Art & Entertainment

Ishaqzaade

Takes us back to what love used to be in Hindi cinema, especially in the '80s, until DDLJ initiated a change of rules

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Ishaqzaade
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Starring: Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Gauhar Khan
Directed by Habib Faisal
Rating: **

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Ishaqzaade takes us back to what love used to be in Hindi cinema, especially in the ’80s, until Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge’s NRI lovers initiated a change of rules. It’s about warring families, religious differences, rage, rebellion and being on the run. However, the attempt at a reinvention of the old tropes, though interesting on paper, remains largely underwhelming and unconvincing on screen. Parma (Arjun) and Zoya (Parineeti) belong to two rival political families in the small, fictional town of Almore. What’s more, they are also on either side of the Hindu-Muslim (Chauhan-Qureshi) divide. Despite their initial alteractions, our desi Romeo and Juliet get together and love blooms amidst guns, gaalis and gore. Faisal builds the small-town scenario well, with trains, railway tracks and yards as the leitmotif and the playground for covert love.

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But the film loses track and hurtles nowhere. It’s well begun but half done. And nowhere is the lost possibility more startling than in the character of the heroine. Parineeti is sparkling and spirited as Zoya, who’d pick up a “bandook” instead of the “jhumka”, who’d fearlessly be one with the boys. Why give her the spunk only to snatch it all away from her in the end?

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