Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
I have only nice things to say about this film. The second film of Zoya Akhtar is far better than her first and an improvement over her brother’s debut film 'Dil Chahta Hai', in spite of the obvious traces of inspiration drawn from it.
It is an extremely rare and positive development in Indian cinema, a filmmaker doing significantly better in her second outing. Where her brother and the other two directors of that period, Ashutosh Gowarikar and Madhur Bhandarkar, had failed, she has succeeded. This means she is a serious filmmaker who learns from her mistakes, can analyse her own work objectively, and keeps raising the bar for herself constantly.
'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' is a world-class film from the present Hollywood standards. It is as good as any of the recent Woody Allen films like 'Midnight in Paris', and 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', his odes to the two great cities of the world. Zoya Akhtar’s ode to Spain is as beautifully crafted a masterpiece.
She has extracted the best from her cast and crew. Everyone associated with this film will deservedly be very proud today. It is the best work of Hritik Roshan as an actor. He has actually lived his role in the film and the writer-director has explored his beautiful persona like never before by not portraying him as an Adonis for a change. While Abhay Deol compliments the cast beautifully with his effortless acting, it is the best work of Katerina Kaif. Farhan Akhtar has delivered a relaxed and free-flowing performance unlike his past work as an actor.
This also proves my theory right. We have the best of actors but they cannot do a thing unless they are offered great scripts and directed well. Hritik should now know what went wrong with Kites and Guzaarish and should touch Zoya’s feet in gratitude. Other big-time stars should also make a note. Here is a director and writer capable of exploring their hidden potential.
It is a very simple story of three childhood friends (Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Hritik Roshan) who go on a bachelor party trip to Spain to fight their hidden demons before one of them (Abhay Deol) gets married to a business tycoon’s daughter (Kalki Koechlin). And though they are fun loving fellows, deep within their ‘aatmas’ are ‘dukhi’. They meet a scuba-diving instructor (Katerina Kaif) on the way who helps open the door of self-discovery for one of the friends (Hritik Roshan), who works in a London brokerage firm. The third friend (Farhan) is an advertising copywriter and an aspiring poet who meets his actual father (Naseeruddin Shah), a painter who lives in Spain, for the first time to discover the background story of his birth.
Thankfully, it is not a conducted tour of the European nation to show off its well-known monuments and bullfights and the rest of the usual touristy stuff. It is in the interiors and rural Spain where the film is actually set, which provides a richly-coloured, textured, and cinematically breathtaking backdrop to the story.
It is a beautifully, lovingly, and uncompromisingly written and shot film. Every frame is composed with great care and diligence, including the scuba and sky diving sequences. It must have required a lot of commitment and hard work, which has paid off and Zoya Akhtar can pat her back and feel great about what has she achieved as a writer and director. She has delivered one of the better films of the ‘road and buddy movie’ genre that are immensely popular with the young upwardly mobile generation the world over. I have a feeling that the film will do well in overseas territories too, depending on how it is marketed.
Most of the songs in the film are used as perfectly fitting background scores, so much so that they go unnoticed. Then there is the Senorita song and dance sequence, which is superbly choreographed and well-integrated with the narrative. It adds that essential Bollywood touch to the film with a little difference; the actors actually sing their lines and dance naturally to the tune, in a normal setting.
There are flaws but they are native to films of this genre. You cannot delve too deep into the philosophy of romance, love, and human existence in such films. If a Woody Allen is not doing it, why should Zoya Akhtar do it unnecessarily? She sticks to the easily comprehensible, mind pleasing clichés and ideas carried forward from Dil Chahta Hai. You live for yourself and happiness does not lie in hard and boring regular life, but in living adventurously, dangerously, and fearlessly, doing your own thing, whatever it is. The characters in Zoya’s film can afford such life at an early age.
She has also used her father’s philosophically pretentious poems in the film; but they go well with Farhan’s character of an advertising copywriter trying his hands at writing poetry. And of course the kissing shot of Hritik and Katerina was out of place. A warm long embrace and their moist eyes would have worked all right.
RKS
