Cast: Govinda, Ranveer Singh, Parineeti Chopra, Ali Zafar
Direction: Shaad Ali
Rating: * * 1/2
There is a very prominent quote in sociology emphasizing on the relevance of "Unity in Diversity" and without an iota of doubt this concept is one such pillar of every social purview which not only provides an arena for the flourishing of various philosophies but at the same time paves way for the evolution numerous new ones too.
Well before you start taking this review as some tutorial on social sciences I would like to make it clear right at the onset that, it is not. And the reason behind my coming up with this chunk of information is because of the ongoing trends in Indian cinema in where we are witnessing witnessed our Bollywooders' fiddling with diverse range of cine themes.
In this epoch of Bollywoodian movie making some embraced out of the box cine ideas, whereas a few preferred to paint some literary magnum opus on the cine screen. But there is another herd of cine theorists which still has its fascinations fixated to some tried and tested story-lines and unfortunately the latest cine sculpture of Shaad Ali i.e. Kill Dil belongs to the last ilk.
Before going ahead with the dissection of this latest cine delight starring Ranveer Singh, Ali Zafar, Parineeti Chopra and Govinda I would like to make it very clear that perceiving "Kill Dil" as Kill and Dil won't be less than fostering any misconception because what plot of Kill Dil offers to its protagonists is a choice of choosing between either Kill (i.e. a life of a henchman) or Dil (i.e. to adhere to what his heart says).
Although I haven't narrated much about the movies but I have a gut feeling that even this micro statement qualifies to emerge as a spoiler alert for those who can read between the lines. But as it is time-honored to apprise all you worthy readers about the premise so let me try to enlighten you about the same while putting in some extra effort in preventing it from falling in the quagmire of spoiler alert.
As soon as the premise of "Kill / Dil" takes off it narrates the onset of the life of two self confessed "Har@mis", Dev (Ranveer Singh) and Tutu (Ali Zafar) who after being fostered by Bhaiyaaji (Govinda) a mafia lord, turn into his most loyal henchmen, who can shed blood for him at the drop of a hat.
With frames rolling ahead the duo has a rendezvous with "Bold and Bindaas" Disha (Parineeti Chopra) who makes Dev go "Lattoo" over her. And what follows next is a love saga blossoming amid a dilemma (for Dev) because of Dev's hiding his past from Disha and on the hind side keeping his under-transformation life a secret from his crime godfather Bhaiyaaji. So what follows next does Disha get to know about the reality of his bad ass Romeo, or is it Bhiayaaji who makes everything topsy turvy for Dev, Tutu and Disha. To know you have to watch this partially delightful cine saga Kill / Dil.
Well as far as story-line of Kill/Dil is concerned then right at the onset I would like to make it quite clear that after seeing the promos of the movie "Please Don't Get Misguided" because narration of Kill Dil is as old as hill.
And what made us think so the entire core of the movie abound with high predictability coefficient along with abundance of "Nothing New In It" element, where even a laymen can infer that what is going to get pitched next on the big screen.
It won't be wrong to say that except the first 15 minutes from commencement and a few monologue sequence between movie's leading protagonists rest of the movie exposes the lethargy of the story teller.
Where he didn't even try to add the bare minimum number of frills to magnify captivating potency of the plot, which looks so frayed that you feel compelled to solace yourself with an avouchment to watch Kill Dil for the sake of praiseworthy performances of Govinda and Ranveer.
But contrary to the "highly bland basic element" i.e. an engrossing story, scripting and dialogues up-till some extent emerge as grace savers for Kill Dil's writing brigade. On one hand it's satisfactorily tailored scripting which minimizes the devastating impact of the flimsy story-line, whereas on the other hand it's quirky and full of wit dialogues of Nitesh Tiwari, Shreyas Jain and Nikhil Mehrotra which constantly feed the cine-intellect of viewers to keep their patience going till the culmination.
There is a notion in Bollywood which says that, it is next to impossible for even a good screenplay to make a dented-painted cine vessel sail in the absence of a captivating or at-least engrossing story. But as they say that miracles do happen in showbiz so is the case with Kill Dil where the neatly crafted screenplay and smoothly flowing narration emerge as two such grace saving trailblazer for Kill Dil which uptil great extent makes this bland cine delight somewhat perishable and keeps viewers indulged for the entire duration of run time.
Besides what adds to the luminescence of screenplay is the voice over of Gulzar which acts as a major spline for Kill Dil. But at the same time there is another fact which is worth accepting, and that is that after keeping viewers indulged for almost 2 hours despite the intrusion of some of the obtruded aural carols, the abrupt or rather forced culmination emerges as a spoilsport for this otherwise smoothly flowing cine cantata.
Editing of Ritesh Soni is again a praiseworthy element of Kill Dil. Action sequences of Sham Kaushal are simply not larger than life or gravity defying but they go well with the tinge of the movie. Music of Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy exceptionally glorifies the beauty of Gulzar's meaningful lyrics.
With the coming together of some the stupendous performers like Govinda, Ranveer, Parineeti and Ali, it is quite obvious for each and every cineast to have a high hope from a movie featuring all these sinewy cine performers. And without an iota of doubt I admit it with thorough conviction that besides that above average execution on screenplay, editing and cinematographic front it's the praiseworthy performances of aforementioned stars which makes you forget the major disaster prevailing in the story department.
Unlike his previous cine stints this time Ranveer looks somewhat low on energy this time, especially in the first half, but as they say "down doesn't mean dead" so proving these words right and after remaining dormant in the first half this oozing with thespian makes a banging comeback in the second, which doubtlessly belongs to him entirely.
Ali Zafar despite being one of the leading protagonists of the movie gets a very limited scope to prove his acting dexterity but in-spite of that this versatile performer conveniently succeeds in doing justice to his part. On the other hand even Parineeti seems to be incarcerated in a delineated spectrum where she has nothing much to do except shaking her legs to some of the obtruded sound tracks, which in a way limits her performance to a confined zone.
At last but not the least comes in the name of Govinda who has genuinely re-entered in to business with a massive impact. Be it mouthing those rustic lingo or flaunting that grey shaded character or even shaking legs to some of the peppy aural delights.
Govinda does everything with such a brilliance that you forget about all the other protagonists sharing screen with this acting wizard of his time. And probably his extended screen presence could have taken Kill Dil to another level, but unfortunately Saadh fails miserably in utilizing the potential of this iconic actor.
To sum up, although after seeing the diligent execution of this YRF cine affair and falling of some of its cine components right on target one may assume that Kill Dil will turn out to be a must watch cine flick of the year. But qualifying on a few cine metronomes is not enough for a movie to get the status of a good movie.
That's because without a captivating and engrossing a premise a movie is as good as a lame steed which looks good while adorning one's stable but emerges as a liability when it's about competing on the track.
So keeping in view the quality of various constituents (obviously except script and abrupt climax) of Kill Dil and stupendous performances of Govinda and Ranveer I am going ahead with a half star extra for this cine chronicle.