Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Director: Zoya Akhtar

Writers: Reema Kagti,Zoya Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar

Cast: Hrithik Roshan,Abhay Deol,Katrina Kaif,Farhan Akhtar,Kalki Koechlin,Adriane Cabrol,Naseeruddin Shah,Deepti Naval

When you make a feature film,you narrate a story. When you narrate a story to an audience,whether real and relatable or larger-than-life,we need drama. For drama,we need a plot with a crisis or dramatic high and its resolution. Unless you decide to skip the classical elements of good storytelling and merely string up a series of episodes.

Which is what happened 10 years ago when the same production company started out with the buddy film Dil Chahta Hai. The daisy-fresh film and script was so unconventional that in its first run it won hearts but not widespread box-office success. It was written with so much passion that even if we have watched it just once,its principal characters and key lines are entrenched in our psyches. We still chortle at the funny memories and feel the lumps in the throat as we recall the moving moments.

A decade later,we get a new episodic tale of three friends. Kabir (Abhay Deol) is engaged to Natasha (Kalki Koechlin). He has two best friends Imran (Farhan Akhtar) and Arjun (Hrithik Roshan),between whom,DCH-fashion,there are unresolved issues. A bachelors’ holiday they have planned has never happened,and now that Kabir is about to lose his single status,he decides that the trip has to happen now. Arjun,busy making millions in London,is unwilling both because he is a workaholic and has a problem with Imran. Imran has proposed the trip originally,and his location is Spain.

However,amidst the fun and games,each of the three has a ghost to exorcise,especially Imran,who has chosen Spain for a reason.

The first half of the film is very entertaining and laced with lots of fun moments. The second half goes awry towards the end. Imran’s issue is resolved in the flattest and most unsatisfactory manner imaginable,and Kabir’s problems are at completely odd and ‘unreal’ variance with his exuberant mood throughout most of the film—if he did not want to marry Natasha,why did he propose to her,and why is he so upbeat after being bethrothed?

The last few minutes make Kabir’s crisis look silly as it was so easily resolved (of course,no explanations are provided about how the problem was solved!). The abrupt,simplistic end is a flatter culmination to a tepid narrative that ends up literally like an intimate tour of Spain’s well-known and rarer tourist destinations.

The film has an international look (cinematographer Carlos Catalan captures Spain spectacularly) and the deep-sea diving and sky-diving sequences are excellently lensed. The best part of the film is Farhan Akhtar’s magnificent dialogues. The background music is good,but the songs are insipid,except for Senorita.

The performances are top-grade: Hrithik,looking his best since Dhoom:2,enacts a complex role with great understanding. Farhan Akhtar makes great strides as an actor and even outshines his more seasoned co-stars on many occasions. Abhay Deol makes his best impression since Socha Na Tha because he gets out of the groove in which he was stuck in all his middle-of-the-road films. Katrina Kaif is very effective too. Kalki Koechlin,Naseeruddin Shah and Deepti Naval are wasted.

Zindagi… is about having a good time with scenic locales,great performances from key players and superb dialogues. But the lack of conflict and the flat proceedings all add up to a flashy veneer and there is nothing that you carry home by way of characters or sequences. This is a one-time-watch-enjoy-and-forget movie meant for metro audiences and youth.

Rating:

One star each for the outputs of Hrithik,Abhay and Farhan.