Dil Bechara

It was sure when they released that trailer that Dil Bechara is not going to be a comfortable watch as we may end up struggling to distinguish between the character and the actor. Dil Bechara, directed by Mukesh Chhabra, the official Hindi adaptation of the book The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green is that vibrant urban romantic saga that becomes engaging mostly due to the performances we see on screen.

Kizie Basu, a Bengali girl who was born in Zambia and now lives in Jamshedpur with her parents is our central character. She is suffering from Thyroid cancer and she is always carrying this oxygen cylinder with her. One fine day she meets this eccentric chap named Immanuel Rajkumar Jr. aka Manny. Manny is an ardent Rajnikanth fan and he is that YOLO kind of person. The story here is basically about the bonding between the two and how they were perfect for each other.

Adapting a story set in a different world to match the sensibilities of our culture is at times tricky. In a lot of cases, writers find it difficult to create a situation that doesn’t have a parallel in our society. Dil Bechara definitely has those problems. The grounded feel one gets, seeing the world of Hazel and Gus is not there in Dil Bechara. But what saves the movie here is the energy of the performers especially Sushant Singh Rajput who makes the wacky Manny an extremely likable one. We tend to forget the broad strokes in the writing largely because of the way he has played the character.

As a maker, Mukesh Chhabra is trying to hit that feel-good zone in terms of the way he presents characters. We even have an introduction song to our hero. The color palette of the visuals is bright and cheerful here. He has managed to squeeze out the best of performances from his cast. But where the movie fumbled considerably was in the writing part. Written by Shashank Khaitan and Suprotim Sengupta, it felt like the movie was skipping through events way too quickly. We are getting enough to like the characters, but there isn’t enough to know them. In a way, I felt that it was the reason outside the movie that made me feel for the characters. The movie is only one hour and forty-one minutes long and the interesting compositions by AR Rahman were used only in snippets to take the story forward.

Manny is that source of positive energy. He is another version of Anand from Anand and Aman from Kal Ho Na Ho. Such characters can easily become those cringe-worthy unreal optimists but much like Ansel Elgort, Sushant makes Manny a very likable annoyance. Even in those emotional moments in the climax, he makes sure that the transition is gradual. Sanjana Sanghi was also impressive as Kizie Basu. The chemistry between Sanjana and Sushant definitely eases the viewing experience and increases the feel the movie needed. Saswata Chatterjee is the Daddy Cool of Kizie and Swastika Mukherjee is her overly concerned mommy.

Judging Dil Bechara as just another movie is a difficult task as the content here is constantly reminding us about the loss of that great talent and some lines will definitely hurt us. This might not be a movie that you will remember for a long time, but it has enough to make you miss Sushant Singh Rajput, the actor.

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