Dilwale 2016 (Movie Review)

Dir: Rohit Shetty

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon

Dur: 2 hrs 35 mins

Genre: Romance

Rating: 3.5/5

The film had created a huge hype prior to its release and from the looks of the poster, I judged it to be a gang-style action hit. Instead, what the film really depicted was romance embellished with a little action just to make it a bit swanky, break up the monotony and spice up the romance. The story is pretty run-of-the-mill, at least in character, but the sceneries are picturesque and the cars, exotic.

Raj a.k.a Kali (SRK) and Meera (Kajol) are children of rival Indian  gangsters situated in far away Bulgaria. Why Bulgaria? Because it has a well-planned and developed city, it is clean and eye-catching and had the ambient suited for a typical Hollywood style car-chase. While the Bulgarians are left out of their beautiful land, the exotic cars engaged in high-speed chases, drifts, flights and collisions, are the focus. Raj and Meera’s love blossoms or at least apparently does until two separate and life-altering events occur. Both of them are the eldest and have one sibling of the same sex as themselves. Both incidentally are without mothers, ouch! They’ve grown in an environment of guns, violence, money and danger, under the solicitous eye of their beloved fathers and yet they appear averse to such a life. And when circumstances take an insidious turn they both turn away and seek refuge in secret lives. Both coincidentally choose Goa as the place to reboot their life stories. I’m a Goan but the Goa portrayed in the film was almost unrecognizable to me; only with much effort could I recognize my own parish church – Panjim. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing but I realized one thing: Media has the power to transform and it can do so to people, places, things, situations, values and if I may say, even life.

Years after Raj and Meera part ways, their younger siblings accidentally meet and purposefully fall in love. Sparks fly, tensions rise and old flames are re-kindled. The romance between the siblings is a sub-plot to the main romance between Raj and Meera. The film has quite a few sub-plots that are neatly inserted and enliven the film. Johnny Lever is hilarious and so is Boman Irani, despite their side roles. Sanjay Mishra (Oscar) supplies fantastic rhymes which add flavour to the above par dialogues. The story has quite a bit of emotional content and the actors, especially the lead ones, do well to depict those emotions. The action is artificial and so are some sceneries. The acting is not all that great. Shah Rukh and Kajol sizzle and their chemistry is palpable. It’s little wonder that their pairing up created most of the hype around the film. Varun is excellent and plays his role with ease. Now the innocent boy, now the naughty boy, now the romantic, now the loyal brother and friend. He’s completely at home. Kriti is a bit raw and seems just a pretty face.

The story is alright but didn’t pan out very well. The editing needs a little more attention. The actor could have done better and I’m referring to the side ones. What I would rate highly are the dialogues which are really the soul of this film. Dilwale lacks the strong emotional gravity that would make you want to watch it again, just to re-live the experience.