Director Vivek Soni’s Chand Mera Dil is a surprise, and a pleasant one at that. After having suffered through soppy rom-coms and unfunny comedies, not to mention the flaring nostrils, blazing guns, and binge beheading, here comes a film so elegant and celebratory, it is like a warm hug during times of intense chill and a healthy meal after a surfeit of junk food.
Chand Mera Dil takes us into familiar boy-meets-girl territory and then swerves into something far more relevant and moody. At a time when marriages among the young are breaking at the drop of a heck, this cautionary tale—it is never too early to fall in love but it is always advisable to marry after a while—sweeps into our collective hearts without demanding too much of our attention.
Not that this is a timepass product. Not the least! Chand Mera Dil goes through the ups and downs of Aarav and Chandni’s relationship without squeezing their day-to-day drama into a soapy, soppy affair. Aarav, played with disarming diligence by Lakshya, cries a lot. I think he feels sorry for himself, for the lemons that life has laid out for him. Aarav doesn’t know how to make lemonade without breaking the jar. Chandni is more in control. She knows what she wants in life, and it is certainly not a baby out of wedlock in her early 20s. Ananya Panday gives Chandni a life beyond the obvious. These are people we want to protect from the vicissitudes of domestic life.
If only!
Director Vivek Soni provides his romantic leads with ample space to breathe down one another’s back before they begin to suffocate each another. At least Chandni wants out after their valiant struggle to keep their togetherness alive after baby arrives. Their decisive moment of estrangement is filmed with a raw intensity that Lakshya and Pandey adopt cautiously. They know what they are doing.
This is not a familiar world for a rom-com. Chandni and Aarav should be kissing (they do a lot of that), singing (ditto), and, well, enjoying life. But the Gods and the screenwriters (Vivek Soni, Tushar Paranjpe, Akshat Ghildial) have other plans.
The narrative propels the young protagonists into circumstances they do not welcome (including an unwanted pregnancy). It is in how they negotiate their way through their destiny that Chand Mera Dil acquires its elegant charm. Oodles of warmth runs through the film. The supporting cast, though at times sketchy (Manish Choudhary and Irvati Harsh as the hero’s parents barely get to register their presence), serve their purpose, though.
The spotlight is on the young couple. They flirt, they fight, they f…k, they fume, they suffer. It is a normal, healthy relationship, the kind we rarely get to see in mainstream cinema. Director Vivek Soni seems fascinated by climactic excesses: lashing rains occur repeatedly and sometimes over-dramatically. There is an unnecessary scene of violence in the rain. And the climax, with the windows heaving and lurching in the thundering rain, feels out of place, more so when the lead pair is so comfortable being normal even when their circumstances are so extreme.
