Dhak Dhak

This is a story of four women of different age groups and backgrounds who have a common passion of going on a road trip riding their motorcycles. The eldest is Mahi a grandmother out to prove she is something to reckon with, the second is Uzma a middle aged housewife with a dominating husband and a teenaged daughter, the third is Shashi a young woman vlogger recovering from a broken relationship and the fourth is Manjari an orthodox, timid young woman on the threshold of getting married. They all their reasons to be a part of this 7 day road trip from Delhi to Leh organised by Shashi as an assignment to present to her boss so that she can move to Barcelona for a project.

The movie will specifically relate to women, bikers and to road trip/ adventure lovers in general. The plot is fairly predictable since we all know what happens on a road trip and just about everything happens here. The tyre puncture, the breaking down of bike, the minor accident, the roadside dhabas, one of them lost enroute and then found, the bad weather/ terrain, falling sick ---they are all there. Of the good experiences there is friendship, bonding, the spirit of adventure, self discovery and good times spent not forgetting the helpful truck drivers and fellow travellers. The movie has a well directed, fairly interesting narrative, some good acting by the four actors and excellent cinematography of the picturesque locations. It is not without flaws and cringe worthy moments but then which movie doesn't have them ?

The whole oxygen cylinder drama is utter nonsense and perhaps just added to create some tension in the climax which fails the movie miserably. Why would someone park a bike in the middle of the river? The director & writers must have been smoking weed while writing a ill-logical climax. By the end of the movie the "radhe radhe" girl is still a coward because she waits till morning to take the oxygen cylinder to the hospital because she doesn't have courage to talk freely to her mother. By the end of the movie, the team-lead is still a selfish women leaving her team behind because she couldn't accomplish her personal goals but in the end still makes to the cover of the magazine. Dia mirza culd have asked the cops to call her husband and get her talk to him & reached the hospital first, but hey the silly director wanted to show all girls show up together in the morning as a 'sign of unity'. 5 stars just because first hour is fine. Sequel of this movie ?? Change the director and story writers and then plan one.

This movie was supposed to be inspiring, feel good kind of but it has so many moments that it becomes difficult to tolerate and at multiple stages you have to skip it by few minutes. I don't know but I feel depressed, Movies are supposed to be your way out of life troubles, you know good 2 hours of fun but lol this was not fun. It has less scenes of biking on roads, more of character's life troubles despite being promoted as movie that takes you on journey. Youtube vlogers offer better quality of shots, life journey, real problems and what not. You definitely can give it a pass, there is nothing you will miss. I'll suggest youtube, some vlogers have better content and quality.

Dhak Dhak takes four stranger women on a road trip. One is a vlogger going through an identity crisis after invasion of her privacy. The other is an elderly woman who happened to win a bike in a competition. Then there is the scared girl whose marriage is fixed and is confused about her future. Lastly, a bike mechanic in a toxic marriage who wants to provide for her daughter. How these four come together to go on a biker's pilgrimage and what challenges they face during their journey to the destination as well as gaining strength to stand up to their personal lives' issues.

It is the performances especially from Ratna Pathak Shah and Fatima Sana Shaikh that carried the film whereas Sanjana Sanghi and Dia Mirza got the most impactful scenes. The characters' backstories were slightly underwritten and it tackles the emotions mostly on the surface level. Winning a bike in a lucky draw alone wasn't enough to justify the long ride to the biker's haven, leaving much of it to Ratna Pathak Shah to make it work. Despite it's shortcoming, the film definitely worked in parts and I wished the final act was handled better instead of throwing in quite a lot right from the monk to tackling the family members when one's life was at stake.

It's about a group of courageous biker girls living their dream as a unit and biking the long roads around India.

There's no real supporting units or anything like the prep involved if this was done for real. It's remarkable that more punctures didn't occur. One bike is washed-away in what can be (arduously) described as action in slow mo but not the John Woo kind just very very slow shots of rushing waters and an age of repetition shots and then the panic of the actors but no clue of how to save a bike which would not start. The cinematography could not even save this dull plot.

This movie has the same theme of the group trying to find themselves and they eventually do; once the journey is completed. Now it's ridiculous that it took 2 hours 14 minutes for this to happen with so much dross context which could have been edited out.

However that's not even the worst bit. The older women unfortunately gets into health issues and they get her to a hospital. There they find out that she needs oxygen. This in what appears to be a built-up city/town and in a Hospital which already has modern equipment.

I'm sorry but this is just weird and stupid. How this is even possible is just ridiculous and the execution is just terrible. Even the actors look awkward as they express their gratitude that she's safe because they know how terrible the script is!

It's a shame as had they cut out this sheer stupidness it would have been a better road movie. I understand it's based on a book of a real trip but if the Director got creative influence then he really should have just stuck to the book!

It's far too long and wounded and repetitive on silly stories and narratives. Cinematography is excellent and there's some strong acting in parts but it's just really average I'm afraid.

The quote that sums it up is 'now I have the confidence to go on the nice wide roads' when she's on a B road and nothing like the six lane highways you get in Asia. Lol.