Cinema is essentially a
medium to portray an artist’s thoughts with the use of motion pictures. And the
thoughts could either be radical or the simple ones, the little moments of the
daily life; which fail to get noticed due to their regularity.
So accordingly there are
stories that sway you into zones of wilderness and happiness, actors that
perform as if they were born to play that role and then there are moments,
which if captured can literally melt your hearts and involve you, for these are
the moments which are relatable and hence the connect of relativeness clicks
and it clicks well.
Dum Laga Ke Haisha, produced
by YRF is also the studio’s best offering since many years now. Far from the
glitzy and the flossy love stories which meander too much without any
substance, DLKH has its heart in the right place. The film remains true to
every emotion that it wanted every scene to generate. And for a love story,
that is half the battle won.
The script for once beamed
with novelty, the writing sparkled with freshness and the result turned out to
be some of the most heart warming visuals on celluloid.
The screenplay never for
once meandered along wayward lines but it left a lot of scope for myriad emotions
to develop as a result of any particular scene and that essentially was the
beauty of the film. It left the window open for the audience to develop their
emotion towards a particular event in the film and not be restricted to what
was being portrayed.
The cinematographer, to me,
performed the real magic for this film to be what it is. The lens brought out
Rishikesh on the 70mm curtain, the locals, their antics, their values and
themselves. A lot of credit must also be given to the casting director. Almost
the entire team of Aakhon Dekhi (one of the most beautiful films I have seen) appears
as the supporting cast, right from Sanjay Mishra to Seema Pahwa. With such a
bunch of actors and an honest story, you seldom go wrong, and DLKH does not.
As much as DLKH is about accepting
and acknowledging one’s own shortcomings, it is also about learning to live
with what you have got for there is nothing which can be achieved in totality. There
is always that tad bit left out.
Aayushman Khurana (Prem) is
brutally honest with his performance. To me he is a highly underrated actor. There
are scenes in which he outshines even 7 people in a frame, all mouthing
dialogues. He renders the emotions of fear, sadness, confusion, angst,
ignorance and pain with much ease. His transition from the high headed boy to
the man, who has practically nothing to justify his high headedness, is
portrayed through one beautiful scene. The scene where he finally accepts the
truth of his life is extremely well enacted.
Sanjay Mishra and Seema
Pahwa outshine a brilliant supporting cast with their own style of acting.
Sanjay Mishra in particular is adorable as Aayushman’s father and his scenes
with Aayushman evoke laughter.
But rest assured folks;
Bhoomi Pednekar (Sandhya) is the real hero here. She performs with an
infectious energy and carries a vibe throughout the film. Her straight forward
character is a perfect counter to that of Aayushman’s and it is amazing to see
the confidence with which she has lived this role. Her dreams and ambitions are
a contrast to the life of Aayushman, dictated by his father all along. She sees
nothing wrong with herself (which her husband does) despite being fat for she
has genuine respect for the relation unlike Aayushman who was again dictated
into getting married.
For a debutant actress to
perform such range of emotions is no mean task and Bhoomi performs her part as
a champion. Despite there being refreshing dialogues, a lot is said in through
the silence between the lead pair. Take my vote already for Bhoomi Pednekar as
the Best Actress this season.
The director set up his
premise in the 90’s and manages to present it as is on the screen. Right from
the script to the performances to the flow of the film, he seemed to be in
total command and never for once let the film delve on loose ends for he left
none. It did not appear to be a debut effort at all. But his biggest
achievement lies in the fact that he managed to maintain a smile on the audiences
faces for the entire duration of the film.
You could not imagine a film in the 90’s
decade in Bollywood without a Kumar Sanu song. The signature Lata Mangeshkar aalap which comes up along with the YRF
logo got smartly replaced with that of Sanu’s, sufficient enough to transport
the audience into the 90’s for his voice still has the ability to define the
decade that the 90’s was.
All said and done, the
message from the film is fairly a simple one but we being humans, skip out the
simple part with much simplicity and maroon ourselves into finding simplicity
again.
Marriage is but a cassette,
the environment, a tape recorder. There are
ought to be glitches but a drop of glue here and there and a bit of patience and
the will to make things work will surely bring a clumsy cassette back to life. The
music will play, melodies will flow and the rhythm will come back. All it requires
is an effort to understand the environment and fit into the groove.
Take your loved ones for
this fine film. Learn to appreciate the other one and be aware of your short
comings.
Life indeed is AS simple as
it seems.
**4.5 STARS**
