Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara MOVIE REVIEW
Film: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.
Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin
Rating: ****
Director: Zoya Akhtar
The witticism, of course, flows. With Farhan Akhtar around, what else can we expect? But the spoken lines (a brilliant fusion of the colloquial and existential) are so doggedly wedded to the visuals that we come away with a complete and satisfying cinematic experience, so replete with life’s most luscious home-truths that we want to carry the plot’s bumper-sticker wisdom in our hearts forever
Farhan Akhtar did it ten years ago, in “Dil Chahta Hai”. He got three friends on the threshold of a career on a road-trip and let them come to terms with their own weaknesses and insecurities, even as Farhan, that wily filmmaker, discovered his own strengths as a storyteller.
Now it’s Farhan’s sister Zoya Akhtar’s turn to take that road trip. Some day we need to figure out the Akhtar siblings’ affinity to films about three male friends on a journey to self-discovery. Suffice it to say that “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara” (ZNMD) takes the theme of male bonding to a more illuminating plane than “Dil Chahta Hai”.
As the workaholic money-obsessed stockbroker (Hrithik Roshan), the happy-go-looking-for-his-dad prankster (Farhan Akhtar) and the about-to-be-married-nice-guy (Abhay Deol) set out on trip through locationally lush Spain (ummm, full marks for seductive eyecandy visuals) we follow right behind.
Oh yes, we forgot! This guys’ film is directed by a woman! The feminine touch is nowhere evident in Zoya Akhtar’s direction. She leaves you wondering if delicacy femininity and the opposite of a snobbish misogyny that our desi female directors have been seen to follow, vanished while we were not looking.
ZNMD is a coming-of- age film on many levels. It celebrates the sheer beauty and physicality of location and their deep connection to the characters’ state of mind, without apology or explanation. Trust me. I looked. I couldn’t spot even one unpleasant face or topogrphy in the entire length and breath of this beautiful film.
Yes, the surface is lovely. But so is the soul. Zoya, God bless her aesthetics, sucks us into the beauty of the moment, not giving us any reason to believe that life’s most precious truths are swathed in squalor. ZNMD celebrates splendour. Underwater or up in the air thousands of feet above sea level, the moments of tenderness are not stapled into the climate of camaraderie. They just happen
Technically the film wears its art on its sleeve. Carlos Catalan’s cinematography captures the pain and the fun in Spain without letting the touristic urge take over. Yeah, the film looks fetching. But not at the cost of the characters’ search for bearings in a world that mocks at the beauty of Nature. Editor Anand Subaya doesn’t cut the film. He carves the material in shapes that a jeweller would probably like to imitate if he only knew how.
Every actor seems to the character born. Hrithik’s stuffed-shirt act would have been almost self-parodic were it not so sincere. Abhay Deol is a natural-born reactor. But it’s Farhan Akhtar who steals the best role, lines and moments. He is in his element and the character that evolves in the course of the journey. Oh yes, he gets to mouth his father Javed Akhtar’s evocative poetry.
Katrina Kaif’s Laila is a kind of synthesis of mystique and sincerity that we had seen long ago in Leela Naidu. This film marks the coming-of-age of the Kaif. Kalki in a relatively brief role brings a kind of snide cuteness to the proceedings. Her character is sometimes the brunt of ridicule. She takes it in her stride.
Every major character at some point, appears ridiculous. That’s the beauty of the askew world that Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s script tries to make sense with doses of humour and warmth
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