Review: Shahrukh and Kajol’s Dilwale does not have the right elements to steal your heart

Rating: *1/2

"Dilwale" is a romantic, action cum comedy film directed by Rohit Shetty. It is co-produced by Gauri Khan under the banner Red Chillies Entertainment and Rohit Shetty under the banner Rohit Shetty Productions. 

Dilwale revolves around the story of two Bulgarian Indian lovers Kali alias Raj (Shahrukh Khan) and Meera (Kajol). Their familial rivalry and the tragic death of their fathers divides them. 15 years later, their respective siblings Veer (Varun Dhawan) and Ishita (Kirti Sanon) fall in love with each other in India. Raj, after leaving his mafia business is now a car re-modeler and runs a garage while Meera owns a cafe in Goa. How the two couples unite forms the plot of the film.

The chemistry between the best onscreen Bollywood couple Shahrukh and Kajol is rekindled in this film. However, individually, Kajol appears artificial in the first half. If it was a desperate attempt at her part to look and speak unnaturally in the first half, is not clear. Shahrukh is the heartthrob as always but there is no single wow moment of Shahrukh in this film unlike all his previous films. Varun overacts in certain portions of first half while his performance in the second half is good. Kirti is quite sensible.    

The film boasts of a huge ensemble of stars like Vinod Khanna as Kaali and Veer’s father, Kabir Bedi as Meera and Ishita’s father, Boman Irani as drug dealer King, Varun Sharma as Veer’s best friend Sidhu, Sanjay Mishra as Oscar, Johny Lever as Money bhai, Mukesh Tiwari as Sidhu’s brother amongst others. Sanjay Mishra with his rhymes and Johny Lever with his accent and incorrect use of gender are responsible for most of the comic moments of the film.  

Yunus Sajawal has penned the script for the movie, while Sajid-Farhad has written the dialogues. The film has a few comic (rather guffaw) scenes and some popular dialogues  delivered by Shahrukh like “Dil har kisi ke pass hota hai lekin sab Dilwale nahi hote” (Everybody has a heart but not everyone has a huge heart), “hum shareef kya huye, puri duniya hi badmaaash ban gayi” (I stopped being a gangster, now the whole world is full of gangsters),  “Pandrah saal beet gaye….Pandrah saal, chaar mahine aur das din” (fifteen years, four months and ten days). Apart from these dialogues, there is nothing to take back.

Soundtracks of Pritam are good. The romantic song 'Gerua', filmed most exquisitely (in Iceland), is quite a hit and a chartbuster song. 'Manma Emotion Jaage Re' is another groovy track. 'Janam Janam' is also trending well. The background score by Amar Mohile is good but somehow, the music sounded to me like music which usually plays before an interval (or maybe I was missing the Interval!).

The most awful part about the film was the lack of originality and unpredictability in the film. It is not only the plot which lacks novelty; at least four scenes of the film are exactly lifted from big Hollywood films and television series. For instance, the five minute date scene between Kaali and Meera is completely taken from the famous television series ‘How I met your Mother’. A cliff hanger scene where Kaali saves Meera appears exactly similar to a scene from the ‘Mission Impossible’ series. The scene where Veer proposes Ishita using placards seems to be inspired from ‘Love Actually’.

 (Shahrukh Khan and Kajol's cliff hanger moment is inspired from this MI scene)

(Shahrukh Kajol's 5 minute date is inspired from this 'How I met your mother scene')

(Varun's proposal to Kirti is inspired from this scene from 'Love Actually')

Despite having a power packed cast and the most loved Bollywood jodi, Rohit Shetty fails to make another epic Dilwale. I would like to un-watch it if possible. If you are a die-hard Shahrukh/Kajol fan, wait till this movie comes on the small screen. Better still, give it a miss completely!

-Reviewed by Dolly Bolly