Critics’ Verdict: ‘Dhadak’ Is a Glossy, Bollywood Tale of Love

‘Dhadak’ is the remake of Nagraj Manjule’s ‘Sairat’. Here’s what the critics have said about the Janhvi-Ishaan film.

Film: Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Cast: Janhvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter

Read excerpts from reviews of Dhadak:

What I was expecting from this Karan Johar production, I got– a polish-up-the-muck aesthetic to make it palatable for mainstream audiences. What I didn’t get, was feeling. Barring a few patches, Dhadak has neither requisite drama nor authenticity. It underlines all its scenes with blaring background music, to tell us how to feel. It doesn’t work, not as an official copy of Sairat, nor as a standalone Bollywood romance. There is, I’m afraid, no ‘dhak dhak’ in this Dhadak.

Shubhra Gupta, The Indian Express

The script by director Shashank Khaitan (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Badrinath Ki Dulhania) may well have been titled Madhukar Ki Dulhania. It deviates in major ways from Nagraj Manjule’s trenchant, unfussy narrative built upon a keen personal understanding of the milieu that his film is set in. Dhadak transports the story to Udaipur, gives the two principal characters new names - Madhukar Bagla (Ishaan Khatter) and Parthavi Singh (Janhvi Kapoor) - and reduces to near-irrelevance the class and caste divides that the plot of Sairat swivelled around. This takes the sting out of the film’s shocking climax.  

Saibal Chatterjee, NDTV

There was always the danger that Bollywood would play down the caste narrative of Sairat. There are two mentions of caste in Dhadak—both by Madhukar’s father when he warns the boy not to pursue the upper-caste girl. Yet, these do not arise organically from the material as it did in, say, Mukkabaaz, where caste is in the air, in the food. Parthavi’s family doesn’t mention caste at all. The film ends with an intertitle about lives lost to “honour killings”—the same ballpark, perhaps, but a dilution.

Uday Bhatia, LiveMint

Khaitan has adapted the source material to achieve two positives. Firstly the running time is reduced to a manageable 130-odd minutes. Secondly he has brought out the best from two inexperienced actors. Dhadak may be missing the frenzy and infectious energy of the Zingaat hit tune of the Marathi original, the grit and grime of Archi and Parshya’s struggles, and a feisty lead like Rajguru, but Khaitan’s sanitised drama does have its own strengths. Top of the list is Khatter who owns the affable, silly, wide-eyed Madhu from frame one. The dewy Kapoor has her moments too, but wobbles in the most dramatic scenes and often drops her Rajasthani accent. Holding on to the honour killing idea, the writer-director has taken liberties with the climax to retain the essence of Sairat, albeit watered down. Without revealing any spoilers, suffice to say it does not deliver the punch that left you winded while watching Manjule’s tragic tale, and you wonder if the reimagining was necessary. Yet, within the ambit of Bollywood, Dhadak is a watchable film that goes beyond the initial curiosity factor to stand on its own legs.  

Udita Jhunjhunwala, Scroll.in