Critic’s Rating : 3 Star.
 
Cast: Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar,  Anil Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Rahul Boss.

Direction: Zoya Akhtar.
 
Producer: Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar.
 
Written: Reema Kagti, Zoya Akhtar.
 
Genre: Comedy-Drama.
 
Duration: 170  Minutes.

A dysfunctional family and their high-society friends pile onto a 10-day voyage aboard a cruise liner headed for Greece and Turkey. Business tycoon Kamal Mehra(Anil Kapoor) and his wife Neelam (Shefali Shah) are geared up to celebrate their thirtieth anniversary together, never mind if it is a union fraught with compromises and Mr. Mehra’s infidelities.

Their children have their own inner conflict though it is evident that Kabir (Ranveer Singh) has it going better than his sister Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra). Cue loud references to patriarchy where Ayesha must endure a loveless marriage with her misogynistic husband Maanav (Rahul Bose) and her own parents’ archaic attitudes towards love and divorce.

Kabir is passionate about flying but is instead grounded to conference rooms where he displays little business acumen, unlike his sibling, who is an entrepreneur in her own right. He wants to save his plane from getting sold by his father, who is only trying to cut costs. Neelam tries to placate the family’s ‘chota baba’ with cheese toast or hot chocolate fudge from a popular Delhi eatery (the scene gets a plus for the latter reference).

There is also their family mastiff Pluto, who is the narrator of the story (voiced by Aamir Khan). This gimmick was unnecessary in the story, where it attempts to draw analogies and differences between humans and animals from the beginning to tiresome effect. We are told that family has its share of squabbles (that is evident, Pluto). The canine takes special care to emphasise the scene where Kabir meets love interest Farah Ali (Anushka Sharma) by the pool-side in a Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl-esque manner (yes, dog. We get it. It is love at first sight). He laments over the human ability to speak but the inability to communicate (you don’t say?[Also… see what I did there?]).

It is suffice to say that the cruise is a hotbed of quarrels, with most characters being wont to argue loudly, latch onto each other in frenzied liplocks and/or storm out of their rooms, not necessarily in that order.

Things get complicated further when Kabir is expected to marry the dainty Noorie Sood (Ridhima Sud) because of a profitable business alliance that will follow. The shaky story, which was already overstuffed with too many characters and prominence on high-class pretensions, gets silly from that point on. Kabir’s motivations to continue with the engagement make little sense. His transformation from suppressed to reckless because of Farah does not come across that well. There are three romantic parallel tracks and they are all rushed. The build-up in the romance could have been more convincing with the deletion of a few dull songs and scenes.

Ultimately, it is the story about how the Mehra clan bands together when it matters most. Farah and Sunny (Farhan Akhtar) are on the periphery, mere catalysts for rebellion.

For all their misgivings, the climax ties too neat a bow on their problems. Will it really be that easy for Neelam to forgive her husband’s adultery? Is Kabir a likeable hero or an entitled man-child who needs to get his act together?The climax is the biggest farce of all, because apparently true love is a total disregard for a ship’s safety protocols.

For all its little faults (and massive running time), Dil Dhadakne Do is a cutesy, fluffy romcom that is sharper than a lot of recent releases, especially in its little moments and use of silences. If the star cast (Anil Kapoor and Shefali Shah are incredible), dialogue and the whimsical storyline cannot keep you interested, this may not be the film for you.