might end up breaking the audience's heart.  

Comments

  1. DIVAna.....20 December 2015 at 09:57

    Try becoming a pro buddy...better Taran Adarsh's paid one :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. cinénomad22 December 2015 at 07:24

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. cinénomad22 December 2015 at 07:26

      Thanks for spending the time to read. :)

      Delete
  2. DIVAna.....20 December 2015 at 09:57

    Try becoming a pro buddy...better Taran Adarsh's paid one :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. iwisssh.blogspot.com22 December 2015 at 05:20

    Very well written review, Abhishek.

    ReplyDelete

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