Dear Zindagi: This has life

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt, Kunal Kapoor, Atif Aslam

Rated: 6.5/10

Dear Zindagi is undoubtedly the longest therapy session that Bollywood has dared to orchestrate on screen but, under director Gauri Shinde’s expert guidance, the life lessons come with an unusual charm. That, despite the fact that there’s heavy falsafa wrapped around heavier dialogues throughout the film.

That Alia’s DD (dimag ka doctor) turns into dil ka doctor in Shinde’s slick zindagi ka masala is in some measure due to peppy but meaningful talk, lovely music and, of course, Alia Bhatt’s near-perfect screen presence and naturalese.

From introducing herself as a strong-minded, independent girl who loves things upside down in her apartment, to revealing that she is actually a messed up vulnerable girl with daddy-mummy issues, Alia gathers all the emotions with finesse and looks exceedingly beautiful too.

When she is angry, when she is scared, when she is lonely, when she is brimming with insecurities or when she is repressed and depressed, when she can’t sleep, when she can’t stand her parents, when she gets fed up with her love interest, when she dumps her boyfriend, when she explodes or when she is just happily jamming up with friends at a night club — she is so much at ease with all the diverse situations that you know your are witnessing the making of a seasoned actress.

Shinde’s Zindagi is snappily modern, something which Alia’s father Mahesh Bhatt would call very Juhu beach, very south Mumbai kind — as opposed to suburban Malad kind — full of modern issues, brittle relationships, cool break-ups, Goan beaches, Mumbai singletons, and one Dr Jehangir Khan.

In his casual jeans, the dishy Shah Rukh puts all issues on the couch with quirky humour and simplified life maths. Since he plays the coolest shrink in the world, he can afford to come into the film pretty late and yet set things right in more ways than one. “Genius is knowing when to stop,” he says and practices the dictum by not spoiling Alia’s party by overwhelming the film with his superstar ways. Instead, he plays his age and role which, incidentally, is that of a crucial side bar without which a structure can’t stand.

As messed-up Alia’s go-to man in the film, he is the reason why those heavyweight one-liners don’t seem too preachy or deadweights on the mind, though they flow in so relentlessly that sometimes, even he seems ill at ease with keeping a straight face. Nevertheless, he keeps uttering them with the swagger of SRK so that you do not start feeling overfed with the philosophy of life. Shinde keeps things simple despite the complexities and shows relationships in a post-modern manner. So, you have Alia’s strings of boyfriends being shown as unsuitable boys with a charm. If Kunal Kapoor is handsome and casual, Ali Zafar is dishy and romantic. Then there’s Angad Bedi too who comes in as the hilariously typical American desi techie who calls himself Suraish. The humour is subtle, the music good to the ear and the story souffle´ light. Is it a hit? Yes, among south Mumbai kinds it will be. For the janata-janardan, a bit too much about the life they know not.

So, who gets the girl in the end? Zindagi does, dearzindagi. And that was kind of cool Gauri Shinde.

Last but not the least, can SRK please get a shave? Superstars can age without all that facial hair you know! Rahul, oh that chikna-chupda Rahul — naam to suna hi hoga Shah Rukh ya bhool gaye? 

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 27 November, 2016