sowvendra Review of Dum Laga Ke Haisha

Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015)

I would like to give "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" 20 stars because it is just so good

[10/10 · 3 October 2016]

This film is just so good! Right from the opening titles, when it is Kumar Sanu's voice - and not Lata Mangeshkar's aalaap - that accompanies the Yash Raj Films logo, you know that you are in for something fabulous. And just how fabulous, how familiar "Dum Laga Ke Haisha Is"! I have grown up in the 1990s. The very sight of Maxell tapes, the old Sony television set, the push-button telephone set placed in a small alcove in the wall, Bhimsen Joshi's "Mile Sur Mera Tumhara" on Doordarshan, the Reynolds pen with a blue lid, and the name of the choreographer Chinni Prakash in the titles were enough to push me back on a nostalgic trip. If the setting of the film is just-so-perfect, the story and its execution are something to tell everyone about. The daily nitty-gritties of the Indian middle-class life - like, elderly ladies talking to each other in their beds before falling asleep - is just so true to life. Some sequences in the film are just worth watching again and again, like, the musical war between Prem (Ayushmann Khurrana) and Sandhya (Bhumi Pednekar), where Sandhya attacks Prem by playing the "Woh Meri Neend Mera Chain Mujhe Lauta Do" song from the film "Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke" and Prem retaliates by playing the "Abhi Zinda Hoon Toh Jee Lene Do" song from the film "Naajayaz" (incidentally, both films were directed by Mahesh Bhatt, who was a star-filmmaker in the 1990s). I cannot believe how a film can be so well-written and well-made and yet remain so down-to-earth. The chemistry between every actor in this film - and not only the main lead - is just fabulous. I am afraid I will just go on giving out more spoilers, and that is because I just loved this film! There is a scene with Sheeba Chadha (who played Aishwarya Rai's cousin in "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam" and one of John Abraham's lovers in "Jism"➖I am naming these films only to bring in some nostalgia factor) who plays the hero's aunt - bua - who has been disowned by her husband, so she lives with her brother's family. This scene has the bua being informed that her husband, who disowned her all those years ago and practically made her live like a widow all her life, has died; so, being the deceased man's wife - although disowned - could she attend the funeral? The character's rage and emotions in this scene is worth seeing, where she first rebukes the informer for insulting her by informing of the death of her husband and inviting her to his funeral, and then she weeps inconsolably at finally being really widowed. This is one of the best scenes. Another scene has the hero's mother attending the divorce court even as she has been fitted with an IV line. This sequence is hilarious to say the least. In the race sequence, when Sandhya, being carried by Prem on his back, tells him: "Humein kahin nahin jaana, rok lijiye humein" ("I don't want to go anywhere else, please stop me"), this part is an absolute tearjerker. IMDb allows just 10 stars. I would give "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" 20 stars. This film is just so good.