Zoya Akhtar is my favorite Bollywood director. Her second movie, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, was a masterpiece and since its release in 2011, I have been eagerly awaiting her next feature film. Well now it's here, in the form of Dil Dhadakne Do, a movie that firmly establishes that Zoya Akhtar is a woman with a magic touch.
Dil Dhadakne Do is the story of the wealthy Mehra family. The patriarch is Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor), a self-made businessman who is desperate to project a sense of successful vitality despite the fact that his company is on the verge of bankruptcy. His wife, Neelam (Shefali Shah), is a Delhi socialite who tries her best to ignore her husband's multiple dalliances and keep up appearances while her friends gossip behind her back. They have two children, Kabir and Ayesha (Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra), who seem successful but are secretly harboring a wealth of resentment against their parents for engineering their lives in a myriad of unhelpful ways. And now, this collection of unhappy people are going to get on a cruise ship with a slew of family friends to celebrate Kamal and Neelam's thirtieth wedding anniversary. What could go wrong?
There is a lot going on in this movie and if you've seen the trailer, you'll be treated to half a dozen major plot points and still have plenty more to look forward to. Apart from the central cast, there are several more supporting players, all of whom play their parts with hilarious precision. The cruise ship might as well be called the Loveboat as multiple romances start to brew and add to the already complicated shenanigans on board. But at its core, this is a Little Miss Sunshine-esque heartening family comedy that aims to show that families are flawed and imperfect but can eventually pull themselves together with love and communication.
Akhtar's success is fundamentally due to the impeccable scripts she writes with screenwriting partner Reema Kagti. This movie contains a sprawling multi-generational stew of romantic and dramatic storylines and yet it weaves them together effortlessly without making any single story seem trite or less important than the others. Every character has their chance to shine and every actor delivers the performance of a lifetime. The unknown actors in supporting roles are particularly marvelous, and despite the romantic chemistry among the younger couples, Akhtar also firmly shines the spotlight on the older couple, giving Shefali Shah and Anil Kapoor the chance to exhibit their star power as they portray the shiny veneer and crumbling foundation of the Mehras' marriage.
Akhtar's success is also due to her brilliant cinematographer, Carlos Catalan, a man who knows how to make her movies look vibrant, colorful, and simply stunning. Whether it's ocean vistas, the bustle of Greek and Turkish cities, or just a close-up of an actor who is letting her face tell more of a story than entire pages of dialogue could ever accomplish, this is an impeccably shot movie that knows exactly how to keep the audience engaged with every passing frame. While Akhtar's focus is always on story rather than the typical Bollywood song-and-dance routine, her movies do feature wonderful music and "Gallan Goodiyaan" is a remarkable set piece. The song is shot in one take as the camera whirls around the room and each member of the sprawling cast gets a chance to jump into the action and dance with joyful abandon. It made my head spin just to watch it and I can't imagine the painstaking choreography and planning that went into filming this one number. It's the kind of raucous free-for-all that reminds you what a Bollywood musical is all about.
Dil Dhadakne Do has a lot to say about love, family, and relationships. The dialogue is impossibly witty, delivering a laugh a minute alongside a heaping dose of insight and wisdom. There is a fair amount of voiceover exposition, which I suppose is necessary when you have so many characters and plot points to establish, but even that is done in an unusual and clever way. And eventually Akhtar just lets her actors tell the tale. As much as I love great dialogue, this is a movie that features some remarkable acting talent, and Akhtar wisely knows when to deploy pages of witty dialogue and when to just let an actor's crumpling face tell the whole story. This is a funny, wise, honest, and delightful movie that gets everything right and doesn't leave you bored for a second despite the nearly three-hour run-time. So head to the theater and watch the best thing Bollywood has to offer this year. And here's hoping it doesn't take Akhtar another four years to release her next movie, because I simply cannot wait.
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