Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania – A Real Romance with a DDLJ Heart

Boy meets girl, they fall in love, there are complications are the age old bullet points for Rom-Coms around the world, but how the formula varies is an art itself. This one takes its queues from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) or DDLJ, making us remember the now iconic love of Simran and Raj, but also embrace this new romance that remakes this love story in to modern times and to a modern audience.

Summary:

Kavya Pratap Singh is to be married in a little over a month, but there is the matter of her wedding lehenga. A local made one is not for her, she wants an expensive lehenga and she will get it by hook and or by crook from Delhi. In Delhi she meets Rakesh “Humpty” Sharma, a son of a bookstore owner who is a bit of a rascal, but a goodhearted one. Together they cook up a plan to get money and as they do so they fall in love. Then comes the inevitable wooing of the family, a handsome NRI and a lot of lighthearted visuals with a realistic story and characters.

I’ve seen DDLJ many, many, many times and love every moment of it. To see it, for the lack of a better word, repackaged in this relatively new film (came out in 2014) in such a good way that it becomes its own in the best of ways. Indeed if one has seen DDLJ and wants to relive it, but also wants something new, then this is the movie.

The film works with its splendid cast, how real they are, how both familiar and fresh they are to our eyes. Its visuals are pure Punjabi with that well-known Dharma gloss which adds to the fantasy, but doesn’t take away the reality of the stakes, the relationships or the heart.

And what makes it really work apart from the good script, is the chemistry between our two leads. Alia Bhatt as Kavya is smart, sweet, independent and strong willed, an (un)traditional Indian girl, but one who battles with the approval of her father’s expectations and her own heart. Alia really pulls off this character whom we have seen many times and makes it fresh with her acting and vulnerability. Varun as Humpty is a boy we all know, that one class clown who is also a massive flirt, but who you trust in because you know has basic respect for his friends and women around him. Varun’s eyes emote so much in this, when they are near crying then so are you. He makes us fall in love with his as much as he does Kavya, not through his antics, but because of his innocence and vulnerability that takes our hearts away. There are too many silent brooding type of heroes in movies, and to see one who openly is near tears and who cries alone we come to sympathise with his plight. Emotions aren’t a hinderance, they are growth and expression of a heart that shouldn’t be locked away. That is one of the many lessons this movie teaches.

And the lessons aren’t hammered on our heads, they all come from interactions and realistic background stories for the characters. We know the plot of DDLJ, we know what that film taught us, but in this more progressive world it takes those lessons and looks at them as well as examines new ones. It is not anymore about the father’s approval (which it partly still is) but of the questioning of his authority in making those decisions with the lives of his daughters in the first place.

The music is also very strong in this, it consists of the usual songs we see now-a-days, but they don’t fail in giving us the emotion and the club song is very inventive in its execution and choreography. All in all they fit the story and the mood very well as well as moving the story along and telling us about the characters moods.

I watch this movie only once in a while, because it effects me so much. I don’t know why it does, maybe the realism of the love story, but I feel like I need a long time before watching it again because the recovery to a place to watch it takes a long time. But that is me and for you it might be different. I recommend this for any Rom-Com fans who aren’t afraid of nail biting realism of the story. The chemistry, the script, the direction and the visuals are on point for you to have a couple of hours of enjoyment of this, just prepare a tissue at hand for the tears.

Thank you for reading!