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Dear Zindagi Movie Review: SRK-Alia's chattathon is a party that ends up as a jagrata!
There has to be a pill for verbal diarrhea. In case there is, team Dear Zindagi needs to be prescribed a week-long dosage of it pronto. We suffered more at Gauri Shinde’s latest offering because of the expectations it piqued. Naturally, she returns after the high of the flawless English Vinglish. There is Shah Rukh Khan and Alia Bhatt sharing screen space; who from the peppy banter in the promos seem like a riot together. Unfortunately, in this case, the promos weren’t really a build up. The trailers, songs, dialogues are just like the menu card for this movie, putting out all that is there. There are long stretched monologues, deep dialogues which in some places are brilliant and sometimes, just pure gyaan.
From its vibe, Dear Zindagi mirrored the soul of Dil Chahta Hai, which truly is the single truest portrayal of an entire generation. But lacks the same skillful, nuanced depiction of situations, emotional baggage and well, flawed people. Alia’s Kaira, in this case, is a prototype modern woman. Successful at her work, evident from the praises she garners from colleagues and a messed up personal life. There is a dramatic breakup and she rants about her dil going to hell. But we never get a chance to empathize with her or see a reflection of ourselves in her woes. It is a classic writing problem but Gauri smartly camouflages it with a dapper Shah Rukh Khan as Kaira’s shrink.
There was an entire gamut of possibilities with a confused female protagonist, figuring out her love life. There was a fabulous morality angle to her long list of boyfriends, which was left unexplored. A great move on sparing the lecture and judgment but Gauri doesn’t quite compensate with anything exemplary. The verbose narrative is a Paulo Coelho book and obviously, SRK is a custom fit given their mutual admiration for each other (not to mention the Twitter love). Yes, Gauri weaves a beautiful story around a non-commitment leading lady of ours and what goes wrong with the men she dates – her past (Angad Bedi), her present (Kunal Kapoor) and her future (Ali Zafar).
The director emphasizes on a bunch of relevant issues too; women being soft targets in rented apartments and getting thrown out without pretext (something a majority of single women population in Mumbai can certainly vouch for). Does the tinder generation lack passion and fall in love without any real feeling? Gauri explores the angle superficially. So does she just skim past locals frowning about all issues pertaining to mental health? It is all in the mind, most elders say, looking down at depression.
But the problem persists that director Gauri Shinde only had a beautiful idea in her mind that goes on without making a single emphatic point or even a hook. Kaira’s back story is underwhelming and the long, tough journey to the climax is an absolute spirits dampener.
Together SRK-Alia hold the film together. Their chattering is a hoot and the humour is witty. Alia is adequate for the most part, restrained as she must be exhibiting the right shades of nonchalant and charming. Her men are alright, Kunal shining more than the others. But Shinde cannot engage us enough in the second half. The story has moved on to a soulless place, where there are just too many words and all you want to do is to shush everyone. SRK sells corny with confidence and just for his sake, you buy a lot of preachy mantras. Too bad, the focus doesn’t stay on SRK all along. Some more of him would have gone a long way in benefiting the movie.
Dear Zindagi starts off as a rap song but ends on an aarti note. Too bad you never realized when your party turned into a jagrata.
We rate it a 50% on Pinkvilla Movie Meter.
