Watch it for the music if you are not a purist

Dil Vil Pyar Vyar revolves around three love stories - well, actually four, but the fourth is only mentioned in passing and not really developed. However, the movie is not really about the love stories. The movie is about R.D.Burman’s music. Strikingly similar in concept to (and perhaps inspired by) Mamma Mia, the show based on Abba’s music, DVPV is a tribute to R.D.Burman’s unforgettable music, the idea being to weave a story around his music. The love stories are just such instruments to provide situations to fit the songs in.

However, the failing of the movie is that it puts a bit too much emphasis on the stories. In Mamma Mia, the story was purely decorative, with no substance, except to provide a few laughs and situations for the songs. Not so with DVPV. It develops the stories to an extent where each story can be the plot of a movie by itself (well, somewhat), but not enough to really do justice to any of the stories. The stories detract from the music. And that leaves the movie hanging in mid air between being an outright musical and a serious plot-based film. Instead, if the makers of this movie had chosen to keep the stories light and add more music, the movie could have been more enjoyable. Just putting a variety of themes in a movie tends to make the movie lose its focus - instead just focusing on the main idea and do full justice to it. That can make the movie so much more powerful. But I suppose its a Bollywood movie - a one stop shop for all your movie needs - comedy, emotion, family drama, songs, dance, and what have you. No fights though (gasp!).

Another Bollywoodism in the movie is its male-centric attitude. The story is not about three couples, but about three males who find themselves in a singing competition. And the women in their lives are effectively just prizes to be won by succeeding in the competition.

First there is a spoilt rich brat Hrithik (Jimmy Shergil) in love with Jojo (Hrishitaa Bhatt), a simple sensible girl from a stereotypical Indian christian family. He needs to prove that he is capable of earning a livelihood for himself, without depending on his dad’s millions. Of course, he has no skills to do any such thing, but winning one singing competition (or even trying) will convince his ladylove of his worthiness.

Then, there is the story of Krish (Madhavan) and Raksha (Namrata Shirodkar), both singers aspiring to make it big in the showbiz. Their story is predictably reminiscent of the plot of an old Hindi movie, Abhimaan. The wife makes it big and the husband gets submerged in an ocean of self pity under the weight of his hurt male ego. His redemption lies in winning the same aforementioned singing competition, so he can convince the world that he is more than just the singing sensation Raksha’s husband but a great singer himself. And convince his wife that he is a not jerk but just a struggling man trying to make it big on his own merit and not on somebody’s pity.

And finally, there is the story of Dev (Sanjay Suri) and Gauri (Sonali Kulkarni) intertwined with the story of the Gauri’s handicapped brother Gaurav (Rakesh Bapat) and Dev’s sister Rachna (Bhavna Pani). Dev’s motives for competing in the same competition (move over Sa Re Ga Ma Pa) are at least more mundane. He needs the money so he can send Gaurav abroad for medical treatment. But apparently not because he wants to help Gaurav, but because his lady love refuses to marry him as long as she has to take care of her kid brother. They seemed to have forgotten the fact that Rachna is waiting hand and foot upon Gaurav.

Lets take a quick look at the actors and actresses. Madhavan does not look like a typical Bollywood hero - he looks more like a serious intellectual college student. And so his hero-type actions don’t look very convincing. But to his credit, his hand movements actually matched the music when he is sitting at the piano during the song Tere Bina Zindagi Se, which is more than what most film heroes seem to be capable of. Hats off to Madhavan. Jimmy Shergil, on the other hand, is as Bollywood as one can get. Sanjay Suri fit his role well. Rakesh Bapat is a good dancer. Namrata Shirodkar looked awesome - graceful and dignified. Somehow, age doesn’t seem to show on her. Sonali was her usual lovable self. Hrishitaa seemed a bit raw though. Her dancing was stiff as if she doesn’t have it in her and has to force herself to make those very mechanical looking movements. Riya Sen, who played Gaurav’s ex-girlfriend, seemed a lot more fluid in her movements and did a much better job dancing. By the way, what’s with Sonali’s eyeshadow? It was horribly purple! But then, what do I know about makeup! I am not a big fan of eye shadow anyways. However, Hrishitaa’s eyeshadow did make her look a bit more attractive.

Okay, finally the most important part of the movie - its music. I think Babloo Chakravorty has done a decent job of recreating Pancham da’s music. The bits that he has added here and there quite add to the beauty of the songs. Of course, if you are a purist, you will hate Babloo Chakravorty’s guts for even daring to sully RDB’s music with his dirty paws. (Urp.. sorry, I’ve been watching too many Hollywood movies, I suppose). But if you are open to some innovation and improvisation, you will be pleasantly surprised with the musical score.

Overall, I think the movie is reasonably entertaining, and surely worth watching once -- if for nothing else, at least for the music. But not a movie that you would want to add to your collection so you can watch it over and over and over again.

(Originally posted on MS on June 11, 2003)