Critics’ Verdict: ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ Is Glossy and Familiar

‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ is full of references from Bollywood that make the brand new film feel old.

Film: Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Director: Karan Johar

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Aishwarya Rai and Fawad Khan

Excerpts from reviews of the film:

When I opt for a Karan Johar film, I want the stuff that he does best — the impossibly beautiful people, the lovely foreign locations, the humungous homes, the songs-and-the-dances, the zardozi and the flash — in spades. What I also want is the heightened emotions and the messy love you-hate you-can’t live without you moments that he manages to create in his most felt work. He has to make me feel enough so I can keep the glitter at bay. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil scores high on the first count. But Johar is unable to go the extra mile it in the other department, leaving you wanting both more and less: less of the incessant yak-yak (you want to tell these beautiful impeccably-styled people to stop and draw breath and then speak, so that they, and we, can absorb the moment they’ve created), less of the non-stop background music (if it is real, you don’t have to underline it), less of the frantic reaching for the next old Bollywood classic line or song (because too many of these, and ‘Ae Dil’ is stuffed with these references, makes your brand new film feel same old); and more silence (the most effective parts of the film happen when it’s quiet), and more fresh plot points.

Shubhra Gupta (The Indian Express)

Despite its banal subject matter and often trite dialogue (by Johar and longtime collaborator Niranjan Iyengar), the movie is held together by its performances. Ranbir Kapoor is back in the saddle as a diehard romantic who suffers for love, and even though he has been on this ride before in Rockstar and Tamasha, he delivers a superbly judged performance that is equal parts charming and moving. Anushka Sharma brings her customary clinical efficiency to her role, but some of her thunder is stolen by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, she of the flaming red lipstick, wardrobe that would be the envy of any poetry circle, and ability to depict heartache in a single look. Would the movie have been more effective if it had been released as intended? The characters of Alizeh, Saba and Ali were meant to be Pakistani, until protests by right-wing nationalists against the presence of Fawad Khan in the cast forced Johar to redub the dialogue. The Muslim characters in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil are now Lucknowi rather than Lahori. The original story seems to have been about Indians and Pakistanis meeting in the capital of their former coloniser, only to find that in this post-nationalist space, the heart is the real adversary. It might not have been enough to save the movie from its limitations, but the original attempt to convey the challenges of internal border crossings would have made Ae Dil Hai Mushkil less pat and more genuinely difficult.

Nandini Ramnath (Scroll.in)

Karan Johar and his team must thank all the controversy around their film’s release for creating a huge buzz, because otherwise Ae Dil Hai Mushkil boils down to little more than a mash-up of all those clichéd dreamy films that are high on cinematography and melodrama but low on realism. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is like revisiting Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with a 2016 twist — friendship and the chemistry that friends share beat love and eventually translate into that eternal love. Of course, this is 2016 and marriage isn’t the ultimate goal of love. Also, because this is a modern-day story set in London and Paris, the eternal lovers will find several other lovers before they get back. Except, instead of touching your heart with such pure humane emotions —irrational yet real, the film appears rather superficial. There are also sequences that remind you of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna and Kal Ho Na Ho.

Sweta Kaushal (Hindustan Times)

I have to confess, while I don’t have any issue with the item number and heroine replacing the vamp, and I don’t miss villains with the distractingly large mole on his face, I do miss the good old colourful song-and-dance Bollywood movie. And that’s where the Khans, Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar score — or at least did.So when you get a glossy love story like Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil with pretty faces, gorgeous locations and at least one ear worm (the title track), hopes are naturally high. London, Vienna, Paris and a dash of Lucknow are the settings in this film about platonic love, passionate love and unrequited love. Interestingly, Johar does not pepper his film with sundry supporting characters – no unnecessary comic best friend or overly protective parent. But he does stick to form by slipping in cameos by his besties and using music (by Pritam) to good effect. It’s all warm and fuzzy and quite nice till we encounter a mash-up of Kal Ho Naa Ho and Rockstar. An enjoyable ride derails in the finale, and you wonder when will we see a film where Ranbir Kapoor, for all his efforts, dammit, gets the girl. A lazy attempt at emotional manipulation apart, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil delivers on nearly all it promised.  

Udita Jhunjhunwala (FirstPost)