Subhash K Jha revisits Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do, which released 10 years ago. The director also speaks about the film that featured the brilliant cast of Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, and Farhan Akhtar
Dil Dhadakne Do is a film about trying to follow the unpredictable rhythms of the song of life. It’s a very elitist film. Oh, yes! The problems faced by the rich going on a trip to bankruptcy, Mehra family are peculiar to the privileged classes. In fact, in one of the film’s funniest scenes- and there are countless of those, let me assure you- Priyanka’s hypochondriac mother-in-law (Zarina Wahab) asks the younger woman what the problem is after her Bahu says she wants to leave her husband because she is not happy in the marriage.
“Problem kya hai?!” the bewildered mother-in-law asks. And she may well have a point. Priyanka’s husband, Maanav (Rahul Bose, giving cogency to a thankless role), doesn’t beat her up, “allows” her to work, and lets her be. And still, unhappy?? Ha ha ha.
The dialogues by Farhan Akhtar (who enters at intermission-point in a pitch-perfect heroic avatar) are savagely wise and profoundly unforgiving of the characters’ self-centred, cloistered world of wealth and extravagance and spiritual nullity. When Farhan’s character of the world-weary journalist lectures Priyanka’s husband on gender discrimination, you listen because the guy makes sense, and he makes sense because he’s played by Farhan Akhtar.
Barring Priyanka Chopra, who tends to ham in the dramatic scenes, every actor shines, some brighter than others. Anil Kapoor as the Mehra patriarch — ridiculing his wife for her food habits, treating his brother as a hired staff, pushing his daughter into a loveless marriage , pushing her lover away to America, and slotting his son as a reluctant heir apparent-spins the kind of performance that is tragic turbulent anxious and funny.
But it’s Shefali Shah as his trophy atrophied wife who nails her part the best. She brings to her character an unfussy pitch-perfection rarely seen in mainstream cinema. Shefali provides the most heartbreaking moment to the irascible plot when, towards the end, she sits crumbled on the master bedroom and tells her husband, ‘You forgot me’.
This moment comes right after the great confrontation, brilliantly written and performed, in a hospital room where the Mehras’ heir-apparent accuses his parents of living in a sham marriage. Watch how Ranveer Singh and Anil Kapoor play against one another without trying to be one up. The two actors are a treat to watch.
Ranveer Singh comes into his own with this film, displaying the ability to get into character without bringing in the unnecessary baggage of his nervous energy. Priyanka Chopra, in the crucial role of the Mehras’ unhappily married daughter, looks more like a character from Ekta
Kapoor’s Saas-bahu serial. She sticks out like a sore thumb in a cast where every actor dives into the ocean with a swimmer’s fluent grace, even debutant Ridhima Sud, who, along with TV actor Vikrant Massey, does a tongue-in-cheek Titanic on Zoya’s angst-no-thanks cruise. Anushka Sharma has little to do. And she does it effectively.
The real star of the film is Carlos Catalan’s cinematography. This guy is a magician behind the lenses. Some of the most scenic spots in the Mediterranean are captured as a striking but supplementary backdrop to the storyline. The stunning locales never look touristic.
Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar’s writing penetrates to the heart of the patriarchal system. The writing rips the veneer of sophistication off these wealthy characters, shows them stripped to the soul, and yet, miraculously, Zoya’s film never ridicules them. She loves her characters. But she isn’t blind to their fatal flaws, nor forgiving of them.
Her use of sound-or rather the lack of it-is largely unheard of in modern mainstream cinema. Where other filmmakers would have punctuated and hammered in the drama of the dysfunctional family with pounding background music, Zoya refrains and abstains. She strips the soundtrack of noise, revelling in the shrieking silences of souls tormented by such existential dilemmas – what to wear for the party in the evening, how to sneak into a lover’s room without getting caught, how to tell that aunty on stage that her singing is an embarrassment.
Oof, life! Did Zoya Akhtar say the last time Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara? She proves herself wrong by giving her creativity one more chance to blossom, this time mid-ocean with characters that would have been utterly tragic were they not so funny. Here in one corner of the universe, she takes us on a smashing cruise into the lives of a smashed-up elitist family.
Zoya Akhtar once again is the master of dysfunctional self-serving relationships. With a welter of witty words and a profusion of pungent situations (barring a contrived climax), the narrative glides across a shipload of shipwrecked characters played by actors who can peer into their restless characters and see how ridiculous they are beneath their posh exteriors.
Dil Dhadakne Do is a film that could have been noisy, messy, and crowded. It ends up being just the opposite. As Aamir Khan would say for the Mehras’ canine Pluto, “Bow wow!”Yup, we bow to the wow.
In an interview with Subhash K Jha, Zoya Akhtar spoke on why she titled her nifty film Dil Dhadakne Do. “I wanted the title to be catchy and easily identifiable. This film is not so much about the actors getting in the holiday mood. My co-writer, Reema Kagti, and I needed a device whereby we could have the entire family together. The ship is also a metaphor for the bigger journey that every family undertakes. A journey where the family is collectively stranded mid-ocean. You can’t get off even if you wanted to. Family is not something you choose. Did the cruise setting put everyone in a holiday mood? We were all on a cruise, working. Suddenly, we would look out and see the sun setting. The trip was cathartic for a lot of us. We had no internet, no phones until we would reach a port. It was amazing. It made us realise how stressful it was to have a goddamn phone.”
About the interesting cast, Zoya said, “Priyanka Chopra’s character is quite mellow. She plays quite against the type. Ranveer Singh is the clean-shaven urban boy for the first time — posh, for a change. It’s really nice to see actors surprise themselves. And Shefali Shah — I don’t know what to say. She’s a blessing. All my actors loved her. The universe must be in love with me. She makes the family in my film look so real. Were there ego clashes? No, everyone knew exactly what their roles were, there was no room for arguments. Every star wanted to be an actor in my film. When stars do ensemble, their mindset changes. They know that no one star has to shoulder the blame. They feel more relaxed. The atmosphere is like that of a theatre company with everyone pitching in and playing off one another. If you ask me, actors are easier to deal with in an ensemble cast. No actor came to me with an agenda. And I give them the creative space to do what they think is right because I know they know more about their work than I do. And then I am also honest with them. If I don’t know something, I say so. I don’t bullsh*t. We hear the biggest challenge was to get Anil Kapoor to play a patriarch with grey hair? It took me a whole year to get him on board. It took Aamir Khan to go to his house. He sat on his head till Anil said yes. There was no Plan B for Anil’s role. Even my dad and Farhan spoke to Anil. Anil’s son Harshvardhan too was a huge help. He kept badgering his father until he signed my film. Too cute, huh?”
Aamir Khan dubbed for the dog Pluto . Said Zoya, “Aamir is someone I’ve known for years. Both Reema and I’ve worked with him as assistant directors. I take all my scripts to him for consultation. He is very sharp and honest, and he understands the commercial language. Originally, you were supposed to make the film with Ranbir and Kareena Kapoor, right? They were never in the film, though I’d love to work with them. The actors that I have in DDD are those that I wanted. They agreed to do an ensemble cast film. Some of them were not too inclined at this point in their careers. But I guess I got lucky. Things just worked out for me. Nowadays, any actor I meet, even for a cup of coffee, becomes a source of speculation. I went to Deepika Padukone’s party, where I hung around with Fawad Khan. The next thing I knew, he was in my next film. My family is very different from the Mehras in my film. But I think there are resemblances. The values that Farhan and I have been brought up with resonate in the relationship between Ranveer and Priyanka.”
