Kill Dil Movie Poster

Rating: 2/5 Stars (Two stars)

Star Cast: Ranveer Singh, Ali Zafar, Parineeti Chopra, Govinda

Director: Shaad Ali

What’s Good: Ranveer, his cutesy chemistry with Parineeti and Govinda who is adequately menacing and rightly pitched as the rustic Godfather.

What’s Bad: The sloppy writing, the age old concept, the loose script and lack of genre identity in the film.

Loo break: Quite a few.

Watch or Not?: Kill Dil won’t make you cringe for sure, but the film suffers from mistaken identity and that remains its perennial problem. We have a dancing Godfather, who decides to break into a dance at the drop of a hat. There are too many songs in the film, that dilutes the central drama. The camaraderie works, the romance does too, but what doesn’t work is the film’s story. The botched up climax and the abrupt, muddled ending killed the little goodness that was there in the film. Kill Dil‘s ending just made me want to yell, ‘Kill Me!’ The film is such a waste of a fine cast and what had the potential of being a good film.

User Rating: 

Dev (Ranveer Singh) and Tutu (Ali Zafar) work as Bhaiyaji’s (Govinda) henchmen. Picked by him from a garbage bin, the two are loyal dogs of the goon who has bred them to do his dirty job. Killing with flair is their job and the two are quite ecstatic about their profession until Dev meets Disha (Parineeti Chopra). An upmarket, Delhi social worker, who doesn’t shy from being blunt, Dev falls in irrevocably in love.

Stuck between the sinister world of Bhaiyaji and the beautiful world of Disha, Dev ends up lying to both and leading a dual life. All hell breaks loose, when both find out about his other reality. Will Dev give up crime for love or will loyalty towards Bhaiyaji’s weigh heavier?

Kill Dil Movie Poster

For the first 15 minutes of the film, expect to watch the re-run of Gunday. Baywatch style running and the grey world of being evil is the basic theme of the film. Filled with inane jokes, the story sketches itself as a story of two henchmen who work for the dreaded Gangster, Bhaiyaji. Found by the Don in a garbage bin, the two do his dirty jobs loyally until Dev falls in love with Disha. There are too many problems in this simple story due to loopy writing. The menace of Bhaiyaji is conveyed only through the actor’s nuanced performance. The lazy writing has given no depth to the character. All Bhaiyaji has is what Govinda has rendered to the role. His wrath, his possessiveness about the boys he had picked up, his kindness that comes from a very selfish place and his love and the sense of ownership of the boys is all that the audiences are expected to assume because there is no background of these characteristics in the film.

If you agree to ignore the nitty gritties, even then the film has a half baked product. The professional chores of the men is told in songs. For the first hour of the film, Kill Dil could easily pass on as a musical. It often takes away from the seriousness of the plot, that should have ideally been firm in place. There is a song for every mood from Birthday to Diwali to falling in love. It’s just tiresome and breaks the flow of the film very frequently.

The film’s lead protagonist is oblivious to her boyfriend’s profession till the climax. One must be really ignorant to be that unaware of the background of the man she proposes to. A phone call informs her about his realities and she, who works for rehabilitation of criminals doesn’t take long to dump the guy who is a transformed character because of her love.

The only part of the story that had some mettle was the one that deals with Ranveer’s dilemma. It’s well acted, well put and the film’s most convincing bit. The 8 minute long monologue with Govinda and Ranveer will leave you awestruck. That was the only genuinely great part of the film. The rest of it has nothing novel, interesting or excellent to offer. The humor retorts to well orchestrated dialogues and gimmicky acting and the emotional part borders on melodrama and seems too synthetic. It’s the film’s fractured story that kills its soul.

Ranveer Singh is endearing and lovable. You thoroughly enjoy watching him because he puts too much of his impromptu self in making Dev his own. Dev, despite being an ordinarily written, seen-too-many-times-before sort of character, Ranveer adds his own touch of sincerity to the role.

Parineeti Chopra is great in her role. This wasn’t exactly her film but in the romantic lead opposite Ranveer, there is an unusual, watchable chemistry between the two. I, somehow, go expecting Hasee Toh Phasee from her everytime. I am a victim of my own expectations when it comes to her.

Ali Zafar is adequate in the role. He pushes himself to be menacing and cold blooded and is semi successful in it.

Govinda is amazing. Well, I agree that the guy’s caliber is put to good use but there is too little of him in the film. Somehow, his part in the story could have been much longer. It would have been interesting to watch him and Ranveer squabbling more like that intense, momentous 8 minute monologue. Such sparks are rare in the film.

Shaad Ali’s long sabbatical since Jhoom Barabar Jhoom did help him. But he still isn’t his best. I have no idea why was the film’s climax so hurried, warped and abrupt. I didn’t even see it coming. It’s not just the climax, but the whole film is not clear about what it has set out to achieve. Is it a musical or a crime drama or a thriller or a romance? It’s a bit of all of these and yet, none wholesome enough to pull through the audiences’ attention for two hours. The delight of the humor used too is sparse. I hope it was intentional to have Alok Nath play the kind insurance company honcho and have a picture of Nirupa Roy in the background with her hapless face. It made me laugh thoroughly. Besides this the LOL and ROFL investigations did not seem funny to me. While, the music of the film is good, there is too much of it. It comes at every other cue and kills the simmering intensity of the film’s drama.

Kill Dil is not a bad film, it’s a badly made film. With such sincere actors, the film lacks a distinct soul, killing it’s intensity scene by scene, frame by frame by adding frills. Despite good performances by Ranveer and Govinda, the film is a victim of bad writing more than a bad story, and wobbly direction which couldn’t guide the ship right. I am going with 2 stars. Had the climax been a little meatier, I wouldn’t hold the film in such low opinion.

Kill Dil releases on 14th November, 2014.

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Movie Kill Dil
Reviewed by Mohar Basu
on 2014-11-14
and Rated 2/5