The supposed swan song of Sushant Singh Rajput was a much awaited film. Dil Bechara was finally released on 24th July on Disney Hotstar OTT platform as there was no end in sight of theatres reopening due to Covid-19.
Surely the makers would not have liked to have kept a finished product of a much loved star, who was no more, from his fans who would have wanted more of him and also would like to pay their homage and tributes. It was a great decision to release the film on OTT instead of waiting for theatrical release and keep it away from his fans and lose relevance.
Apart from the sympathy and love in the hearts of Sushant’s fans and followers who will always want him to be there amongst them and are still dealing with the loss unable to accept it, this film is also an official remake and adaptation of the hugely successful Hollywood film ‘The Fault in Our Stars’.
Dil Bechara, the movie is about two terminally ill cancer patients who meet at a support group meeting not knowing how long they have for themselves. The girl Kizie (Sanjana Sanghi- bearable debutante) is a morose girl resigned to her fate and diary, but having extremely supportive parents, though the mother is a bit of a disciplinarian. The girl lugs around her Pushpinder (oxygen-tank) as she cannot live without it. And then there is the boy Immanuel Rajkumar Jr or Manny (SSR- in a different Avatar altogether), as he is fondly called by his friends and associates, though terminally ill himself, instead of being depressed, he celebrates life and lives to the fullest and also teaches the same to girl what life is all about, he makes her realise that though one knows the impending end one need not lose heart and await it, rather one should live life to the fullest in the given period.
Manny romances Kizie and makes her fall in love with him. There are many moments in the movie which can be termed as mushy and of puppy love. Then there is also a side track of Abhimanyu Veer (Saif Ali Khan) as the girl loves his song but knows that it is incomplete and wants to meet him to find out. As the singer lives in Paris,
Manny facilitates this dispite opposition and it turns out to be a bitter experience as the guy is a nasty crackpot. A few scenes are played out well, the one where Manny takes Kizie to a date in the abandoned junkyard and where Manny calls Kizie to the theater where he has had a relapse, and their rendezvous in Paris . Though Manny dies but having taught Kizie a lesson of life. Thus she does not grieve at Manny’s demise but holds a special screening of the masala movie they were making (Manny being a great Rajnikant fan). It is shown that the morose Kizie has under gone a transformation.
Most of the film was shot in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and the campus shown was St. Xavier’s College in Ranchi. The film tells a story and a plausible one at that and also coming from a Hollywood blockbuster, it was expected to create ripples here too but sadly it was badly written and had a sloppy screenplay, unable to carry forward the energy of the original, some of the scenes like the one where Manny, Kizie and his friend throw eggs at the house if the girl who has rejected his friend unlike in the original looks unnecessary and convoluted here. With so much going for the movie the makers could have done wonders with it but the film somewhere falls flat.
Though it is no fault of the stars themselves, who have given their all to keep this caper live and kicking. SSR is in good form though seemed to be restrained by the screenplay and direction the same can be said of others.The music too is fine. It was just the direction and other stuff that fell short.
Dil Bechara was viewed by 95 million people on the day of release that means at ₹200 a ticket it would have made a cool ₹ 2000 crore. The highest grosser of all times in Bollywood.
– Review by PAWAN GUPTA
Dil Bechara – Credits:
Written by Scott Neustadter, Michael Weber
Based on ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ by John Green
Screenplay: Shashank Khaitan, Suprotim Sengupta
Music by A. R. Rahman
Cinematography: Setu
Edited by Aarif Sheikh
Production company: Fox Star Studios
Image courtesy: Facebook
