Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Review

[fuji]

Watched this movie on opening day Friday. I was super excited to check it out because I've seen and loved this director's previous works. However, I must say that on the whole this movie turned out to be a disappointment for me.

ADHM has most of the major ingredients that should have taken it to the same level as K3G or KHNH: drop dead gorgeous actors, an experienced director and scriptwriter, a superb soundtrack, and a theme that will continue to draw Indian audiences to the theater for generations to come (love). However, what is severely lacking here is 1) an intelligent and convincing screenplay in the second half and 2) characters that you can actually connect to and truly "feel for" when they go through the turmoil on screen.The first half of the movie is very good barring some excessive Bollywood references. The film is engaging and entertaining in these portions, and you start to like the two lead characters as they bond. There are some hilarious scenes including Lisa Haydon's cameo and Ranbir-Anushka's video song reenactments, mixed in with some groovy tunes. You start to feel confident that this is going to be another jolly-good Karan Johar ride.

But then the main conflict starts to present itself, and that's when the movie went downhill for me. The lead characters' behaviors/beliefs/thoughts are bizarre barring on stupid and inconsistent. In fact, you just don't understand the logic behind why these characters feel what they feel, so the emotional moments that the director tries to throw in don't hit the spot. In all fairness, there was some good intense scenes in the first part of the second half between Aishwarya, Ranbir, and Anushka. But it doesn't last, and after a point nothing new was happening on screen. It honestly felt like KJo ran out of ideas of where to take the story so he decided to throw as many "deep" poetic lines, sad songs, and dramatic dialogues at the audience to give the impression that something substantial was going on. Unfortunately, too much of anything is a bad thing, and you just don't feel anything in response to most of those additions once you realize that it's practically the same thing over and over again. The biggest testament to the confused direction of the screenplay was that horribly contrived plot twist in the last 30 minutes that was shocking for all the wrong reasons. Let me just say that when you have members of a multiplex audience snickering at what was intended as a serious scene, you know you've messed up big time.

Performances are one of the saving graces of this film. Ranbir and Anushka are excellent. Aishwarya Rai was drop dead beautiful in this film, and I only wish her character and backstory were fleshed out more. Other than Lisa Haydon's cameo, none of the other special appearances are worth mentioning. Fawad was wasted in a one-dimensional role that was given no depth or explanation whatsoever, which was a blunder considering that some of the major plot points relate to his character Ali.

The other saving grace of the film is the soundtrack by Pritam. In fact, Channa Mereya and the title track are the only compelling parts of the tail end of this film, especially the reprise version of the former. Visualization of the songs is good, but it doesn't match up to the level of choreography and set details that we adored in KJo's prior works. Placement of back-to-back songs without any plot development in between was also incredibly amateurish, especially considering that the tone of the two songs were polar opposites!

All in all, watch it once if you are a fan of any of the lead actors, but do not go in with high expectations. The dragging and underwhelming second half, in combination with the lackluster screenplay and unconvincing character sketches , take the film down to an average level. I really do hope Karan bounces back next time with a movie that is as lovable and enjoyable as his initial works!

Rating: 5/10

[Helwin]

thanx for the review...so as usual feel good romantic tale from bwood ....that too not much enjoyable ...

[wayanadan]

thanxxx fujiiiiiii

[Cinema Freaken]

Thanks Fuji

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[BangaloreaN]

Thanks Fuji.

[ClubAns]

Thanks for the Review.........