Dhadak

There may be very few or no remakes that are successful. I mean commercially successful. They are also extremely unsatisfying for the viewer. That is because the remakes lose the essence of the story. The context changes and that changes everything. We have seen many remakes of Hollywood films. Most of them have been unsatisfying. That’s because the philosophy and psyche associated with Hollywood films is very different from that of Hindi or Bollywood films. But Dhadak and Sairaat are Indian, desi film. The only difference is the language. It was a simple cut, copy paste job. Had it been literally copied and pasted it would have been a better watch. I will not say that this film is completely unwatchable. There are many good things about it for the viewer. But the director has lost the essence and context of the film.

       There are going to be comparisons with the original Marathi film “Sairaat”. This film will always remain an epic in Indian cinema. The reason being the director’s vision was singular and the context was very strong. The execution was exceptional and original in every frame. Dhadak loses itself because the context of social hierarchy is lost. The intensity of the social divide between the rich upper caste and the poorer lower class is lost. The director fails to convey the power of the elitist society and the way they exercise it on the lower social classes. Also, this divide is severe in the rural and semi rural areas. Not in a city like Udaipur, which is a tourist spot. Here the hierarchy and class difference wouldn’t matter as much, and hence, change a lot in the film. When the film loses its personality then the embellishment does not matter.

       The film has taken almost all of the dialogues, scenes, music and songs from the original Sairaat. The puppy love and emotional roller coaster is a good ride. I enjoyed the romance between the teenagers. It is passionate and soul stirring. The camera loves and enjoys Ishaan Khattar. He is passionate in the film and shows great promise. Janhvi is not as convincing and looks pale in comparison. The theater was empty on the first day of the film which explains a lot. There was a bunch of Marathi girlfriends who were hooting and mocking the film. They were loud and made their disapproval very  obvious. I guess the Marathis will always feel Sairaat to be their jewel and not like to share it with anyone.

Rating – 3