Release date:
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September 19, 2014
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Director:
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Habib Faisal
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Cast:
Language:
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Parineeti Chopra,
Anupam Kher, Aditya Roy Kapur
Hindi
|
Daawat-e-Ishq is the most
irresponsible film to emerge from mainstream Bollywood this year. No,
Habib Faisal, it’s not okay to trivialise issues as serious as dowry and Section
498A of the Indian Penal Code, in your bid to appease those men who think it’s
being widely misused while you stay on the side of political correctness to
please women too. Brides have been murdered, families have been driven to
despair and debt over this horrific custom. It’s one of the reasons cited by
Indian parents who kill off their daughters before birth.
No doubt 498A has been abused by some people (is
there a law in this world which has not?) and of course such women should be severely
punished, but their numbers are being greatly exaggerated to divert attention
from the plight of the majority who suffer this practice. In such a scenario, if
you do wish to discuss misuse of this law, then at least have the gumption to
cite a genuine, realistic, condemnable example. It’s disappointing that you of
all people Mr Faisal, you who wrote the wonderful Band Baaja Baaraat and directed Do
Dooni Char, should write and direct a half-baked film on 498A. My heart broke a little when I realised the writer of BBB had directed the frighteningly
regressive Ishaqzaade. The remaining
bits were crushed this week.
Daawat-e-Ishq’s idea of ‘misuse’
of the law is in itself undercooked and terribly contrived, seemingly driven by
the fact that the writer wanted to make a point about it and yet not demonise the
heroine, thus leaving enough space for romance-shomance, luv-shuv and naach-gaana between pretty girl and
pretty boy at pretty locations, in a film that does not seem to know what it
wants to be or what stand it wishes to take. Gulrez Qadir (Parineeti Chopra) of
Hyderabad is tired of being rejected by dowry-hungry families of prospective
grooms. She’s smart, a great student, good-looking and working
while studying, but to ladkewaalas,
all that matters is that her father can’t afford to pay big bucks to buy a boy.
The story up to this point, which is about half an hour of the film, is clear,
concise, believable and nicely handled. The film goes downhill though from the
moment Gulrez a.k.a. Gullu decides to turn confidence trickster, and hatches a far-fetched
plan – I won’t describe it here – to pull a fast one on a dowry-seeking family.
Along the way, she meets the handsome restaurateur
Tahir Haidar (Aditya Roy Kapur) in Lucknow. With two bright sparks playing the
leads, you would think that half the director’s battle is won. It’s impossible
not to be taken in by those glowing lamps Parineeti has for eyes. Aditya with
his mischievous smile is also a charmer. They look like they could have good
chemistry, but he enters the picture more than half an hour into the film, and
then too he does not get to spend that much time in conversation with her; they’re sent off to sing and dance instead.
Individually they’re clearly trying their best
with the material at hand. In fact, Aditya let’s his hair down so completely
that his artless, flirtatious, sensitive Tahir should rank as his best
performance to date. It’s a measure of how charismatic these two are that one
finds oneself emotionally invested in their relationship in the end despite
the weak writing.
The title song, used widely to promote this film,
had raised expectations that Daawat-e-Ishq
would be a good food film, but even that aspect is inadequately treated. Just
taking a camera into a restaurant or serving tons of food doth not a food film
make. We needed to see the passion in the eyes and the artistic grace in the hands
of the people cooking those biryanis and shahi tukdas, their fire reciprocated
by the consumers of their creations. Food films are not a common genre in
India, certainly not in Bollywood, but Faisal does have a couple of fine recent examples to follow, such as the lovely 2012 Malayalam film Ustad Hotel and those sensuous cooking scenes featuring Nimrat Kaur
in last year’s Hindi-English The Lunchbox.
Food makes for great visuals. Food spells romance. Daawat-e-Ishq fails to deliver any of the above.
Even Sajid-Wajid’s songs have been lazily chucked
into the film. There is much to like here, especially the lilting undulations
of the qawwali music in the title track (ah, Javed Ali and Sunidhi Chauhan!) and
the near-devotional love song Mannat,
but their quality is overshadowed by the mindlessness with which they’ve been thrown
into the mix.
The best part of Daawat-e-Ishq is what you’re least expecting from it: the equation
between Gulrez and her father (Anupam Kher in full form), between Parineeti and
the senior actor. They are parent and child but also friends; she is a youthful
live wire, he is bent with age; she is an unapologetic rebel, he is tradition
bound and yet so so proud of his feisty daughter. The relationship between
daughters and single fathers is not often explored in Hindi cinema. This one is
enough to warm the stoniest hearts. Equally unusual for a Hindi film is the
fact that the theme of dowry here has been placed within the Muslim community.
Some thought seems to have been invested in the
film’s costume design too. Tahir’s kitschy shirts are amusing. It’s also
interesting to see Gulrez’s smooth metamorphosis from being a practical,
lower-middle-class Hyderabadi shoe salesgirl to the ultra-glamorous,
over-dressed daughter of a Middle East-based Indian millionaire.
The good stuff, however, comes as individual
elements that can’t conquer the hurriedly-put-together screenplay. Topping the
heap of bad stuff is the flippant, unthinking treatment of a matter as grave as
dowry. The final word from Daawat-e-Ishq
seems to be this: not everyone who asks for dowry is a bad person; some ladkewaalas are just good souls blindly
following reeti-rivaaz without any
evil intentions. What on earth were you thinking, Mr Faisal? And why, dear Yash
Raj Films, did you produce this film?
Rating
(out of five stars): *1/2
CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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124 minutes
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Photograph and video courtesy: Yash Raj Films
This was a great film- comically dealt with dowry- we laughed and cried and had a great discussion afterwards. Fab film!
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