Dhadkan

This emotional musical was released in the year 2000 and I had watched it in the theatre (at Jodhpur) with my family (my wife and my little daughter).

Dhadkan (heartbeat) is based on triangular relationship between a husband, his wife and her ex-beau. Dev (Sunil Shetty) is poor and is in love with a comparatively well-off girl, Anjali (Shilpa Shetty) who gets married to Ram (Akshay Kumar) as per the wishes of her parents. After getting troubles in her married life for some time, she is able to adjust there and starts loving her husband too. Her idealistic husband is totally alone in the hostile environment of the family consisting of his step-mother (Sushma Seth) , step-brother (Parmeet Sethi) and step-sister (Manjeet Kullar). Anyway, three years pass after their marriage when the twist in the tale comes.

The twist is the return of Anjali's erstwhile poor ex-beau, Dev who is no longer poor and has become a big businessman, working in association with Sheetal (Mahima Chaudhary). Dev feeks that he can win Anjali back from Ram through his wealth and he makes attempts in this direction through many negative attempts. However, in the end, he realizes that Anjali can't be his now and without any bitterness in heart towards Ram, he moves back abroad with an intent to marry Sheetal now (who had been loving him in her heart despite knowing about his passion for Anjali).

The story starts interestingly and there are many impressive sequences in the movie, beautifully intertwined with the melodious songs. However there is little doubt that the direction is poor. The story could have been told much more convincingly. Instead, it has been told in a stupidly theatrical way and appears utterly unreliable even on the screen. All the supporting characters appear like robots having human faces with mechanical gestures, activities and dialogues. In the scene of wedding of Ram and Anjlai, Navneet Nishan has been shown as the sister of Ram. However in the very next scene (and for the balance part of movie), Manjeet Kullar is shown as playing that role. Well, the viewer can only pity at the brains of the director for this continuity-jerk.

It is told that when Anjali had left Dev, he had only 50 paise in his pocket. After three years, he is showed as owning a business empire worth Rs. 500 crores which is the height of exaggeration. Further he goes abroad so comfortably as if he had to go to Chinchpokli through a local train. He is so egoistic that he meets Anjali's father (Kiran Kumar) wearing a sleeper containing a hole. Even this is not sufficient, he shows that hole to his prospective father-in-law with pride. While watching that scene, I was feeling like taking that sleeper (with the hole) from Dev and hitting the moviemaker hard with that only.

The face-saving grace of this movie are Akshay Kumar and music. Nadeem-Shravan have composed highly admirable songs. Dil Ne Ye Kaha Hai Dil Se, Tum Dil Ki Dhadkan Mein Rehte Ho, Na Na Karte, Aksar Iss Duniya Mein and finally the wedding song - Dulhe Ka Sehra Suhaana Lagta Hai, all are worth listening to again and again. The picturization of the songs is also good.

Cinematographer has done a remarkable job. There are several eye-soothing scenes capturing the beautiful landscapes. The art-direction is also praiseworthy. The movie is not unduly long but the editing still leaves a lot to be desired (the continuity-jerk mentioned above is an example of the poor editing).

Akshay Kumar has excelled in the role of an idealist. His character has been crafted on the lines of the name given to his character (Lord Rama). His restrained performance evidences that his acting talent remained unexplored during his initial years in Bollywood. His performance in Dhadkan is unarguably one of his best acting performances. Sunil Shetty and Shilpa Shetty have also delivered admirable performances. Mahima Chaudhary is strictly OK. However the complete supporting cast has done NAUTANKI in the name of acting. Everybody is over the top and irritating.

Still I recommend this movie to the audience liking emotional stories and family dramas. The music and the performances of the key characters have made it worth a watch despite its flaws. And it is also not to be missed by the fans of Akshay Kumar (and the fans of Shilpa Shetty and Sunil Shetty as well).

I watched this movie on TV. The acting of Sunil Shetty is very good & convincing, Akshay was OK. Watch it for Sunil Shetty. Back in 2000 actors usually suffer from overacting problems but Sunil Shetty is too good even when compared to today's standard.

wow! this film was certainly one of the best ones ive seen in recent times. though the story was similar to last year's grand hum dil de chuke sanam, dhadkan is still a memorable film. the film is helped a lot by a clever script, well-choreographed songs, well-written lyrics, and a deep-rooted emotion that no other film has grabbed in recent memory. this movie is also a major weepfest, with absolutely no comic relief (but thats not a bad thing--its nice to see a movie with no annoying comic relief!)

my advice is.. go watch this movie! allow yourself to be swept off your feet for the entire duration of the film, allow yourself to laugh, to cry, to marvel at the excellent dialogues, and the flawless performance of sunil shetty.

my only problem with the film is that the ending is too "bollywood"! they could have improved the ending a lot.. anyways, still a great movie to watch..

I enjoyed the songs and Suniel Shetty's performance as a child. Akshay Kumar's character in this movie was too boring for me as I was used to seeing him kicking and fighting in all movies. But when I look at it now, It was a nice subtle performance. However the film looks and feels outdated today.

I have seen this movie few times; but I don-now how many times I watched most of its songs. Overall I love this movie very mush esp the songs, its photography etc... The songs Dil Ne ye ...stands out standing and the one Na Na is also great especially the church scene. Sunil Shetty's acting remains great for me...basically a super movie and I would love to watch that again...Kudos for its director Darmesh Darshan I first watched this when I was in England and I owned a Video Cassette tape. However I used to watch its songs on Youtube. Then I bought a DVD of the same since moving to Australia. As the quality of the DVD was not good; I had to watch again from Youtube via Smart TV...which was simply but great...