Movie Review : Dil to baccha hai jee

DIL TO BACHCHA HAI JI : ENTERTAINING !

Madhur Bhandarkar, the director of such quality films as “Page 3” and “Fashion” returns with a different genre this time. “Dil to baccha hai ji” is a light-hearted look at the many travails of love, and presented amusingly. And I’ve got to say that even this far from his usual genre/forte, Bhandarkar does well. This film could have lapsed into ordinariness, but keeps up the entertainment value right through.

DTBHJ is an entertaining tale about 3 men in different stages of their lives. Naren Ahuja is a 30 something divorcee, Abhay is a young gym trainer with a roving eye, and Milind Kelkar is a gentle-hearted do-gooder working in matrimonial services. All three desire just one thing – to find the love of their lives. And there are candidates galore; will it all end happily for them ?

Ajay Devgan is Naren, a divorcee on the wrong side of 35. Afraid of being too old for the girl next door, he finds himself in just that predicament, when fetching office intern June Pinto (Shazahn Padamsee), who looks like she’s barely out of her teens, takes an inordinate amount of interest in him. He stands out among her youthful friends like a sore thumb, in age and in maturity. Ajay plays Naren with a wry humor, and does just about OK. It is well known of course that light-hearted comedy is not Ajay’s forte, dark drama is.

Abhay (Emraan Hashmi) is a playboy, plain and simple – no qualms about it. He’s looking to find the next rich girlfriend who’ll give him the luxuries he can’t afford. Life looks set when he snares a rich industrialist’s wife (Tisca Chopra). But then he meets the love of his life, and is faced with a choice – love or money ? Will filthy lucre have the day ? Hashmi suits this role 🙂 and plays the part to the hilt – nicely done.

Omi Vaidya, last seen in ”3 Idiots”, plays Milind as a mild-mannered, gullible fool in love. Attracted to Radio Jockey Gungun Sharma (Shraddha Das), Omi is willing to sacrifice his all for her – but does the lady return the favor ? Vaidya is a little wishy-washy as Milind, probably what was required, but his presence is ineffectual. I wasn’t quite interested in his story as I was in the others, and his Ugandan accent didn’t help.

The three leads were allright, but there was a spate of talented and good looking women in the film. Tisca Chopra and Shradha Das stood out, and Padamsee suited her almost juvenile role. Shruthi Haasan as Abhay’s true love lacked acting finesse. Even Daisy Irani made an appearance as June’s grandmother. Overall the good quality supporting cast helped make this film believable. And another feather in its cap was the wonderful music. Melodious and catchy, songs like “Ab kuch dino se” (sung by Mohit Chauhan) up the ante.

I hadn’t expected much from this film, except a few goofy situations and some forced laughs, but this one did unexpectedly well. This is a well-made film, and if you can ignore the obvious clichés and plot-holes, and the fact that this is about men (in love) behaving like imbeciles, this is kinda fun to watch. DTBHJ is a much better candidate for a light-hearted film than some of the films (must I call them that ?) that purport to be comedies. A feel-good wry comedy, this one is well worth a watch.

Kidwise : This is fairly clean – and by that I mean very little vulgarity/cheap innuendoes. There are some conversations that are meant for the grown-up ear, so I’d say this was a PG-15.