DAAWAT-E-ISHQ: Not-so-regular! Not-so-surprising! Strictly Enjoyable! [2.5/5]

Boy follows the girl for a week or so. Girl waits for him to propose. And finally, it happens. A month later when both the actual parties in business [Marriage as they call it socially] meet in a restaurant to discuss further nitty gritties, the only reaction boy in love could come up with on his parent’s demand for dowry is, “My education in abroad needs only 60 lakhs. Why are you asking for 80 then?”…and you see a big banner being unveiled in the background that reads, “Sale 70% off”. That’s one aspect of this ethically corrupted-practically accepted malpractice we aren’t much vocal about recently. But there has to be the other side of the coin. This one too has its own.

The girl rejected countless proposals now has a wicked and impish plan to teach all the ‘dowry demanding sharks’. Weapon is the anti-dowry Law Section 498a of Indian Penal Code. Change your identity. Locate a well off dowry-starved party. Record all the proceedings of the verbal trade about the deal, get married and blackmail the parent for an out-of-court settlement with heavy money in exchange. Simple from the word go but then enters the spoiler. True love! What a filmy plot! Isn’t it? Do not dare you ask me what happens next.

Habib Faisal’s DAAWAT-E-ISHQ definitely has a delicious mix of new & age-old authentic flavors to lure his viewers but incidentally it is a half-cooked, strictly average dish you would not prefer to spend your special evenings with. Story by Faisal himself smells quite alike in nature at various fronts with similarly plotted LADIES Vs RICKY BAHL (Known for being Parineeti’s debut vehicle; Faisal was one of the co-writers), but the screenplay, dialogues and the characters more than performances are worth mentioning as they do a lot of damage control here.

Parineeti Chopra as the carefree & convinced Gulrez Qadir is energetic yet enigmatic as always. She shines like a fine cut diamond in most parts where playing the original character but the moment she slips into her another ‘fake’ character in the film, her charisma gets lessen and lighten by the overtly done character-sketch. Too shiny, too bright-eyed to be believable! Anupam Kher apparently is more into the character without being loud, his common setback with the most portrayals! Aditya Roy Kapoor looks every part of a Lucknow based restaurentier. His flirtatious presence on screen brings sheer energy in the plot. I wish he had given more room to show the emotional side of his character. TV heartthrob Karan Wahi makes his debut and does full justice to his extended special appearance.

DAAWAT-E-ISHQ scores big with the dialect and the dialogues! The vernacular touch of Hyderabadi Dakhini and the ‘shaayrana’ Lucknowi is very well achieved. When was the last time you met someone from Lucknow calling it ‘Nakhlau’? I know, it’s not in expected practice anymore but still. And then, the all known & loved authentic Mughlai dishes forcing and enticing you to rush towards the nearest and locally famous Biryani & Kebab vendors.

At the end, Habib faisal does dare to put some soul in the plot by raising a social issue we have been insensitive about for a long time now. Hope if he could have restricted himself from being tempted to filmy formulas of a happy-ending love-story. At best, it is one of those buffets that send you back home with an enjoyable break from regular dinner at home but will not keep you entirely-full or fully-pleased till you get anything better to overcome it. Strictly Enjoyable! [2.5/5] 

BOBBY JASOOS: Vidya overpowers this less-Jasoosi thriller! [3/5]

Hyderabad has not been the backdrop of many Bollywood films but a few very relevant ones like Sagar Sarhadi’s BAZAAR; so when promos of BOBBY JASOOS made a suggestion of it being positioned completely in the same city of its own flavors, an apprehension got fixed in my head. Will the typical Hyderabadi lingo and the lehza work or else it would be just another laughing stock stuck in its stereotype treatment? Now that I have seen it, I can say my doubts didn’t get proper ground to prosper. Debutante director Samar Shaikh’s BOBBY JASOOS belongs to two, one being Hyderabad itself and the second is Vidya Balan, often pronounced as the HERO of her films. BOBBY JASOOS in fact, is a complete shocker mostly not because it is a thriller but as an emotional Indian drama that asks important questions about our male-ruled society. Why can a profession like private investigation not picked up by a girl? Why Kitty always has to a dumb assistant and not a smart challenger to Karamchand in her own way?

Coming from a middle class Hyderabadi Muslim family where father [Rajendra Gupta] arrogantly announces that he doesn’t need his daughter’s money to run the house, Bilquis aka Bobby [Vidya] dares to chase her dream of being a popular private detective. Flooded with petty cases of gathering information about people’s personal affairs, Bobby is waiting to hit the jackpot with something big and it comes to her as Anees Khan [Veteran Kiran Kumar] - a rich man in search of a missing girl with least information to follow. Stunned in the flashes of money involved, little she remembers the basics of the profession. Get your hands clean on the client first!

BOBBY JASOOS beautifully and in its most authentic manner captures the core of middle class houses. The extended families with father’s sister [Tanve Azmi in one such] and her daughters live and breathe with ease, ‘Sehri’ and ‘Iftaar’ being performed together since it is a Ramadan month, father being the dominating force and kids hardly can put their view-points! The best part is you are never bombarded with forced Hyderabadi dialect but it is well-crafted in the story and subtly performed. Even in their shortest of time on screen, actors like Rajendra Gupta as the controlling father, Supriya Pathak Kapoor as Bobby’s Mother, Tanve Azmi as the Kausar Khaala who’s kind of a marriage counselor to everybody and anybody comes across, Arjan Bajwa, Zarina Wahab, Akash Dahiya and Kiran Kumar in his comeback sort leave the demanded and deserving impact. Ali Fazal is a revelation. He has done well in a couple of movies after 3 IDIOTS but this one establishes him as a charming performer. Spare me for saying it but his dialogue delivery at places reminds me of Naseer saab’s.

And now, the Vidya Balan! Vidya has always been targeting scripts and roles that ascertains full just to her acting potential. The writing here sure can’t be judged at par her earlier selections but still, she manages to pull it out brilliantly. There is no way you complain a scene Vidya is in. Don’t fool yourself by expecting a ‘Sherlock Holmes’ thriller out of it, but this first Bollywood woman detective sure shows flare of emotions you’ll feel connected to. Watch it for Vidya! [3/5]