At the core of De De Pyaar De, there is a unique and interesting topic of the age gap in marriages. In one scene Ajay Devgn’s 50-year-old Ashish explains his confusion about getting married to a 26-year-old Ayesha as he fears how problematic things will be just after 10 years. The disappointment I felt after watching De De Pyaar De was because of the way writer Luv Ranjan decided to stay away from such emotional conflicts and decided to relay on the cheap humor one can get from this “modern family” scenario. Compared to the other Luv Ranjan blockbusters, this Akiv Ali directorial is less problematic.
Ashish is an investor based in London. He is a 50-year-old guy separated from his wife and children. At his friend’s wedding, Ashish meets this young girl named Ayesha and eventually, both of them fell in love. So before getting married to Ayesha, Ashish thought Ayesha knowing his wife and family would be a nice thing to do. But that plan didn’t go the way he intended and the movie shows us the events happened in that phase.
We have seen movies in the recent past like Badhaai Ho, Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Piku, Vicky Donor, Cheeni Kam, etc. that dealt with peculiar issues with the help of humor. The humor in those movies was blended into the narrative very effectively. As I already mentioned, De De Pyaar De is not a hollow comedy skit. It does address the problems that come along with an unconventional decision. I loved that scene where Tabu’s Manju asks every family member to think about the positive side of divorce. And in one scene she breaks down and the reason for that feels real. All these positive moments I mentioned in the film may have a combined run time of 10 or 15 minutes and the rest of De De Pyaar De is your typical Luv Ranjan comedy which for some reason works for most people. In an initial scene, Ranjan tries to mock the critics for always calling him a misogynist.
Ajay Devgn delivers an earnest performance here as the confused middle-aged man. He isn’t making Ashish a loud gimmicky character and manages to generate empathy towards his character in those emotional bits. Rakul Preet Singh looks gorgeous, but her performance as this independent girl Ayesha who falls in love with Ashish is a tad too loud. Even though she appears only in one half of this film, Tabu shows us her range with her performance. Jimmy Shergill was fun to watch. Inayat Sood as the daughter was annoyingly angry the whole time and Bhavin Bhanushali was way too naïve.
Akiv Ali is the person who has directed and edited this film co-written and co-produced by Luv Ranjan. Akiv clearly wants to make a typical Bollywood entertainer and at regular intervals of time, we get to see the songs that T Series have asked the makers to squeeze in. Coming to the script, Luv Ranjan shows us one thing that he can explore the emotional aspects of his characters too. But for some strange reason, he is more interested in those kinky jokes and looking at the way the family audience along with whom I saw the movie was laughing, I don’t really blame him for his priorities. The posh setup of the movie asks us to leave the logic under the seat and accept the colorful reality it wants us to believe. Too many songs are there in the film and the only one that stayed with me was the Armaan Malik song Chale Aana composed by Amaal Malik.
De De Pyaar De is indeed an extension to the existing Luv Ranjan template. But at the end of De De Pyaar De I kind of saw a ray of hope that Luv Ranjan may make a misogyny-free movie in the long run. If you have enjoyed the Punchnama series, then this movie is definitely for you. And if you are not a big fan of Sonu, Teetu, and Sweety, De De Pyaar De may well feel like a passable comedy.
Rating: 2.5/5
De De Pyaar De is indeed an extension to the existing Luv Ranjan template. But at the end of De De Pyaar De I kind of saw a ray of hope that Luv Ranjan may make a misogyny-free movie in the long run.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
