I saw Dil Jo Bhi Kahey last Friday in the movie theater here near San Francisco. I loved it, and the three other people I saw it with liked it too, but I can understand why it may not have connected as well for others. To me the movie felt kind of more targeted to non-Indians like me, or to NRIs, than to the domestic Indian audience. That isn’t to say it’s some kind of ’’crossover’’ movie, nor is it a ’’feel nostalgic about the India you left behind’’ movie. Hard to put my finger on what I mean ... Maybe I will come back and edit to explain more later.
But targeting a movie to the overseas audience doesn’t work if the overseas audience doesn’t know about the movie. Not a Yash Raj movie, not a SRK movie, not much of a star cast ... So the movie couldn’t find its audience.
Anyway here’s what I thought of the movie:
Karan Sharma makes a fine debut -- entirely convincing as a college student who falls in love, then forced to make an impossible choice. He goes through a range of emotions and plays them well.
Bhumika Chawla makes a strong impact in the second half. She almost steals the spotlight!
Revathy is gripping as the mother character to Karan Sharma’s Jai. The complex relationship between the mother and son come across very well in this movie, the source of many of its memorable scenes (and there are quite a few memorable scenes). Good acting&good writing combine to make it work.
Amitabh Bachchan is quite important to the movie, in a non-stereotypical (but nothing like the ’’silly’’ stuff he’s been doing lately either) role, and gets a good monologue in about racism and the legacy of colonialism in Mauritius. His character’s relationship with his son is unusually supportive, moving, and believable. He and Revathy also have good scenes together.
Annabelle Wallis is fine.
The movie strikes the right balance between feel-good, drama, and social-issuey substance.
The movie is a ’’cool love story, ’’ and a family story also.
The characters are pleasant and relatable. Oh, the friend character, Gaurav, is pivotal -- almost forgot to mention him!
Some might think Karan Sharma’s Jai is too ’’passive’’ towards the end, but to me this very much enhanced the movie’s emotional power and relatability.
There’s a neat twist near the end I didn’t see coming.
The ending is bittersweet for one of the characters. A http://www.
The main negative of the movie is that the English dialogue is not that well-written.
I do not agree with people who say this is the same old, same old. The exchange between Amitabh and the British actor is effectively subtle. The relationship between Jai and his father, and between Jai and his mother, is also handled in a more relatable, nuanced, but still moving, way than in the case of most Hindi movies I’ve seen that have a parent disapproving of a relationship. (Maybe that’s because I haven’t seen the movies that people feel like DJBK’s story is repeating though.)
Music is only okay. The college song at the beginning is the best.
One more thing -- this is a ’’clean’’ movie. Although sex is pretty strongly implied at one point, there’s no vulgarity to it. Also, unlike other newcomers, Karan Sharma is not overly muscular. And while he has some wet, see-through-shirt scenes, he stays clothed throughout. Hurrah for him! I’m a fan already.
Rating: A strong 8/10.
I don’t expect this review to be rated as highly as my other reviews ... It’s a bit slapped together, sorry. But I had to post this since no one else here was saying much good about a movie I am honestly infatuated with right now!