Cast: Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Omi Vaidya, Shazahn Padamsee, Shraddha Das, Tisca Chopra, Shruti HaasanDirector: Madhur Bhandarkar
Producer: Kumar Mangat Pathak, Madhur Bhandarkar
Music Director: Pritam
Rating: **1/2
Three times National Award winning director Madhur Bhandarkar has succeeded in creating his own brand of cinema with his hard hitting subjects. With 'Dil To Baccha Hai Ji' he has attempted to break away from his regular mould and deliver a romantic comedy but hasn't been entirely successful.
38-year-old banker Naren (Ajay Devgn) is undergoing divorce from his TV reporter wife (Rituparna Sengupta). He moves out of his house and settles down in his late parents' house. Feeling lonely he decides to keep two paying guests. Naren ends up choosing Abhay Suri (Emraan Hashmi) and Milind Kelkar (Omi Vaidya). Abhay is a gym trainer forever on the prowl of a good lay. Milind, also an earnest poet, works for a matrimonial site and is an idealist in love. While Naren begins to fall for the 21-year-old intern at his office, June Pinto (Shazahn Padamsee), Abhay succeeds in becoming a toy boy for a rich socialite Anushka Narang (Tisca Chopra). Omi flips for a Radio Jockey, Gungun Sarkar (Shraddha Das) who has aspirations to become an actress. Rest of the film is about how gradually the trio realises that if the journey of falling in love is sweet the end result can definitely be brutal to one's heart.
Madhur begins the film with wonderfully done sketches of important scenes during the opening credits. The characters too are swiftly introduced with a chuckle inducing voice over by Paresh Rawal. Ajay's love story has its moments like his awkwardness when mixing with June's gang of friends or his subdued behaviour whenever Shazahn is around. The sequence of him singing 'Mere Apne' song 'Koi Hota Jisko Apna' in front of a generation that wasn't even born when the song came out has turned out very well. However, Emraan's track of being a toy boy of a rich socialite and then falling for her step daughter (Shruti Haasan) looks like a chapter that could well fit in Madhur's earlier works, 'Page 3'. There is no novelty in this one in terms of treatment as well. Omi's love story has an unusual end but then again we guess it before hand where it was heading.
Once the film's setting gets established, boredom starts creeping in early on. The narrative just gets stagnated pre-interval as none of the three love stories seem to move forward. Hopes rise with the entry of Shruti Haasan but then again, post interval you soon realise where it is all heading. Jokes start falling flat, situations start becoming cliché and screenplay starts getting less imaginative. Sanjay Chhel's dialogues are good in few places but cliché in rest. He tries too hard to sound funny with his puns mouthed by a gay character. One also wonders why so many dialogues against ambitions of a working woman... On the upside are Ravi Walia's cinematography and Pritam's melodious music.
Ajay Devgn is superb playing a guy grappling with a mid-life crisis and falling for a girl almost half his age. Emraan Hashmi is on home turf yet again playing the forever horny super confident womaniser. He does well as usual. Omi Vaidya puts up an endearing act. Shazahn is cute while Shraddha Das is plain average. Shruti Haasan impresses in the very few scenes that she gets. Tisca Chopra has been perfectly cast. Howard Rosemeyer is hilarious playing the gay character, Jimmy Juhu.
Madhur may have decided to let his hair down with 'DTBHJ' but the end result appears a hastily done job. Watch it only if you have nothing else to do.
By Abhijit Mhamunkar / Sanskriti Media & Entertainment
