Review : Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania

Cast: Varun Dhawan  (Rakesh “Humpty” Sharma), Alia Bhatt (Kavya Pratap Singh) Ashutosh Rana (Pratap Singh-Kavya’s father), Sidharth Shukla (Angad Bedi), Kenny Desai (Mr. Sharma – Humpty’s father), Gaurav Pandey (Shonty), Sahil Vaid (Poplu), Mahnaz Damania (Swati), Deepika Amin (Pammi-Kavya’s mother), Jaswant Daman (Kavya’s grandmother), Guncha Narula (Gurpreet)  

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Direction: Shashank Khaitan

Production: Karan Johar, Yash Johar

Banner: Dharma Productions

Written by, Dialogues and Screenplay: Shashank Khaitan

Music: Sachin-Jigar, Sharib-Toshi

Cinematography: Neha Parti

Editor: Manan Sagar

Release Date: 11^th July, 2014

Language: Hindi

Duration: 2 hours 14 minutes

Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania, Shashank Khaitan’s film, is an attempt to relive the magic of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, but definitely in its own way. DDLJ was one of the major blockbusters that Bollywood industry saw and it gave a new attitude to the youngsters. Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania may not be the DDLJ of this decade, but yes, it is a movie in a true filmi style and it would bring smile to your face for sure. It does not ride high as far as logic is concerned. The movie definitely has some warm and emotional moments. The story is definitely predictable - girl meets the boy, both fall in love in spite of girl’s engaged status, and then the pursuit for marriage by taking efforts to get the approval of family. The movie sticks to its core purpose – entertainment in filmy style, romance, comedy … This movie is for that segment of audience who just wants to watch movie for sheer entertainment and can’t tolerate rona-dhona.

Attitudes of the lead protagonists Rakesh ‘Humpty’ Sharma and Kavya Pratap Singh (Alia Bhatt) are shown initially itself in almost parallel frames, one being a carefree ‘cool’ Delhi guy, who flirts, always ready with witty one-liners and the later one a feisty Ambala girl. Humpty has friends Shonty (Gaurav Pandey) and Poplu (Sahil Vaid) who are always there for him. Humpty is shown to share great friendly relationship with his father (Kenny Desai). Humpty is a hard-core DDLJ movie fan, who still weeps towards the end of the movie. Kavya wears her attitude through the tattoo ‘Pataka’ on back side of her neck. According to her - “Main to paida hi hot hui thi”. She is part of a rich family and is engaged to a NRI doctor. She negotiates with her father Pratap Singh (Ashutosh Rana) to get her designer Lahanga worth 5 Lakhs. The logic is she did not get a chance to choose the guy, so atleast she should get the right to choose her lehanga.  Also, her friend Gurpreet of Delhi has bought a Lehanga of 2.5 Lakhs, so she should go for a lehanga of atleast double the price. Kavya makes all these scenes very very enjoyable with her innocence. When Pratap Singh sweetly says no to her lehanga demand, she informs the family that she is going to Delhi (her uncle stays there), would earn and buy herself designer Lehanga and return after attending her friend Gurpreet’s (Guncha Narula) marriage.  

Kavya meets Humpty in Delhi in a hilarious situation. Let me not reveal the same. Humpty and Kavya hit off instantly. They do fight, enjoy parties, competes over guzzling beer. Banter between the two is fun, natural, lovable. Both move ahead without any serious ties. They collectively help Gurpreet get out of a messy situation. And then the moment comes, when Kavya has to come back to Ambala. Shashank Khaitan has not redone Raj-Simran here, when Humpty and Kavya bump into bed soon after they feel for each other.

Both of them try to move on in their lives in their respective cities, but unable to do so. Humpty comes to Ambala along with Shonty and Paplu. Yes, a series of physical assault happens once family learns of Humpty’s love for Kavya, but the tone of the violence is mellowed down and almost nil. Humpty manages to get some time from Pratap Singh to prove him that he is the right choice for Kavya, better than the NRI Angad Bedi (Sidharth Shukla). Humpty’s challenges increase when Angad does the entry into the scene as Mr. Perfect.

How is Angad as a guy? We know that Humpty and Kavya would unite at the end, but how? The treatment to the plot is done in a very light-hearted manner. How does Pratap Singh yield? How does Humpty win Kavya’s family’s hearts?

Cast is just superb. Ashutosh Rana as Kavya’s father is very good. What a wonderful actor he is. He pours his intensity as well as sense of humour into the character. Varun Dhawan has done complete justice to his character. Alia is also wonderful. Her face has the right combination of innocence, chirpiness, traditional, bindass attitude. She makes Kavya so much lovable. Sidharth as Angad Bedi has great screen presence. I just wish, Sidharth’s role could have been a bit longer and his vanishing from the last frames could have been given different treatment. Both Sahil Vaid and Gaurav Pandey as Humpty’s friends and Kenny Desai as Humpty’s father are all adorable, excellent performances from them. Rest of the cast are also good.

Music could have been better. The song ‘Samjhawan’ composed by Toshi-Sharib and sung by Shreya-Arijit is very good.

Humpty Sharma ki Dulhania, though predictable and low on logic/ reality parameters; yet one will enjoy watching it unfold along with very much likeable lead pair and other cast.

Rating: 3.25 / 5 (Good +)