A Noiva de Humpty

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, popularly known as DDLJ has been one of the biggest cult hits of Bollywood and an epic love story. What had made that famous Yash Raj movie tick was that it had the youthful element of adventurous love despite the fact that the girl is about to be married to a boy of her father's choice. And then, the lover boy goes all out to win over her parents and gets the girl.

Karan Johar has attempted to re-create the same magic by making a largely DDLJ inspired film Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. It has oodles of romance, comedy and a bit of beating and getting beaten up plus a couple of likable songs. But, will this film make it as big as DDLJ? I don't think so. Partly due to short shelf life of films and partly due to generation change from the days of Bollywood style true love!

The film opens with an introduction to its lead characters. Rakesh 'Humpty' Sharma (Varun Dhawan) is a happy go lucky young man brought up by his equally chilled out father (Kenny Desai) who runs a bookstore in Delhi. Kavya Pratap Singh (Alia Bhatt) is girl from Ambala engaged to an NRI chosen by her authoritarian dad (Ashutosh Rana). Patriarch Singh detests love marriage after the failure of his first daughter's choice and wants the whole affair to go on in the way that he deems fit.

Kavya wants her wedding to be a grand affair. After noticing that her friend in Delhi, Gurpreet has bought herself a designer lehenga, she demands her family buy one for her too. When denied, Kavya quarrels with her family and goes to Delhi to make enough money to shop a designer. It was here that she meets Humpty and she arranges a deal to get him through a pass mark in his bachelor's degree.

For Humpty, he has fallen for the pretty, feisty and smart girl and chases her despite knowing that she is about to get married in a month and a half. But as is the case in all romance flicks, Kavya falls for Humpty after he helps Gurpreet with a problem and then delivers upon his promise to buy her a lehenga (although the latter seemed extremely contrived). Although Kavya heads back to Ambala to go on with the wedding plans, Humpty chases her and vows to win her father's heart.

The story takes a serious turn as Kavya's father and brother turn belligerent towards him. Upon Kavya's insistence, father Singh gives Humpty a chance by putting him on the task of finding at least one fault in the NRI boy Angad (Siddharth Shukla) that he has chosen for his daughter. The rest of the story is filled with humor as Humpty and his two friends go all out; plus the essential ingredient, emotional scenes.

While the plot is decent, the ending of Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania has far less impact than the epic scene of DDLJ where Shah Rukh Khan is on the train awaiting Amrish Puri to release his grip on Kajol and the latter running in all her bridal finery to board the train. Who can ever forget that scene!

This is just her third movie and Alia hasn't put a foot wrong, either in her choice of movies or performance. She has played a college kid, a soul searching sojourner and now a feisty bride with aplomb. Notwithstanding the dumb Alia jokes on the internet, the numero uno slot in Bollywood is just a matter of time for the actress who can carry off innocence and attitude perfectly well.

Varun Dhawan's character is not that of a typical macho hero, but a regular guy who wears his heart on his sleeve who falls in love with the girl. Siddharth Shukla, a popular face on TV makes his film debut. However, his role hardly has much scope. One of the most noteworthy performances is that of the acclaimed actor Ashutosh Rana as the stern father. He fits well into the Bollywood baddies hall of fame.

Verdict: When compared, there is no chance that débutante director Shashank Khaitan can manage what a débutante Aditya Chopra did 19 years ago. On a stand-alone basis, Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania is an enjoyable film and it's a choice you won't regret. The song 'Samjhawaan' is very likable too. You can watch it with your family, laugh at the jokes and yes, believe in the power of love!

While the film did pay modern homage to the classic DDLJ and have decent lead actors (Dhawan & Bhatt) with great chemistry, the film falls short for me with its unnecessary homophobic jokes and overload toxic masculinity. Director and writer Shashank Khaitan did manage to drop in that being gay is okay, but it shouldn't be there in the first place. It was tacky and reflects a poor writing. I don't understand why most Karan Johar's production have these kind of homophobic running gags (Student of the year, Dostana) with their brainless approach? He is gay himself and could did a better writing than being sleazy. The toxic masculinity also feels old if you watch it seven years from now, although I must say they balanced it with making fun of how Indian men are lazy in household duties compared to the NRI. The songs are fabulous and I really like Alia Bhatt's Kavya character: pretty badass and sassy.

HUPTY SHARMA KI DULHANIA is a typical Dharma Productions movie. Fat Indian weddings, mehenga designer lehengas, meaningless interrupting songs and a lot, A LOT, of melodrama.

