What is it all about?
Top lined by cracking chemistry and performance by Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt with some good funny camaraderie between Humpty’s BOD (Bros of Delhipur). But sidelined by dart of ideas and paranoia to the 1995 celebrated Dulhania called as DDLJ with forced ghisse pite (clichéd) sentiments and lack of innovative sense. First time writer director Shashank Khaitan’s ‘HSKD’ might be ‘cool’ for those young legs who will flock to the theatres in lehenga, ghagra, jeans, cholis, and shorts but will it make them dance with its sugar-coated sentiment-shots after "Saturday Sunday" weekend is a question....
The Story
Clearly displaying lack of dart in innovative ideas writer Shashank Khaitan must have thought of giving the B-Town's iconic romance DDLJ starring SRK and Kajol a tribute, a homage. But just couldn't free itself as a writer from the iconic romancer’s basic plot’s bondage - failing to add any novelty to the 1995 YRF’s cult romance that brought NRIs, Indian values and culture back in vogue at the Indian box office.
Blame it on Manish Malhotra-designed 'Kareena Kapoor' lehenga worth 5 lakhs... "Aaj ki Simran" urf Kavya Pratap Singh (Alia Bhatt) from a wealthy Punjabi family is about to get married to an NRI stud played by television hottie Siddharth Shukla in an arrange marriage. The phataka kudi, who claims to be ‘hot’ since birth, wishes to wear that lehenga and get married. Gung ho to be in Bebo’s shoes, Alia bumps off to Delhi to have some time of her own and meets Humpty Sharama (Varun Dhawan) asli name Rakesh. This cool Delhi ka dude befriends her. They party on ‘Saturdays’, sip beer and come near to fight papaji’s (Asutosh Rana) fear to make their love line clear.
Sadly the strong part of DDLJ is the weak part of HSKD. The writer shows his caliber in those camaraderie between Varun and his gang of dost and moments between Alia and Varun. But the moments between Humpty and Kavya’s family and her father lack the emotional current.
Aditya Chopra was remarkable in DDLJ on this front. SRK’s scenes with Amrish Puri’s and Kajol’s family where powered with sense and sensibility. Shashank fails over here.
What to look out for?
Shashank has the spark to churn feel good bubble gum romancers as ordered by Dharma - provided he works on developing sentiments with sense more. He is very good in lighter moments and characterizations especially Bunty’s friends.
They give HSKD its best moments. Alia and Varun are cracking. Varun has a great screen presence and he is a joy to watch right from the first frame. Entertaining performance. Alia is spunky, delightful and so beautiful to make any Humpty fall in love with her.
Good to see Ashutosh Rana. Siddharth makes his presence felt in his debut film. Shonty as Poplu Varun’s friend is superb. The dialogues during the lighter moments are witty dipped in Punjabi lingo. The saddi Delhi feel is maintained. Technicalities are fine. Music by Sachin-Jigar, Toshi Sabri is hummable. "Mein Tenu Samjava Ki" and "Saturday" are good.
What not?
HSKD is a clear case of a tribute gone wrong and ironically giving it an incomplete spoof feeling. Having its lighter moments placed perfectly to the core Shashank’s HSKD lacks the much needed emotional connect in a rom com targeted at family audiences. It has weird and pointless sequences like Humpty and his future papa-in-law smoking in private. Unnecessary gay gag...! Why? What for? Unexplained. Babuji’s change of mind and Siddharth’s sudden disappearance not explain. The movie faces a serious threat due to an abrupt end.
Conclusion: DDLJ has enjoyed its offering of tributes directly or indirectly be it Imtiaz Ali’s 'Jab We Met' or Rohit Shetty’s ‘Chennai Express’. But HSKD by Shashank Khaitan lacks gyans of novelty to come any close to make a difference. Watch it with your ‘hottie’ if she/he really insists and goes on dharna... warna watch DDLJ once again..
Rating **and1/2
Comments