Glossy, simplistic and clichéd
DHADAK Direction: Shashank
Khaitan
Actors:Janhvi Kapoor,
Ishaan Khatter
Rating: ★★★
Udaipur is the battleground in Dhadak, the remake of the 2016 Marathi blockbuster Sairat. Behind its palace domes and gleaming heritage hotels are a people steadfastly defined by caste.
Parthavi (Janhvi Kapoor), the daughter of a hotelier and political strongman, refuses to abide by these rules. She is strong-willed, boisterous and unsubtle.
In true ‘90s style, she taunts and challenges Madhukar’s (Ishaan Khatter) masculinity and the lowercaste boy decides to tread a difficult path. What made Sairat unique was its authenticity and the natural charm of its rough-around-theedges protagonists. Dhadak replaces that with a misplaced determination to look pretty. Vishnu Rao’s cinematography is picture-perfect. But given the context, this only serves to remind you that you are in the Dharma Productions’ universe, a world where the songs work well and the emotional scenes don’t. Sadly, this is true of Dhadak too.
The film is glossy, simplistic and clichéd. There is no complexity to any of its relationships. Kapoor shouldn’t have attempted an accent, but other than that she fits the role she’s given. Khatter is effective as the urban teen on a completely different wavelen- gth from his parents. As Kapo- or fails at housework and Ishaan strives to provide for th- em, it all starts to feel very hohum and you can see that it’s more a launch vehicle for two aspiring stars than a retelling of a modern-day classic.
Khatter could probably have done more with a better narrative. Kapoor will likely be a better fit in a more typical Bollywood film.