If Bollywood films are to be believed, everyone in love is predestined to
elope from their wedding-mandaps at
the very last moment when Pheras are
to be performed. Events of similar nature do happen in real life, it’s just I
haven’t been lucky enough to witness any such in my whole life of more than 30
years. But one thing I am very sure about…I have seen romantic comedies like
Arif Ali’s LEKAR HUM DEEWANA DIL for more than I could remember. One prominent inspiration
here is SOCHA NA THA, the launch-pad of writer-director Imtiaz Ali who incidentally
also happens to be Arif’s brother. The similarities and likenesses are so evident;
LEKAR HUM DEEWANA DIL could & should be tagged as a SOCHA NA THA rip-off, but
an awful one. It’s an extremely long-boring-escapable journey no one will like
to hop on.
The ‘BFF (Best Friends Forever)’ duo Karisma & Dino [Newcomers Deeksha Seth & the
Kapoor-clan Arman Jain] are often teased as a couple by their common friends. In
a hasty & impulsive pronouncement of love and the passion of being
together, they decide to elope as Karisma’s hardcore traditional father would
marry her off to any boring guy of his choice and for Dino’s father; Dino is nothing
but a plain nobody. Together, they take a ride that is hardly any exciting and
too superfluous to find a place in your heart. Much later, just on the verge of
interval; they realize the honeymoon period is over and the romantic fairytale is
nowhere to be found. Follows the process of annulment of their marriage, parental
participation to make things even bitter and finally, the weirdly convenient realization
of love for each other! Oh, not again!
Romantic comedies are the safest options to mark a début in Bollywood,
and probably the hardest ones too. What one expects from any such effort are a thicken
chemistry between leads, freshness in the plot and relatable drama to clinch
your emotions at its place. Sadly, Arif as a writer-director doesn’t even try
to look any different and gets hugely dependent on his brother’s flicks like SOCHA
NA THA [parental angle], JAB WE MET [Stopover at small city] & even COCKTAIL
[For most of styling and dialogues] for so-called inspirations. Only addition here that had slightest of
promises was their accidental encounter with naxalites of Bastar & Dantewada.
Disheartening to say that even this sequence ends up mocking their fight to
justice & freedom in a completely ham-fisted item number!
Arman and Deeksha both look confident and do succeed in creating some
very good moments to rejoice but the staleness in writing kills it all. Of the
supporting cast, most are just wasted and that included veterans like Kumud
Mishra, Rohini Hattangadi and Varun Vadola. A R Rehman’s music soothes the soul
in between all the baffling scenes haphazardly coming one after the other but it
never rules the heart. You’ll find it hard to remember all the ‘Khaleefas’ and ‘Tu
Shinings’ sooner or later.
To sum up, LEKAR HUM DEEWANA DIL suffers from a time-lapse syndrome. Had
it come in late 90’s when uber urban generation was gaining the spot with a
certain lingo full of slangs, strong urge to reinvent new dimensions to the
term ‘new-age’ and a demand of change in cinema, it would have made a clean
mark. As of now, it is just another forgettable love-story! Escape it! [1.5/5]
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