What is it that makes you wish to tune in to Raag malhar on a Monday morning? It must be a special feeling that inspires such joy to liven up the usually evil Monday. Well, I believe in my case it must have been my Sunday evening movie. I went for Yeh Jawaani Hain Diwaani and came out with a chirpy, light and blissful feeling in my heart. In short, I felt happy. In the midst of all the struggles and strife that life forces us to deal with, Dharma Productions has been kind enough to provide 3 hrs of peace.
The storyline of the movie deals with love, friendship, youth, life and everything else that generates the desire to be good to life all over again. The story captures the growing up of four friends beautifully. Bunny, Aditi, Avi and Naina were from the same school but where Bunny, Aditi and Avi were perpetual back benchers, Naina was the studious and nerdy one. All her life she had good grades but no friends. On a chance meeting with Aditi she realizes what she has missed out on life and impulsively decides to join them for a trek in Manali. That was a life changing decision in Naina’s life. How the studious Naina realizes the potential in her to also enjoy life and finally metamorphose into a bubbly, chirpy girl has been shown with such finesse as can be expected from a banner such as this. The trip was life changing for the other three as well since they all realize that life is moving on and they all need to grow up too.
Kudos definitely should be credited to Ayan Mukherjee for his excellent acumen in extracting such performance from his cast.
Ranbir Kapoor has won over my heart ever since ‘Rajneeti’. I firmly believe he is a true bearer of the Kapoor name and will carry on the legacy of his grandfather for several more years to come. As Bunny, Ranbir is as cute and loveable as his name suggests. The dreamy look in his eyes particularly in the last scene makes you want to fall in love all over again.
Deepika Padukone as Naina makes sure that she seals her place in the Industry with Fevicol or something even stronger. She is sexy, beautiful and emotive all the pre-requisites needed to keep you in demand. This is probably the only Deepika movie (other than Om Shanti Om) that I saw from the first credit to the last and I feel she is surely here to stay. Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapur as Aditi and Avinash (Avi) were equally amazing. We also have Kunal Roy Kapur as the awkward engineer Taran ,Aditi’s fiancé. He is a simple and committed guy and like Aditi we all need these men somewhere in our lives to balance out all the chaos that goes on in it.
The film I felt was more on friendship than love. The beautiful relationship between Bunny, Avi and Aditi was a treat to watch. There are very few relationships that can be as pure as friendship and that has been re-established by this movie. Also the beautiful relationship between Bunny and Naina was handled equally well.
The film was made all the more loveable because of the beautiful locations, the colourful ambience, the presence of the fantastic supporting cast and of course being treated to Madhuri Dixit’s dance after a long time. I particularly loved the character of Farooq Sheikh who donned the role of Bunny’s father. Usually, in a parent -child relationship the parent dreams and makes the child live those dreams. Here we see Bunny dreaming and his father living his own life through those dreams. Towards the end of the movie when Bunny’s step mother (another beautiful portrayal by Tanvi Azmi) explains to Bunny how his father viewed his relationship with his son, we realize the value that new age cinema can actually bring to our lives. In the Indian context this is probably revolutionary but it is probably how the new generation would like their relationships with their parents to evolve.
The film makes you wish that life would be as good or maybe it helps us to realize that life can be as good if not better. All it needs is just a little effort from our side to bring in that change.
Till then bring on more of these so that we can keep on dreaming and loving life.
