Expectations: Our Hindi cinema could be subdivided into the certain eras related to some cult classic films, for eg.’Mughal-E-Azam’ era, ’Sholay’ era or even’Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and few more. The reason for this division, does not depend on the super success of these cult classic films, but also because these movies inspired many more films during that period which had a strong hangover of these films. Speaking about’Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, it kept inspiring many romantic comedy types of films in the 90’s and early 2000 era and some traces could be seen in some of the recent films like’Heropanti’ and few more. Few films managed to end up on a decent note, but rest others sank as quickly as they could, though none of these films could match up to the magic of the path breaking film.’Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ from the Karan Johar banner seems to be one another such film which has high influence of’DDLJ’ with a fresh pair of talented actors associated with it. So let’s find out, whether’Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ will manage to match up to the level of the cult classic film or might be another half baked product trying to encash over the curiosity factor attached to it.
Story: ’Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ is a story of Kavya(Alia Bhatt) who wants to buy a designer dress for her marriage without taking any help from her father(Ashutosh Rana). Kavya comes to Delhi to buy the dress on her own and in that process meets Humpty(Varun Dhawan), who eventually helps her a lot. After a short while, both of them fall in love with each other. Kavya returns back to her home and Humpty follows her back in order to win the hearts of her family members. But things do not go as Humpty had planned and what happens next is what the entire film is all about.
Screenplay & Technicalities: The story has traces of’Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and starts in an entertaining manner. There are some enjoyable scenes in the initial part like, Varun and his friends trying to threaten the professor, Varun-Alia coffee meet, Varun and Alia’s drink chat followed by Varun - Siddharth Shukla track and few more. The humour quotient in the film keeps you glued to the silver screen, but as the movie progresses the weakness of the writers starts to ruin the impact of the film. The movie slides downwards in the second half reaching to a disastrous and lame ending, which lacks highly over the conviction level and also seemed like a spoof to’DDLJ’. There are many unconvincing moments in the film right from the love part between Alia and Varun, followed by Varun’s father and friends trying to financially help Alia, Varun-Ashutosh Rana track, Ashutosh Rana’s decision in the finale and many more. The writers take their liberty of not establishing these scenes, nor do they create some good moments between the lead pair. Due to such circumstances, the movie goes on a total doldrums and seemed stupid and disappointing. The screenplay in the second half is very bad and has been super stretched in an annoying manner. Though the occasional humour keeps you engaged in the film, despite of the chaos in the script. Camera work is fine but nothing great about it
Music & Direction: Music is good and entertaining.’Saturday Saturday’, ’Lucky Tu’, ’Maine Tenu’ are great followed by other songs, which keeps you lighted up in this dull film.
Director Shashank Khaitan tries to create a film, which if written better, would have been termed as modern day’Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’. Sadly, he ends up delivering a confused product which lacks the magic of the cult classic film and also fails to end up like a spoof to’DDLJ’. He takes his audience for a ride and keeps things only to himself and does not give proper justification to his characters and script of the film.
Performances: Varun Dhawan looks cute and super confident. He is outstanding in all the enjoyable scenes and tries very hard to rise above the weak script. His performance and dancing skills are enjoyable. Alia Bhatt does full justice to her role and looks beautiful in it. Varun and Alia’s jodi looks good and compliments each other. Siddharth Shukla looks outstanding and has a decent track in the film, which later disappears just as the ice cube disappears in water. Ashutosh Rana does full justice to his role, but lacks the intensity. Gaurav Pandey and Sahil Vaid lend good support. Kenny Desai, Deepika Ami and Jaswant Daman were fine on their part.
So bol meri’Filmi Khopdi’ iss film mein kitna hain Dum?Dum? Well the movie starts with loads of entertaining dum with good foot tapping music and few good looking people attached to it. It’s only since the pre-interval the movie starts to wobble a lot leading towards a stupid and weak climax. It has a lot of hangover of’DDLJ’ but does not do proper justice to it. So on an overall basis, would sum it up by using the popular nursery rhyme where after a Humptyfull(entertaining) ride has a great fall where none of the kings men(writers and director) could put Humpty back to track again.