Set sail with a stellar Bolly ensemble

WRITER-director Zoya Akhtar has carved a niche for herself as a storyteller of intelligent films. Her debut Luck by Chance and second film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara were filled with wonderful moments showcasing flawed characters facing challenges. Her latest follows the same theme, this time around setting the action on a cruise liner and while there is lots to savour, the film does hit some icebergs along the way and sinks at the end.

The Mehra’s are an affluent family living in Delhi. Despite their family business being on the verge of bankruptcy, the parents, Kamal and Neelu, keep up pretences and live the high life. Their marriage is on the rocks as the philandering Kamal has strayed one too many times. Ayesha, their daughter, has been sacrificed by her parents in a marriage of convenience and their son, Kabir, is about to be made a sacrificial lamb as well in order to save the business. The parents are hypocrites.

To celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary they invite their closest family members and friends on a cruise visiting Turkey and Greece among other ports. Some of the invited guests are there purely to cement busi- DIL DHADAKNE DO (Let The Heart Beat). Directed by Zoya Akhtar. With Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah and Priyanka Chopra. At Ster – Kinekor, Cavendish Square. ness relationships.

Akhtar and her co-writer Reema Kagti infuse their characters with interesting idiosyncrasies, but their screenplay is let down by the length. The film runs 170 minutes and could have been edited much tighter. Many scenes become laborious and drag the pace down.

However, the stellar ensemble cast are a delight to watch. There are many well written scenes performed to perfection. The screenplay is developed intelligently until a climax straight out of a bad Bollywood melodrama. Carlos Catalan’s cinematography is superb, capturing the locations perfectly. Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy’s music score is not their best work, but the song introducing Anushka Sharma’s character set to a big band jazz theme is a delight.

The film is still a cut above many Bollywood drama’s, but one expects more from a filmmaker like Akhtar. It’s definitely worthwhile setting sail with the Mehra’s and their motley crew, but ultimately you’ll be left with a feeling that this cruise looked a little more appealing in the brochure.