Dil Bechara
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Sanjana Sanghi, Sahil Vaid
Director: Mukesh Chhabra
The reel opens to a montage of Sushant Singh Rajput playing guitar with his own lines: “Perhaps the difference between, what is miserable, and that, which is spectacular, lies in the leap of faith… #selfmusing”. In the montage, lies the hidden message that Sushant probably wanted to give to his fans.
The movie is set in the steel city of Jamshedpur where Kizzie Basu (Sanjana Sanghi) is a young teenager who aspires to lead a normal life. But there is a small glitch: she is suffering from cancer.
The opening scene is of a funeral where Kizzie stands in a graveyard wearing a tube connected to her nose from her oxygen tank. A sombre scene where she hugs the elderly gentleman who has just lost his wife. She stands listening to the eulogy and walks out after the service. This is her way of dealing with loneliness–by sharing it with an unknown person–but she won’t divulge this to her parents who believe she’s keeping herself entertained with Varun Dhawan’s latest comedy movie.
Thus, her life revolves around her best friend Pushpinder (her oxygen tank), her loving parents, medicines, doctor visits, college and her “utterly boring” routine. Kizzie blogs her routine daily. Life is as mundane and boring till she meets the charming Manny (Sushant) and his best friend JP aka Jagdish Pandey (Sahil Vaid of ‘Badrinath ki Dulhaniya’ fame) in her college. Manny aka Immanuel Rajkumar (a fan of Rajnikanth) literally dances his way into her heart at the college cultural fest and later at the cancer counselling centre. Kizzie’s life takes a turn and suddenly she develops a zest for life thanks to Manny and his quirky ways. His positivity rubs off on her and she wants to live her life again.
Manny and Kizzie’s friendship and love isn’t the typical one. It will send a warm fuzzy feeling each time you watch them spend time together. There are instances of Manny protecting Kizzie, helping her meet her dream musician in Paris, the city of love, to get answers to her questions. Kizzie is by now completely in love with Manny and doesn’t want to lose him. Her parents too fall in love with his charming ways. Manny and his best friend JP want to make a movie and ask Kizzie to act in it. The moments spent during this movie shoot will leave you rooting for more such moments.
The opening lines in the movie by the actress: “Ek tha Raja, ek thi Rani, dono mar gaye khatam kahani” will bring back memories of Sushant’s movie “Raabta” where Sushant cracks a joke on the same line. The lines not only give goosebumps but also make you realize a “raabta” or connection – that too, an uncanny one, especially after the actor’s death.
Actress Sanjana Sanghi has played her role as an introvert and a reserved Kizzie with aplomb and Sushant as an extrovert and bubbly Manny has complemented her really well. Director Mukesh Chhabra who has made his directorial debut with this movie has adapted it beautifully from the novel “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green and the screenplay of the English movie by the same name.
The entire cast has done justice to the characters assigned to them, especially the parents of Kizzie Basu. Music of AR Rahman flows beautifully with the ups and downs of the film and becomes an integral part of the movie.
The last 20 minutes of the film are too painful to watch as the lines between the real and the reel blur and the film draws to an emotional climax. You would especially want to rewind and re-watch a scene where Kizzie and JP talk about their dear friend Manny and Sushant tears up absorbing each and every word of his friends with deep intensity.
Sushant will be remembered forever by his fans for this last movie as Manny. The star literally dazzled for the last time in Dil Bechara. Whoever said heartbreaks are painful is right yet do watch it for the warm fuzzy feeling of love!
Amazing review Priya