Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Review - Of Unrequited Love, Old Bollywood Numbers and Some Masti

PUBLISHED DATE : 30/Oct/2016

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Review - Of Unrequited Love, Old Bollywood Numbers and Some Masti

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Review: Of Unrequited Love, Old Bollywood Numbers and Some Masti

SethuMadhavan


A few minutes into Karan Johar’s latest film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil we see Ayan (Ranbir Kapoor) and Alizeh (Anushka Sharma) spotting each other at a party and literally within minutes they try to get physical, so far so good. But the “act” never happens as Alizeh realizes that Ayan is a sloppy kisser and she backs off. Normally one would expect such stories to die an instant death, but what do we see here? Alizeh and Ayan party all night as they indulge in bar hopping and get friendly.  They also go on a double date later with Alizeh’s fiancée and Ayan’s girlfriend coming along and we continue to hear a lot of cheesy dialogues.  Usually it’s easy to get turned off by seeing something like this happen, after all you ask yourself “this isn’t for real right”? But then when we have competent actors like Ranbir and Anushka at the helm, it’s a different ballgame indeed.

 

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is set in a milieu that Karan Johar is most familiar with, hence the tale obviously revolves around characters who don’t really have to working their ass off to spend for their champagne and caviar. The locations are lovely; most of the film is set in London, Paris and Vienna, except for a minor segment in Lucknow. This time Karan Johar does not even shy away from admitting that the characters are all affluent as seen in the way Ayan openly admits to and is laterseen using a private jet plane. What is different however from his usual films is that the focus is only upon the primary characters and we never really see any of the family members or friends of these characters, hence there is no family drama at all.

 

All we know of Alizeh’s family is a single line that we hear from her and a brief family picture like moment where we see them all in one frame. As for Ayan’s family, again what we know is what we hear him tell Alizeh, even as we just see the back outline of his dad sitting across a large dining table. Ayan is an MBA student in London and a wannabe singer who falls for Alizeh, she likes him a lot as well but more as a friend. Her heart still beats for Ali (Fawad Khan), her ex-boyfriend and just when things are looking good between Ayan and Alizeh she ends up spotting Ali. Much to Ayan’s displeasure Alizeh gets married to Ali, with her appeal for friendship not appearing convincing to Ayan. He ends up getting close to a much senior Saba Ali Khan (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), a sexy divorcee and a poetess living in Vienna. They have an open relationship of sorts and everything seems to be going well until Ayan comes across Alizeh once again. What happens further in the lives of all them is something we get to see as the film progresses.

Despite the cheesy dialogues and the ever so frequent tributes to 80’s Bollywood numbers and the mandatory references to Karan Johar’s previous films, the film does manage to keep us engaged by and large. And to this the credit majorly goes to Ranbir and Anushka, their wonderful chemistry helping a lot in making even ordinary scenes look appealing. Ranbir is back in his comfort zone and is clearly in his element as he pulls of Ayan with consummate ease. Anushka complements Ranbir and is in good form as well here. Aishwarya looks stunning and looks the character, though one can wonder how a poetess can live such an affluent life and that too in ViennaJ. The last scene that she features in along with Ranbir in particular shows her ability to read her character well. Fawad Khan has more of an extended cameo but is quite effective, Lisa Haydon is perfectly cast for her brief appearance and both Alia Bhatt and SRK get noticed in one scene each. In fact SRK underplays himself in the scene which also features Ranbir and Aishwarya, but walks away with the best dialogue in the film.


Pritam’s musical score works and Anil Mehta ensures that the visuals come alive in their various hues and shades wonderfully on screen.  Towards the end though one does get the feeling that perhaps Karan Johar took the easy way out to bring the tale to a culmination. It is not a surprise if the film makes you remember Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar, giving you the feeling that the film could have actually ended up even better. Ultimately Ae Dil Hai Mushkil sees Ranbir make a comeback and it is watchable for sure, but it is not the best of Karan Johar.


Bottomline


Karan Johar has tried to bring some variation to the angle of unrequited love that he had previously explored in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai & the result is a mixed bag of sorts. But thanks mainly due to Ranbir and Anushka’s spirited performances the film works to an extent.

Rating: 3/5

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