Ae Dil Hai Mushkil- An ode to Love

Release date- 28th Oct 2016

One Word which describes the film- Intense

Best Dialogues-
Ayan- "Aasan Hai Kya? Aisi Mahobbat Karna Jiske Badle Mohabbat Na Mile."

Alizeh- "Pyaar Mein Junoon Hai, Par Dosti Mein Sukun Hai."

Saba- "Main kisi ki jaroorat nahi khwaish banna chahti hoon."

Tahir- "Agar baazi ishq ki baazi hai toh jo chahe laga lo, dar kaisa. Agar jeet gaye to kya kehna, agar haare bhi toh baazi maat nahi."

DJ Ali- "Tumhari mohabbat ke samne meri mohabbat kam pad gayi." 


Genre- Romance/ Drama

Budget- 80 Crores approximately

“Jab pyar mai pyar na ho,

 Jab dard mein yaar na ho
Jab aasoun mein muskaan na ho,
Jab lafzon mein zubaan na ho
Jab saasein bas yunhi chale,
Jab har din mein raat dhale
Jab intezaar sirf waqt ka ho,
Jab yaad uss kambat ki ho
Kyun hun mein rahi
Jab wo hai kisi aur ki manzil,
Dhadkano ne saath chhod diya
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil,
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil”
~ Karan Johar

It has been two weeks since the film released and despite the mixed reviews it has managed to do well both in Indian and international markets.
I have always appreciated Karan Johar's larger than life films where everything is grand, there are perfect people with perfect relationships and by the end everything ends in a happy note.
But this film is unlike any of his film. This film is a dramatized version of his own life story. The characters of the film experience the unreciprocated love and heartbreaks he has gone through in his life. The characters are so real that in everyone you will find some traces of yourself.

Ayan- In a scene Ayan tells Alizeh that he was sure that one day he would meet someone who will understand his craziness and accept him like he was. He's the 'private jet' rich kind of guy who has everything and still is not happy because he doesn't understand why a girl who calls him his bestest friend can't be in love with him too. He aims to please everybody. Ranbeer as Ayan is the guy anyone can fall in love with. We found him cute, understood his confusion, shared his excitement and at times sympathized with him too.

Alizeh- The girl who knows she has been a fool in love and so values the comfort of friendship more than the excitement of an obsessive love. She is mature when explaining about love to others but when it's about her, she commits the same mistake again, even telling her friend, "Mohabbat karne walo ka vishwas nahi karna chahiye". Anushka Sharma is perfect in the role. At some places her friendship with Ranbeer looks very real and we could feel her enjoyment in bullying him.

Ali- Fawad Khan has a small role in the film. In his unkempt unruly hair he looks messy. His character was important to the story but he has just 3-4 dialogues and hardly leaves any impact.

Saba- Aishwarya did two woman oriented film after her comeback , Jazbaa and Sarabjeet, but both didn't do well at the box office or got her any critical acclamation. As Saba Taliyar Khan she looked so hot and beautiful that even those who hated the film couldn't ignore her presence. The video of "Bulleya" has got 71 million hits in a month and must be the most viewed Bollywood song. Her chemistry with Ranbir is so real that it set the screen on fire. Karan Johar very wisely showed most of the passionate scenes between them in the trailer and created so much curiosity among the audience that the film got a very good opening.

Music is the life and soul of the film. Whether it's the title song which explains the pain of one sided love or "Channa Mereya"  the heartbreak song, they are bound to stay in your mind long after you have seen the film.
Karan Johar has given so much of himself in this film that I doubt that he'll direct another film soon. Karan Johar said that he learned a lot from Aditya Chopra while assisting him in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaynge. Without even watching Aditya Chopra's upcoming film "Befikre", I can say that with this film Karan has shown that he has gone way ahead than his mentor.

In a line, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is that kaleidoscope which will bring to your mind all the meaningful & loving relationships you have ever experienced in your life.

Good one time watch.

Sarbjit~ Not another 'Shawshank Redemption'

Release date- 20th May 2016

One Word which describes the film- Woeful

Best Dialogue- 'Marne dete nahi, aur zindagi cheen lete hai.' 

Genre- Biography/ Drama

Music- Jeet Gannguli, Amaal Mallik, Tanishk Bagchi

Producer- Vashu Bhagnani, Bhushan Kumar, Sandeep Singh, Omung Kumar

Story- Utkarshini Vashishtha, Rajesh Beri

Direction-Omung Kumar

Cast- Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Randeep Hooda, Richa Chadha, Darshan Kumaar

Budget- 25 Crores approximately

The only other prison film I have seen except Sarbjit is 'The Shawshank Redemption' which had this byline ,'Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free', so while watching the film I was unconsciously comparing the former with the latter.
As such both the films are entirely different, whereas one film is about hope and justice, other is about how the life of the protagonist and his family members change because of his one act of carelessness. 
Sarbjit Singh gets arrested by Pakistani army for crossing the border unknowingly. He is tortured in the Pakistani jail for months until he accepts that he is Ranjit Singh Mattu who was the main culprit behind the Lahore bomb blasts.
Randeep Hooda has given such a stellar performance that when he comes on screen your heart goes out to him. The atrocities he faces in the prison look so real that you will cry for him. He has shed all body mass and in some scenes it actually looks as if he starved himself for weeks to get into the character. In the end he tells his lawyer,' hausla to kab ka khatam ho gaya hai, ab to bas jid bachi hai', we cringe at the kind of life these prisoners live in dark dungeons with no sense of time, where one day merges into another until weeks turn into years. 
Aishwarya Rai as Sarbjeet's sister gets even more screen space than him. Her life revolves around getting her brother out of prison. Aishwarya, I think is too pretty for her character. Even without much makeup, her beauty distracts us from the intensity she is trying to portray for the role. She tries but her act is no match for Randeep Hooda's performance.
Richa Chadha as the protagonist's wife has a small yet powerful role. She stays silent in most of the scenes, only near the end she says,'ladai to aapki hai, hamara to bas intezaar hai'. 
The film starts on a light note but in just 10 minutes the family is struck by misfortune and there is so much tragedy and pathos in every scene that by interval, everyone in the audience was in a state of silence .
After interval, the fight for justice continues without any hope or results.
The director successfully captures the painful lives of the different members of the family, it's just that the audiences feel more connected to Sarbjit, who gets much less screen space than other family members combined.
Music of the film is good. 'Salamat' sung by Arijit Singh and Tulsi Kumar can be heard on loop.
The film, like other Bollywood films released in last month got immense competition from 'X-Men: Apocalypse' and managed to collect just 16 Crores in 4 days which is way below par.

In a line, 'Justice delayed is justice denied' and like plea for Sarbjit's release was rejected by Pakistan  similarily the length of the film and focus on the protagonist's sister more than the protagonist, becomes the key factor of being the film rejected by the audiences.

Can be seen in theaters, if you can handle the pathos and pain.