The battle of nature versus nurture has been a staple ploy of mainstream Bollywood and this week Shaad Ali returns after a sabbatical with two tramps raised by a ganglord Bhaiyaaji (Govinda). When street smart Dev (Ranveer Singh) falls in love with a well-heeled girl (Parineeti Chopra) and decides to dump the gun, the father figure threatens to recover his loaned care and affection.
Buddy Tutoo (Ali Zafar) tries to become the well-meaning bridge but gives way when the pressure pulls the two sides apart. It is a familiar story for those grown up on Bollywood diet.
What Shaad does is he lends a Tarantino touch to the proceedings. The casual and earthy humour in between the shootouts gives the film a heady start. The Delhi-NCR lingo and risqué jokes draw you in to the world of Dev, Tutoo and Bhaiyaaji where killing is cool. Ranveer understands the world of whistle blowers in the front benches and after “Band Baaja Baraat” it is his most natural performance. With his nervous energy on full display, Ranveer seems to be living the title of Shaad’s last film “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom”.
Parnineeti, trying to show her glamorous side plays along and Ali, the Jai of the story, doesn’t disappoint. Govinda returning after a while in grey shades adds to the world play in his characteristic style.
However, there is no second layer to this tale and after the boisterous first act, the film gets lost in the woods of numerous song and dance routines and hollow exchange of punch-lines. Playing with the colour scheme, the action lacks novelty and falls into a pattern where one friend takes on the opposition from front and the other surprises from behind.
The use of Buddha’s figure in scenes of violence is an interesting visual ploy to make us understand the director’s vision or for that matter the scene where two young lovers offer food to two orphans but all this doesn’t evolve into something tangible. Shaad even invokes Gulzar with his gurgled voice and deep poetry to lend gravity to the proceedings but with diminishing emotional engagement with the characters it doesn’t work. Somehow the fun element dries up in the second half and the emotional turmoil is too flimsy to keep you anchored.
Kill Dil
Genre: Action/ Romance
Director: Shaad Ali
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Ali Zafar, Parineeti Chopra, Govinda
Bottomline: Oscillating between cool and cold, this one will only add to the monthly bill.
