Dhadkan 

Of Missed Heartbeats

Seeing is disbelieving. The makers of Dhadkan certainly have their wires crossed. Sunil Shetty is shown as the hero of the film even though his deeds befit those of a villain. And all this, because he loves Shilpa Shetty madly. Come on, that's not love, it's lust!

Would a hero ask his girlfriend of three years ago to return to him, knowing she's happily married to another man? And we thought we'd learnt the Hindi film credo: Love is synonymous with sacrifice!

True, director Dharmesh Darshan might have wanted to be different, but in his quest, he has delved into the realms of the ridiculous.

Had Sunil Shetty been shown as either repenting for his deeds or repaying for them, the film might have worked. His ire is against Shilpa's father (Kiran Kumar), but he wreaks revenge against her husband, Akshay. He stops just shy of calling Shilpa a gold-digger, since she married a rich man. And then proceeds to tell her that she should now leave her husband to marry him (Sunil)!

Good God! Hindi film heroes don't talk like that! Then, Sharmila Tagore (Sunil's mother) bemoans to Shilpa, "Who will explain to my son that love is never illegitimate?" Hello? What is the institution of marriage all about? Is that illegitimate? The least she could have said was that her love was not illegitimate.

But, as I said, the urge was to generalise in a way nobody had earlier. So what if the end result looked silly? All in all, the viewer is apt to skip many a heartbeat after seeing Dhadkan.