Too me 9 whole days, the longest I have taken to see an SRK movie in theaters since Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, but I finally did it! And in the end, it was more Hirani than it was SRK.
After the success of 3 Idiots, Hirani became not just a director but his own genre, a “Hirani” style film. It has a clear punchy social message, bright colors, great songs, an ensemble cast, and a bittersweet love story. The magic is in balancing the depth of the message with the lightness around it, getting the point across in a way that feels like a full family movie instead of a Social Drama.
This film, for me, failed. I don’t if it was because Hirani cared too much about his message or not enough, but somehow the light parts were far too light, and the dark parts far too dark, and in the end I wasn’t even clear on what I was supposed to be feeling. Particularly frustrating because the message is about economic migration, the millions of people every day who illegally cross borders in hopes of a better life. This is something front and center in my world right now, as Chicago struggles to care for our massive influx of migrants. I would love to watch a film that treats with love and humanity the people who risk their lives for a better life. But, no. The brief moments where the message comes through somehow make it even MORE frustrating for me, because clearly they had some idea of what they wanted to say, just couldn’t build up a film that could say it for them.
There were good things. The Taapsee-Shahrukh chemistry was excellent. Every song was good, not just the music (go Pritam!) and the lyrics (go Javed!) but also the visuals fully evoking the mood from the music. There was a clever sort of heist twist towards the end, the old age make up wasn’t bad…And I think that’s all the good stuff I have to say.
The bad stuff, for me, all boils down to the film mixing the dark and light too broadly. I was thinking about how classic 70s movies could manage to have these super dark themes, while also including a Helen item song. What made that work was that they were so removed from the main plots. There’d be a comic brought in just to do his comic bit, or Helen just for a song, and the main characters and their plot would continue doing it’s own thing separate from that. In this film, all the central characters are treated equally and their stories go from WAY too dark to WAY too light without warning. To put it in SRK terms, it reminded me of Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. Or Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman. Yes Boss, that works, it has a nice sincere love story mixed in with some darkness. PBDHH, the dark stuff is REALLY dark, and then you’ve got Jonny Lever opening a safe with a machine gun during a dance sequence? RBGG, you’ve got incredibly sweet “Loveria” and then a bunch of people DIE??? This movie, similar feeling, sweet happy stuff, over the top comic stuff, and then DARKNESS.
I also just don’t like the comedy. Hirani comedy, overall, not for me. Too broad, too ridiculous, too prop based and sight gag based. Love Munna Bhai, obviously, but maybe that’s just because Sanjay’s energy grounded everything so the comedy felt real. 3 Idiots on, it’s too much for me. So if Hirani comedy isn’t for you, if the issue of economic migration is too real and present for you right now, and if you DON’T feel the need for another bittersweet love story, skip it.
On the other hand, if you want to see a really excellent SRK love story, great songs, decent visuals, and an overall empathetic heartfelt message about migration, do see it!
