Dil Dhadakne Do is a high society movie that revolves around a dysfunctional Punjabi family.
At the helm of the family is Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor) who is a millionaire and is on the verge of bankruptcy. To show off his credibility, Kamal and his wife Neelam (Shefali Shah) invite their high profile friends to a luxurious anniversary cruise.
The couple is accompanied by their son Kabir (Ranveer Singh), daughter Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra), her self-centered husband Manav (Rahul Bose), their philosophical dog Pluto and a whole lot of bitchy friends.
All hell breaks loose when tension between Kamal and Neelam is obvious, when Kamal's plan of merging his family with another high profile family goes awry, Kabir falls in love with a dancer, Farah (Anushka Sharma), Ayesha who has a great business acumen wants a divorce from Manav when her ex Sunny (Farhan Akhtar) joins the cruise midway.
Dil Dhadakne Do is a movie which looks into the dirty aspect of high profiled families. Be it their screaming, extra-marital affairs, gender discrimination and most importantly heavy parental control.
Few scenes were some of the highlights of the movie like Kamal taunting Neelam on her weight issues, Ayesha getting upset over the exclusion of her name on the invitation card of the cruise, Kabir supporting his sister Ayesha through her turmoil, Neelam crying while bingeing on chocolate cake, Kamal handeling the liquor bills with the help of anti-anxiety pills.
These are some of the scenes that depict the daily functioning, hurt, and bonds which bind the families.
Performance-wise Anil Kapoor is awesome as the dominating and self-made, but stressed grey haired millionaire. Shefali Shah plays a stiff character whose coldness gives her daughter Ayesha chills at a Turkish hammam and her not so good response to her son Kabir.
Priyanka Chopra plays a tensed Ayesha who has seen heights on the professional front, but is succumbing to a miserable married life. Farhan Akhtar, who plays Sunny has a satisfactory performance. The stand out performance is that of Ranveer Singh who plays an unsure and vulnerable Kabir.
On a lighter note, the other "family members" like the aunties and other sparkling guests on board, staring, bitching, gossiping and creating lots of rumors are part of this journey.
One thing is apparent that all the confusion is arising due to a lack of communication or mis-communication between parents and children.
The movie touches on the aspect that parents try to mould their kids according to them and not let the kids decide for themselves.
In terms of direction, Zoya Akhtar has done a good job, but few areas could have been fine tuned like Ayesha's American accent. The direction overall is good, the dialogues are impressive, the story line and visual appeal is good and very good respectively, while the music is ok.
