Dhadak 2 is a love story? Nah! It is a poignant conversation on privilege and what it means to have or not have it.
Dhadak 2 is a spiritual sequel to the 2018 film by Shashank Khaitan and an official adaptation of the 2018 Tamil film Pariyerum Perumal (also the name of the male protagonist) by Mari Selvaraj that sheds light on caste based atrocities (we have left discrimination in the rearview mirror at this point).
Within the first 5 minutes of Pariyerum Perumal, Mari Selvaraj shows you just how raw and real this journey is going to be. He does not hold back on the gut-wrenching, bone-chilling imagery (something that is seldom, if at all, seen in mainstream Indian cinema) that is not for the faint of heart. But that is the reality we live in, and he serves it right back, reminding us of the cruelty we have constructed in the name of society. Not only is the screenplay in on Mari’s vision, but he uses his camera to dowse his story further into realism. The camera doesn’t just watch, it breathes. Mari places us inside the moment, blurring the line between viewer and witness, until we’re no longer watching a film, but living it. His take is raw, crude, and violent.
With Dhadak 2, director Shazia Iqbal approaches this story with a restrained tenderness. A story about oppression, helplessness, and caste based atrocities told from a female lens adds sensitivity to the source material that makes this film stand independently in the larger landscape of Indian cinema.
The story follows Neelesh (Siddhant Chaturvedi), a young man from a marginalized community and the first in his family to pursue higher education, as he enters law college. There, he meets Vidhi (Triptii Dimri), a young woman from an upper-caste, privileged background. What begins as a personal journey soon takes an unexpected turn, as a series of events force him to go from being a man who vows to stay away from politics to being thrust into fighting not only for his life but also for a cause that is much bigger than any one person.
With Dhadak 2, Shazia Iqbal brings nuance to the female characters (particularly Triptii Dimri’s character, Vidhi) that was a miss in the original. This is not a story about the female lead, yet she makes the limited presence of female characters highly impactful by giving them a defined and elevated sense of agency. She also masters the art of balancing the tone. For a film dealing with a sensitive topic like this, makers ordinarily seem compelled not to take any chances with the audience’s intelligence, and end up being extremely on the nose and preachy, with every scene serving as a lesson. Throughout the screenplay, she sprinkles moments and dialogues that subtly convey deep thoughts such as freedom, liberty, intolerance, and quiet rebellion. She does so, predominantly, through her female characters.
This version of the story feels very accessible. Whether it is by shifting the setting from rural to urban or by the styling of the characters, these people look like us; it can easily be you or me. It is great to see that Shazia was able to keep the integrity of her vision intact from paper to celluloid.
The soundtrack holds promise, but the film lets it linger on the sidelines. A missed opportunity to let the music pulse through the story and stir the soul.
Triptii Dimri has come alive on the screen, bringing an almost firecracker-like sparkle. My theory: Under female directors, Triptii comes alive, no longer framed as decoration, but finally seen, heard, and unleashed in her full brilliance.
Siddhant Chaturvedi, on the other hand, showcases his entire range as an actor – from starry-eyed and infatuated to enamoured, scared, oppressed, innocent, helpless, completely broken, and angry. He particularly shines in the scene right before the interval. His performance in this scene will crack your heart open.
Dhadak 2, while a sanitized and tamed version of its source material (whether this was an artistic choice or the result of the numerous cuts ordered by the central certification board), appeals to your humanity and urges you to ask the question: what is right and wrong?
– Review by Akshita Gupta
Cast of Dhadak 2:
Siddhant Chaturvedi as Neelesh Ahirwar
Triptii Dimri as Vidhi Bharadwaj
Zakir Hussain as Principal Haider Ansari
Saurabh Sachdeva as Shankar
Deeksha Joshi as Nimisha
Vipin Sharma as Neelesh’s father
Saad Bilgrami as Ronnie Bharadwaj
Harish Khanna as Vidhi’s father
Priyank Tiwari as Shekhar
Aditya Thakare as Vasu
Abhay Joshi as Vidhi’s uncle
Anubha Fatehpura as Neelesh’s mother
Manjari Pupala as Richa
Javed Khan
Credits of Dhadak 2:
Presented by: Dharma Productions, Zee Studios & Cloud 9 Pictures
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Producer: Hiroo Johar, Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, Adar Poonawalla, Syed Zaid Ali, Meenu Aroraa, Umesh Kumar Bhansal, Pragati Deshmukh, Marijke Desouza, Somen Mishra
Director of Photography: Sylvester Fonseca
Story And Screenplay: Shazia Iqbal & Rahul Badwelkar (adapted screenplay)
Music: Tanuj Tiku, Rochak Kohli, Tanishk Bagchi, Javed-Mohsin & Shreyas Puranik
Lyrics: Siddharth-Garima
Editors: Charu Shree Roy, Omkar Uttam Sakpal & Sangeeth Varghese
