Movie Review: Dilwale – Cheesy, Sentimental, High-Octane!

After five years, the evergreen Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol return to the silver screen in Rohit Shetty’s latest flick “Dilwale”, also starring Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon. A lot of different things happen in this film but underlying it all is a love story. For basic clarification of relationships (without any spoilers), Raj (SRK) and Veer (Varun Dhawan) are brothers, and Veer is in love with Ishita (Kriti Sanon), while Raj loves Meera (Kajol).

From the first scene, Rohit Shetty establishes that the entire film is going to be cheesy and over the top, but that’s his style of filmmaking so no surprises there. The twists and turns in the plot, however, do sustain interest. In terms of other Rohit Shetty elements, Dilwale has its fair share of toppling cars and firing bullets. At the same time, the flow into some of the action scenes (from dialogues preceding them) could have been better – it seemed like certain action shots were cut and pasted randomly rather than smoothly edited.

Looking at more positive aspects of this film, Kajol and SRK’s chemistry is fabulous, as usual and as expected by all their fans. There are some cute nostalgic moments throwing it back to their previous movies from the 90s, particularly the ending scene and dialogue. Kajol’s outfits are vibrant, colorful, and really suit her character well. Needless to say, the songs have been filmed beautifully, and the nature shots of Iceland and Bulgaria are picturesque.

One of Dilwale’s strengths and weaknesses is its comedy, which is hilarious slapstick but silly at the same time. Varun Dhawan’s comic timing is impeccable and he is proving that, like his father, he too is great at comedy. His super senti bhai-wala emotion and chemistry with SRK is also adorable. It was unclear whether King (Boman Irani) is a villain or a comedian in this film. His dialogues themselves are evil-ish but the delivery seemed very satirical. One of the most annoying parts about this film is Johnny Lever’s depiction of a South Indian man speaking in Hindi, which is a stereotypical but false representation of this ethnic group.

Final Verdict: Dilwale is an average film by a superhit director featuring an extremely popular onscreen couple. It feels long and slow-paced at times but is entertaining nevertheless, like all other Rohit Shetty productions. Certainly a movie for the masses!

Rating: 3 stars