Karan Johar’s latest directorial venture featuring Aishwarya Roy Bachchan (as Saba), Ranbir Kapoor (as Ayan), Anushka Sharma (as Alizeh Khan) and the controversial actor from Pakistan, Fawad Khan (as Ali) in the lead roles has everything one could look for in Bollywood romantic movie and much more. The celebrity count increases with Alia Bhatt and Shahrukh Khan making short appearances. Also featuring Lisa Haydon in a not so important role, KJo’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil scores incredibly high in this department.
Shot in exotic foreign locations with all the glitz and the glamor, ADHM leaves no stones unturned when it comes to impressing the audience with the canvas. What is most likely to not resonate with the audience, however, is the depth of the storyline and the treacherous themes that lie beneath the surface of this highly anticipated Diwali release.
ADHM dwells the avenues of a RomCom in the first half and scores well in this department. It’s all fun and glossy with people enjoying themselves. Ayan is a ‘private jet’ rich young man who is tempted with sex by his girlfriend played by Lisa Haydon. The relationship doesn’t last long for a much improved Lisa to impress the audience. Fragile in matters of the heart and dangerously vulnerable Ayan falls in love with Alizeh as their friendship develops with the script. Alizeh, with a broken heart herself (we all have issues), comes to the aid of Ayan which makes the latter fall for her even more. As fate would have it, she meets her former lover Ali and gets back with him, shattering our poor Ayan to pieces.
Ayan meets this gorgeous ‘shayariya’, Saba and they turn their acquaintance into a no strings attached kind of relationship. While many might miss it, this gives a hindsight into the nature of these two people: gullible, afraid and vulnerable. In a later scene where Shahrukh makes his appearance, he makes a comment stating that frightened people are often seen looking for shelter behind wonderful words. Given that Ayan is an aspiring singer and Saba a poet, the well-targeted throw of words underlines the above-stated inference.
Moving ahead, the story continues with the leads exploring what they want in life as far as the matters of the heart are concerned. More moments, heartbreaks and upheavals follow rounding off a well-structured script. So far so good.
ADHM, however, loses it, and pretty much so, like an unlucky but hardworking striker on the football pitch missing the finish. An unnecessary twist is introduced at the end which only serves to increase the length of the film.
The acting has been satisfactory throughout, with Anushka stealing the show. There was, however, an element of cheesiness in the dialog delivery, especially with Aishwarya Bachchan. Music remains an important element in this KJo venture as well and every song (with the exception of ‘Break up song’) perfectly placed.
Sticking true to its name, ADHM talks about the complicacies of the heart and how difficult it is to judge things when the lines of division are not as vivid. Scoring high on dialog and sentiment arousal, ADHM misses on the much needed focus required on the execution front, thereby letting go of some of the most brilliant underlying themes which are most likely to be missed by the uninitiated, thereby bringing down the overall worth (and I am strictly not speaking about the revenue generation) of the experience this Diwali release.
Acting: 3/5
Script: 3.5/5
Direction: 4/5Overall: 3.5/5
Verdict: Recommended for everyone
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