Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

It's a movie for the heart broken or the poem lovers. Some of the lines are hilarious, witty, poetic, and has the depth of Oscar Wilde's quote. It is to the extent that I cohered with one dialogue in the movie, "did you rehearse those lines …" This movie has dealt with human emotions with near perfection, with each character having its degree. None of the characters were written naively; they had their gray shades, marred with resistance and vulnerability. The chemistry was extraordinary, in particular between Anushka & Ranbir. I doubt young ones would be able to absorb such nuanced seepage of emotions.

However, the plot is weak. No doubt about it. Also, this movie is awfully feminist. Here a private-jet rich kid is being used by two women, err three women, with Aishwarya being the third. And Aishwarya's ex-husband doesn't have a problem with her relation with Ranbir. He goes on to justify it with cheesy one-liners.

Having stated above; the movie had his heart in the right place. It's nowhere near 500 days of summer, but if you are a heartbroken person, you might reckon to add it to your library.

I watched this movie when when it was released in 10th or 11th grade, because of the big names - Ranbir, Karan Johar, Anushka and obviously SRK!

I didn't really liked it the movie then. I watched it skipping some parts of the movie as well!

But 27/11/21, I watched it again! And today I understood what really the movie is about. Today I understood the dialogues of the characters. Today I connected with the film.

I wasn't matured enough for this movie when I watched for the first time.

I found Ae Dil Hai Mushkil thoroughly disappointing. Nothing about this movie connected to me. In my opinion, Karan Johar's Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna was the worst. However, ADHM manages to top even that!

Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma spend the first half imitating characters from Johar's previous movies and movies from the 80s while the second half looks like a retelling of Ranbir's own Rockstar (what with Ranbir eventually becoming a singer and the terminal illness track of Anushka)! Just disappointing! I think anyone could have played the role of Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan's Saba. There was nothing spectacular about her performance. However, I think she lets her eyes do most of the talking which is why Johar picked her for the role. She has this incredible talent of emoting with her eyes without saying a word which most actresses of today fail to do. Even her shayaris had no depth whatsoever. Not to mention she struggles with the Urdu portions. I don't think her role was even necessary as she appears in a 15 minuteish role. Ditto for Fawad Khan whose presence in this movie created such a furor prior to its release! Fawad is wasted in a role with which he could have done wonders with. Fawad lets himself to be overshadowed by Ranbir in some of the scenes that they share.

Performance-wise, it's Ranbir and Anushka's film. They own every scene that they have. However, it's the script that lets them down that they find themselves imitating characters from various old Hindi films! It's Ranbir Kapoor who rises over an inane script, leaving his own stamp in each scene which could have fallen flat in a lesser actor's hands. But then he has experience from his own movie, Rockstar where he also played a similar role, playing a lovelorn boy to the hilt. Anushka Sharma is good but finds herself trapped in a role that was done-to-death before a billion times in Bollywood!

On a final note, ADHM is just a one-time watch for Karan Johar and Ranbir Kapoor's fans. I felt like Johar cheated us by creating suspense about the plot of the film before its release. There's nothing novel about the plot of ADHM!

Sorry, Karan Johar as always puts more stress on the gloss rather than the substance, and the result is mostly a shallow film that would hardly ever ring true to thinking viewers. Obviously, it's the material that's quite lacking to begin with but the treatment is way worse. First, the incredible number of references to Johar's own films was absolutely annoying. That penchant for self-glorification has become quite a tedious motif in his films, and by the way, so have the other references to other Hindi films such as Chandni and the likes.

Above all, the biggest glitch here is the banality of the writing and particularly the portrayal of the relationships, all of which completely strain credulity. Not a single one of them rings true - not Ranbir's with his girlfriend, not Anushka's with her husband, and certainly not the friendship between Ranbir and Anushka, which is supposed to form the basis for the entire story but is highly unconvincing. The film tries to sell us an age-old formula of two people who are good friends, but one of them wants more, and it doesn't gel and lacks depth.

So what's the problem here? That I personally, and I'm sure many others, won't buy for a minute that a chance encounter in Europe and a few fun days spent together would turn two strangers into such good friends. Actually, even if it is possible, the script doesn't give it justice; the strangers' shared experience should have been much deeper than what this film showed us (more or less dancing to Hindi films and hardly one serious conversation) to establish a true, year-long camaraderie as required by the story. Eventually, it just doesn't make sense and lacks heart and realism.

The portrayal of the obsession, which is what this film essentially deals with (indeed, it's more about obsession rather than unrequited love), is handled much better. And even better is the entrance of a new character into this story, which helps refresh the entire mood of the film. But the film is twisted to no end, which isn't a compliment, and as expected, typically overlong. Moreover, some of the twists towards the end are so cliché and lacking in credibility it feels the director hasn't learned a thing about the growing sophistication of his potential audience.

Where the film does score is on the technical front, where everything is handled professionally. The locations and music are, as always in Johar's films, stupendous, and make for a fun cinematic experience despite the flaws. Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma sink their teeth into their half-baked roles and give much more than they get. The ultimate saving grace however is Aishwarya Rai, whose charismatic presence gives the film so much of what it lacks. It's not just her dazzling beauty, it's the depth in her eyes. I wish the film had more of this depth.

As a technician director Mr. Karan Johar, work is good but as a creative person nothing is good. There is very convenient and out dated story. Screenplay offers only a few just worth smile scenes in first half. Basic drawback in this seemingly love story movie is there is no love. Makers point of view of love is just few kissing scenes and looks a like love making scene. They didn't feel need of exploring or establishing love with new perspective. First half approach of love and film is ahead of time and second half belongs to gone era in dialogues as second female lead is a 'Shayera' but behaviors and dresses wise again ultra modern, who doesn't blink for a second to be intimate with a person just in second meet!! There is not a single clear cut character. Initially first pair is established very rich but then there was no any further need of this thing. All characters are confused. Even pre climax cause is very stale and looks funny rather than projecting any high octane emotions but actors shed tears now and then with loud gesture. Open end climax in a love story is just unbearable. You remain seated and think what was it? Performance wise Ranbir Kapoor is good. Anushka Sgarma is impressive. Aishwaraya Rai Bachchan is fine. Music wise " Achchha Chalta Hun Dua Mein Yaad Rakhna' is well placed, written and composed, credit goes to Music director Preetam and lyricist Amitabh Bhattachrya.