Film Review: Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania
By: Saumil Gandhi
DDLJ ’s T20 avtar
For lack of a better analogy, I’d say thatHumpty Sharma Ki Dulhania is to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge what T20 is to Test cricket: you can’t take it seriously, but is pretty good entertainment while it lasts.
Thanks mainly to good dialogue writing by director Shashank Khaitan, the film manages to tide over some overly simplified plotting, a half-baked first half, and an ending that leaves you feeling cheated. The lines invariably hit the right note, they are genuinely funny without being crude or in your face, and they capture the currently trending Delhi lingo just about right.
Varun Dhawan is rightly cast as the golden-hearted rogue. In this film and others, it is his boundless energy that stands out in his performance, and this trait complements his title role to perfection. Matching him line for line is Alia Bhatt. Spunky, sassy, and star beer drinker, she brings a great deal of charisma to her Kavya.
Neither has a great deal of heavy duty acting to do, but they are completely at home going through the rollercoaster of emotions that the typical Hindi film throws at them, as should be expected of any actor graduating from the KJo school of film-making. One of the unusual things in the screenplay – for a mainstream Bollywood film – is the fact it understates almost every dramatic point in the film. When they fall in love, are separated, meet again, conflict with her father; one of the two invariably quips a wisecrack, lightens the mood, and the film moves on. Take the example of a scene towards the ending, when the film reaches its conflict as Ashutosh Rana catches Varun and Alia at the railway station (one of the innumerable DDLJ references in the film).
You expect heavy dialogue and melodrama to resolve the situation, but instead of a grand speech Varun Dhawan mouths of a funny monologue to make his point. Dhawan is the right actor to pull this off, and it works almost every time in the film.
It is openly promoted as a tribute to DDLJ, and the structure of the film is almost identical to it. The first half is about Alia being readied to get married to a stranger she has never seen, meeting Varun as she travels away from her home, and falling in love with him. The second half sees him follow her to her Punjab village, win her family over, and finally convince her father to win the day.
In trying to make Humpty… its own film — and they do succeed in giving it a unique texture — the writers work themselves to a point where they seem to run out of ideas, because they struggle with the way it ends. They would have done well ending it where DDLJ did, because what follows next has no real motivation within the script.
Shah Rukh, Kajol, and Aditya Chopra made a classic that remains the enduring film of our generation. Humpty… has no such aspirations, and aims to simply entertain. In that, it succeeds. Nothing more, nothing less.
Rating: 2.5 stars
For lack of a better analogy, I’d say that
Thanks mainly to good dialogue writing by director Shashank Khaitan, the film manages to tide over some overly simplified plotting, a half-baked first half, and an ending that leaves you feeling cheated. The lines invariably hit the right note, they are genuinely funny without being crude or in your face, and they capture the currently trending Delhi lingo just about right.
For making it work so well, credit should be given to the actors as well. The support cast, in particular, does a fine job. Varun Dhawan’s two buddies, played by Gaurav Pandey and Sahil Vaid are spot on, the latter providing more than a few laughs as the goofball of the trio. And it’s good to see Ashutosh Rana relish the role of Alia’s father, bringing gravitas and humour in equal measure to a character that could have easily become stereotyped.
Neither has a great deal of heavy duty acting to do, but they are completely at home going through the rollercoaster of emotions that the typical Hindi film throws at them, as should be expected of any actor graduating from the KJo school of film-making. One of the unusual things in the screenplay – for a mainstream Bollywood film – is the fact it understates almost every dramatic point in the film. When they fall in love, are separated, meet again, conflict with her father; one of the two invariably quips a wisecrack, lightens the mood, and the film moves on. Take the example of a scene towards the ending, when the film reaches its conflict as Ashutosh Rana catches Varun and Alia at the railway station (one of the innumerable DDLJ references in the film).
You expect heavy dialogue and melodrama to resolve the situation, but instead of a grand speech Varun Dhawan mouths of a funny monologue to make his point. Dhawan is the right actor to pull this off, and it works almost every time in the film.
It is openly promoted as a tribute to DDLJ, and the structure of the film is almost identical to it. The first half is about Alia being readied to get married to a stranger she has never seen, meeting Varun as she travels away from her home, and falling in love with him. The second half sees him follow her to her Punjab village, win her family over, and finally convince her father to win the day.
In trying to make Humpty… its own film — and they do succeed in giving it a unique texture — the writers work themselves to a point where they seem to run out of ideas, because they struggle with the way it ends. They would have done well ending it where DDLJ did, because what follows next has no real motivation within the script.
Shah Rukh, Kajol, and Aditya Chopra made a classic that remains the enduring film of our generation. Humpty… has no such aspirations, and aims to simply entertain. In that, it succeeds. Nothing more, nothing less.
Rating: 2.5 stars