Eight minutes into the film and we have seen a boy selling question papers for kisses from girls and the female lead convincing her Dad to buy a lehenga on a dining table from which her divorced sister gets up and leaves because she chose a wrong man for herself. The guy who goes around flirting and kissing girls becomes emotional at a tragic DDLJ scene and feels guilty on a traditional lecture given by the female lead.The whole group and the father of the boy start making contributions for a completely strange girl.The love that was in the form of a bud until late, without any further development shows an intense bed scene. I mean, how can we not have a bed scene, it has been one full hour!

The minor amount of logic they were making in the first half goes on decreasing exponentially in the second hour. The climax is unbelievably stupid. There is no spoiler in this film, we have seen it all in Dilwaale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and all such Blockbusters.

Varun Dhawan famous for his flawed imitation of loud actors like Govinda was heavily annoying in the few starting scenes. Alia Bhatt who had been a surprise packet in the last two movies was strictly average in this flick. The supporting cast, however, is pretty strong.

Music is below average. Direction and cinematography needed much more attention. Editor must be fired quickly.

The movie, however illogical and irritating it may be at times, does have it spots of tickles. Despite brutally filled with clichés, the movie has its cheerful moments. The chemistry between the lead pair is warm(if not sizzling).

You may give this movie a miss but you wouldn't be wasting your time much if you have nothing else to do. A generous five-and-a-half-out-of- ten for the rare freshness.

Movie: HUMPTY SHARMA KI DULHANIA

Review: Lets start from DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE (one of my favorite movies ever), released in 1995, created a lot of

records, continues to inspire a number of storytellers to this date. Now débutant director Shashank Khaitan borrows the

essence from all-time classic film and make new mas-ala in the form of HUMPTY SHARMA KI DULHANIA.The main characters in the

movie are Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. As we know in Bollywood, the more things change, the more they stay the same.Awesome

acting performed by Varun Dhawan.Alia also played a good role as Ambala girl. There is action, entertainment,love and

thrill in the movie.The songs of the movie are copied but you will still love them.In the end as always hero wins and

makes happy ending. On the whole HUMPTY SHARMA KI DULHANIA is a beautifully textured love story that wins you over.

"Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" is not only a movie for a lot of us, but it is an experience which I have re-visited God knows how many times, that I have lost count….

"Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" is a tribute to the cult classic "DDLJ", and Shahshank Khaitan who debuts as a director with this movie tries to replicate the Raj & Simran magic with Humty & Kavya the two principle characters of this movie. But unfortunately the magic just does not happen.

Story & Screenplay written by Shahshank tries to replicate a lot of sequences from "DDLJ", like the cool father of Humpty Sharma (Varun Dhawan) or the quintessential strict typical Punjabi dad of Ambala girl Kavya Pratap Singh (Alia Bhatt). Kavya's Father Mr Singh (Ashutosh Rana) fixes her marriage to his childhood friend's son Angad (Sidharth Shukla). Kavya meets Humpty in Delhi, when she visits Delhi for her trousseau shopping or should I say lehenga and invariably falls in love with ever so imperfect Humpty Sharma. Humpty lands at her wedding celebrations in Ambala and confesses his love for Kavya to his father, well after which it is predictable and this is where the movie falters, there is nothing new. It has some moments especially the sequences with Humpty and his friends Shonty and Poplu or sequences when Kavya is pulling Humpty's leg. But it clearly misses the real core of the story, it is the love angle. There are no sequences which really help to develop the chemistry of the lead pair.

It is the dialogues written by Shahshank himself which lifts the screenplay. The dialogues are funny, witty and catchy. The lingo is typical Delhi as per the setting.

The performance of the lead pair Varun and Alia is crackling, especially Alia's, she is getting better with each movie. Varun as Humpty fits the bill and portrays his character well. Alia as Kavya overshadows all with her typical Punjabi girl act. Ashutosh Rana as Kavya's father is good. But it is Humpty friends Shonty played by Gaurav Pandey and Poplu played by Sahil Vaidya who add the zing to the narration; both the actors have done a brilliant job. Sidharth Shukla is introduced in this movie but he has very less scope and as his character is not developed well, nevertheless his good boy act is pleasant but there is no histrionics which is displayed by the débutant.

Music which is the highlight of all Dharma Production movies, unfortunately is average in this movie, excluding the peppy "Saturday Saturday" and the romantic "Samjhavan" rendered beautifully by Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal and music by Sharib-Toshi ,are two of the best tracks, rest fails to impress.

The production design by Parichit Paralkar is realistic and it is complimented well with Neha Parti's cinematography which is true to the setting and narration of the movie.

Shashank Khaitan's direction shows a spark but it is the weak story & screenplay which fails him. Overall "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" is an average fair and worth one watch. So if you have nothing to do go for this movie.....