Dil Dhadakne Do

Zoya Akhtar is an unusual film maker. In all her three films, she tells stories of the urban rich Indians. People who have all the money but have something missing in their lives which makes them incomplete.

She is not interested in telling the stories of the poor or middle class which is great because every second Indian film maker is telling us a story from there. And she is no Karan Johar who also makes films about the rich but in an Ekta Kapoor style, over the top melodramatic.

DDD is the story of the Mehras. From the outside, a very successful and happy family. But through the eyes of their dog, Pluto, its one huge dysfucntional family. Their business is running huge losses. Mr & Mrs Mehra don't get along because of Mr. Mehra affairs away from home. Their daughter, Ayesha is unhappy with her marriage and their son, Kabir is a pilot and not interested in the family business.

Mehra's 30th wedding anniversary is suppose to a happy reunion of friends and family but slowly turns into a disaster as the family falls apart when the cracks begin to appear on surface.

DDD is one of the best films in recent times I've seen which talks about the Indian family system and beautiful highlights the flaws as we are now in the 21st century. Men are suppose to work and women are suppose to take care of home and give birth to babies.

As my summary says the movies is good in parts because Zoya, Reema and Farhan create some very interesting & thought provoking premises in the film such as Ayesha's fight with herself and then with her family, Ayesha and Kabir's bounding, on women empowerment and selfishness of parents. Women will love this film because there's a lot spoken about the role of women today.

Somehow while connecting the dots, the three somehow fail to make a complete good film. The film slows down at times and then there is Pluto's commentary which starts to irritate because its spoils some good moments. Javed Akhtar is great writer and I loved his poems in the ZMD. But here is comes down as plain preaching at times.

And then the climax. Its hilarious but also stupid. Yes, we all love a happy ending but climax goes a bit over the top.

However, the music is nice, not many songs and some beautiful camera work by Carlos Catalan. However, the main strong point of the film is the performances.

The cast sink their teeth beautifully because the characters are so well written. Never such wonderful characters of screen.

Anil Kapoor as Sr. Mehra is at his best. Once a successful business man now in trouble, a scheming businessman, a man who shameless flirts in front of his wife and a man who fails to see that his heir is his daughter and not is son, Kapoor is superb and gives one fine performance after a very long time.

On the other hand, Ranveer Singh who plays Kabir put another wonderful performance. His comic timing is superb and is unapologetic about his family. He is a man who knows is limits and openly admits that his sister Ayesha is a heir to their father's empire and not him. Check out the scene in the clinic. He'll leave u in shock and splits as he confronts his parents.

Shefali Shah nicely plays the suffering wife and mother of two who cannot find her own identity and in somewhere a failure.

However its Priyanka who stands out. She lives and breathes Ayesha. A successful entrepreneur, somewhere neglected by her parents and cannot meet the expectations of her husband and in laws. She finds comfort in her younger brother and decides to speak when the time arrives to save herself. Hats off.

Farhan and Anushka in their small roles drives important points on how society needs to change with the times.

The rest of the cast is excellent. Rahul Bose as Ayesha's husband is the perfect chauvinist and he is unapologetic about it. His mother played Zarina Wahab hams it beautifully. Wish Zarina does such roles because she did this so well. And the rest, put the dose of the Punjabi culture in every scene.

Its not a bad film but could have been a great film.

Loved the movie. Thank god I did not see the movie with high expectations and did not watch it in 1st week of it's release. If I had then I would have gone with ZNMD sort of expectations and would have felt otherwise, I got mixed reviews from friends and different web forums so went with low or no expectations and I was like wow, I did something good for me to watch this piece.

Enter the world of rich families with familiar problems of all classes. misfit couples, spoiled brats, ego classes, not speaking of problem until it's killing point, return of Exs, gossips, love & trust between sibling & friends, smart plans, foul plans, loud celebrations, ruling parents and most importantly follow your heart situations. I hope I did not miss anything.

This movie had everything I was looking for, 170 minutes it was long and I have habit to watch how much time is left to complete any movie, I did the same this time too, but wanted to see this movie even more, it was that sort of magic created on screen.

Acting wise everyone topped each other. I did not like Ranveer, but boy he managed to earned lot many more fans from this movie alone. PC looked gorgeous and acted fabulously. Anil Kapoor and his wife Shefali gave run for money to all young leads. Wanted to see more of Farhan and Anushka somehow they were underused. Rahul Bose did well as expected but more was needed from him to have a deep impact of how was he with his wife. Rest all actors filled the gaps so well.

Music could have been better, this is first time I felt the movie had less songs than it was required, two of the songs I liked and will be there on my playlist.

Loved the ending, and it has potential to have part 2, as what happened with all leads plus all side characters as you have invested in them as their built up was quite nice.

Movie had number of funny moments, so you catch your breath and then again lose it in quite a few situations. So movie keeps you engaged in those 170 minutes of run and entertains very well.

Zoya - I am your fan now, you did wonderful ZNMD and again you had your unique way of handling family drama, hats off to you lady. Awaiting for more from you. Please do not take another 4-5 years to come in :)

The people who are saying this movie is not good clearly don't know anything about films.Dil Dhhadakne do is one of my favourite films.It is inspiring,beautiful,funny and just a full package.The film has a soul and is just a masterpiece from the director Zoya Akhtar.

Initially, I was hesitant to watch this movie as this movie did not do that well commercially(compared to other Zoya Akhtar movies). However,I must say I was very impressed with the way the movie was put together and executed.

DDD is a must watch for everybody regardless of what social status or financial category a person belongs to. Agreed, the drama takes place in a 'rich' people setting. But the family problems depicted in the movie are common across all classes in the country. So although it feels like they are rich people problems, they are actually not.

The performance of all the actors is superb especially Anil Kapoor and Shefali. The portrayal of Anil Kapoor as a shrewd, stubborn businessman is very genuine and so is Shefali's struggle to cope with unhappiness in marriage and maintaining social status. It is refreshing to watch Ranveer Singh doing something different than playing the usual macho/rowdy roles. Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Sharma are good as usual.

Overall the film is extremely pleasant to watch with no unwanted melodrama or item songs. It is a very sensible approach to depicting problems within a family that are often not spoken about but need to be discussed.And I must say Zoya handled it pretty well!

I don't know why the movie is so under rated. Movie surely deserves at least 8 stars.

I read the reviews and rating on IMDb before watching the movie and thought that it was waste of time. But I went to see it with my family and I am glad that I went...

This movie revolves around an upper class Delhi based Punjabi family. The movie is light and very entertaining and the movie script contains no cheap stunts like emotional sympathy(showing a little girl who has cancer or has lost his parents)or cheap non-veg stunts. While I was in the movie theater all I could hear is the people laughing and enjoying their every moment from the start to the very end....

Those who loved Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara will really love and enjoy it.

The message from this movie is also very nice which is "Zindagi jeene ke liye hai....zabardasti kheechne ke liye nahi".

So just give it a try and do take your parents with you. Enjoy!!