‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ is KJo trying to recreate ‘Rockstar’ but failing just the same
In fact all through the first half of ADHM, you’ll have to remind yourself that this film is in fact directed by Karan Johar and not Imtiaz Ali. ‘Tamasha’, ‘Rockstar’, ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani’ — if you’ve seen any of these films, then you’ve seen the first half of ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ already, almost scene by scene.
Directors like Johar and the Chopra clan are known for their epic love sagas. They do realise that there has been an overnight transformation in the way urban youth of a certain class now think and that shows in their newer movies. The characters are liberated, sexually empowered, free of social and gender barriers, uninhibited. They are promiscuous, with multiple partners and with no strings attached. The women are empowered and bold.
In fact unusually, most characters are Muslims from Lahore (changed to Lucknow in the film thanks to Raj Thackarey’s bullying).
However the problems begin when these filmmakers try to turn today’s relationships into their old love sagas. Either keep today’s film a today’s film or make a film that’s through and through a love saga. We still love those but don’t mix both, yet again, please!
Ayaan Sanger (Ranbir) is an immature, over-entitled man-child who is “private-jet rich” and is doing an MBA (“Maa Baap Ki Aarzoo”) but aspires to become a singer. Alizeh Khan (Anushka) is an uninhibited girl from Lucknow (Lahore) who’s clear about what she wants from life, but loses all her strength the moment the love of her life Ali (Fawad) re-enters the picture. Ayaan and Alizeh hit it off from the moment they meet, in fact a little too quickly in my opinion, and very soon she “bestestest” friend-zones him but he has fallen for her. He then moves on to the seductress “shayara” Saba (Aishwarya) but still yearns for Alizeh. What happens next forms the rest of the film.
The one thing this film could’ve done with was a pause. Some silence, some ‘thairaav’, there’s too much happening too soon, too much continuous talking and background music, in fact there are also two literally back-to-back songs in ‘Cutiepie’ and the delightful chartbuster ‘Channa Mereya’. I remember there being only three scenes where there was some silence and they were the only poignant moments all through.
Things move too fast, Ayaan and Alizeh get close too soon and that is the main reason why you never feel emotionally attached towards their pain, because you don’t yearn to see both of them ending up together.
The core concept of heartbreak that this film tries to drive through remains missing as you never felt their hearts connecting in the first place.
In fact towards the end, you yearn for them to reach a decision so that the film finally ends.
The characters too are confused and senselessly so. Ayaan is the kind of man-child + stalker no girl would go for, in fact he’ll remind you of Dhanush from ‘Raanjhana’. For a film that began its marketing with a mystical, intriguing never-before-seen close up shot of Ranbir emoting “Tu safar mera” with those deep, brown eyes, his character is almost amusingly immature. Get this, Johar has actually given him a dialogue where he screams: “Tu mujh se pyaar kyu nahi kar sakti!!”. Alizeh, on the other hand, is so confident yet so weak simultaneously. Saba is the only saving grace, yet her character could’ve been written better. How someone as deep and desirable as her ends up with an idiotic Ayaan, that too so soon evades all common sense. Additionally, there are way too many filmy references, way too many remixed old songs and the film tries to be too funny for too long thereby ensuring you take all proceedings casually and never actually howl with laughter. Besides, no man and woman can ever have a non-romantic, non-sexual equation in this story, evident by the infamously done-to-death dialogue Ayaan mouths: “Ek ladka aur ladki sirf dost nahi ho sakte”.
The people in a Karan Johar story don’t have a normal life to deal with. They don’t have to worry about getting up, sleeping, cleaning up, studying, working, talking to family or even about money. They meet today, sing and dance in a few seconds, begin flirting a couple of dialogues later, sleep together tomorrow, travel the world immediately after and skip through several clubs and discotheques in between. There is very little consequence attributed to anything in their lives.
All the actors in the film have outdone themselves but it is their characters that fail them. Ranbir plays his man-child parts well, especially in the first half but his character never evolves into being taken seriously. He’s almost been typecast into exactly similar roles and now with almost exactly similar stories as well.
By virtue of being backed with Johar’s clout, ADHM will be a hit but in my opinion, it still hasn’t redeemed Ranbir from his recent run of flops.
Anushka is delightful as this bubbly, confident go-getter. Aishwarya gives possibly her career-best performance in a role that’s tailor-made for her divine looks. After the forgetful ‘Jazbaa’ and screechy ‘Sarbjit’, this is her true comeback. Cameos by Shahrukh, Alia and the particularly funny Lisa Haydon are engrossing. In fact there is another Pakistani actor in the film — Imran Abbas of ‘Creature 3D’ fame but no one created any controversy over his name as he isn’t a star in India yet and the controversy wouldn’t have dragged on as long if they had. Arijit Singh/Pritam should have been mentioned as cast members in this film because of their immense contribution with the mysterious title track and the heart-wrenching ‘Channa Mereya’, although both songs seem hurried into the film and painfully not done justice to.
Karan Johar did much better with ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ and ‘My Name is Khan’. In fact his best was his short segment in ‘Bombay Talkies’. After that, and given the hype around this film and its songs, I was hoping to be overawed by this evolved version of Karan Johar, who has himself conceded that he’s now embarrassed by ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’. But I felt exhausted and drained at the end of ADHM and I suspect if KJo felt the same way after making it. Can’t imagine how much worse ‘Shivaay’ must be since most reviews for ADHM were mixed but were consistently wretched for ‘Shivaay’.
An epic tale of heartbreak, especially traced through an evolving musician’s journey still remains an evasive pursuit for filmmakers from Bollywood and despite several mishaps, including this one, there’s still room for one good film there.
