Movie Review Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji
What's hot:
Omi Vaidya. He makes you laugh with his expressions and innocence.
What's not:
Pritam’s music.
verdict:
While Madhur Bhandarkar’s first attempt at making a feel-good film has got an adult censor certificate, Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji certainly turns out to be a certified childish attempt at comedy. He should stick to his brand of exposé cinema.
my RATING:
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Omi Vaidya
While Madhur Bhandarkar’s first attempt at making a feel-good film has got an adult censor certificate, it certainly turns out to be a certified childish attempt at comedy. Accepted that he doesn’t choose the prevalent slapstick route and presents protagonists which are pragmatic to an extent. But their individual slice-of-life stories are so simplistic and slack that the narrative lacks both – graph and drama.
Three insipidly introduced male protagonists come together to share a room. Naren (Ajay Devgn) is a divorcee facing midlife crisis who gets attracted to his office secretary June (Shahazn Padamsee). Milind (Omi Vaidya) is the traditional boy-next-door who falls in love with an aspiring actress (Shradha Das) who exploits him for monetary gains. The flirtatious Abhay (Emraan Hashmi) becomes toyboy of an affluent aunty (Tisca Chopra) and gets privileged perks out of their clandestine relationship. Until he is smitten by auntie’s daughter (Shruti Hassan)!
Knowing Madhur Bhandarkar brand of cinema, it comes as no spoiler that there will be a shocker in the pre-climax. So while each guy works towards getting his girl, neither do their relationships work nor does the slipshod screenplay. The viewer can clearly see this coming much in advance thereby rejecting the surprise factor that the screenplay struggles to have in store for them. But what is shocking is that the director, in desperate attempt to end the film on a comic note after the predictable melodrama, gets in three consolation prizes for the lovelorn males in the form of lackluster female special appearances. While this Bollywood formula dates back to Deewana Mastana days, what’s disappointing is that even the supposed ‘special’ appearances are much below ordinary.
In one scene Emraan Hashmi tries hard to woo Shruti Hassan with his cheesy pickup lines and Shruti replies saying he should try in Bollywood. Call this as the modesty or self-realization of dialogue writer Sanjay Chhel but his lines rightly represent cheesiness that Bollywood is infamous for. His synchronized dialogues induce some funny moments but otherwise the humour falls flat most of the times. That can also be blamed to the flawed comic timing of the characters. Also there isn’t anything amusing about Omi’s verbose poetry and Devgn singing songs in his own voice.
The screenplay credited to three writers (Madhur Bhandarkar, Anil Pandey, Neeraj Udwani) tries too hard to be funny but becomes bland and repetitive after a point. The pacing is too laidback, proceedings too predictable and the graph of the narrative never picks up. Also the writing is both inconsistent and convenient establishing romance between a love-phobic Emraan and Emraan-phobic Shruti at the drop of hymn. Sporadic scenes like the one where Manoj Joshi tries a takeoff on a scene from DDLJ just doesn’t register any funny impact. Rather there are unintentionally uproarious moments whenever actor Aditya Raj Kapoor (Shammi Kapoor’s son) attempts to speak any casual line in the film.
Pritam’s music is average. The background score doesn’t complement the scenes at several instances. The length is certainly long and editing could have been better.
Emraan Hashmi is in comfort zone repeating his regular flirt image. Ajay Devgn underplays himself and carries an uncomfortable expression throughout. Omi Vaidya plays his traditional character unconventionally and makes you laugh with his expressions and innocence. None of the female leads impress. Shraddha Das is one-dimensional. Shahazn Padamsee overdoes her bubbly character and irritates with her constant childish demeanour. Shruti Hassan looks much different from what she did in her first film (Luck) but continues to be as much unsatisfactory in her acting ability. Tisca Chopra is marred by a weak character.
Perhaps Madhur Bhandarkar should stick to his brand of exposé cinema, because this juvenile attempt has exposed his weakness in handling other genres.
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