Ae Dil Hai Mushkil - Succeeds as a simple light hearted film; fails as a blockbuster material

One liner for the people who would prefer not to read a longish post - pretty average film, with some feel good moments, but mostly fails to connect emotionally. Simple, harmless film, but nothing special about it.

Now the longish post - I guess the issue with the film, and I think it is going to be the major issue, is that we have seen it all before. The pyaar-dosti confusion has been around for a long time. Rich youth trying to do something different/creative has been there in Wake up sid, ye jawani hai diwani, tamasha etc. Heartbreak leads to success as a singer has been the major plot of the film earlier (rockstar). Ae dil hai mushkil picks up all these themes, which have seen earlier, and actually with a better execution in some of the above mentioned films. Characters fooling around with bollywood nostalgia was also present in Tamasha, but this is one aspect where the bollywood buff Kjo has done a much, much better job than what Tamasha managed. There is one more point, but that will be a major spoiler, so will avoid sharing that.

Film has its share of nice, feel good moments. Lot of it is contributed by the bollywood nostalgia thing. A significant share of these moments come from an unexpected quarter - Lisa haydon in a delightful cameo.

Problem starts when the film tries to connect emotionally, and fails. Characters break into tears, when you are absolutely unmoved. You dont really root for the characters. A rich guy, who can afford a private jet, childishly fooling around - comes across as a protagonist unlikely to move audience to tears, even though he (Ranbir) gives an earnest performance.
Fawad Khan is just a filler, both the actor and the character remain underutilized. Anushka is the best as far as her performance goes, but since the film is practically from the POV of Ranbir, her role has serious limitations (would blame the writer for that). Aishwarya makes her entry only in the second half. In the first scene itself, her role (as a poet) shows a lot of promise. But some mediocre writing (including her poetry), and pathetic acting by Aish, makes her a major weakness of the film.Srk has a delightful cameo, and actually gives a glimpse of why his presence has had an aura of intensity in films in the past. One may dislike him and all, but one needs to possibly reflect upon how current generation of actors are failing to pull off themes like these, while Srk had worked magic in the most cliched films. And yes, he even gets to recite a couplet by Faiz in the film :)

Music is a major weakness. Except for a couple of songs, the others do not create much impact. In fact, there is even a narrative blunder in the use of songs in an instance where we have 2 songs, immediately after each other in the film!!

In the end, the film will either not touch you at all, or work as a small lighthearted kind of a film - but is unlikely to have the blockbuster type appeal. In one line, the film has its share of aww moments, but surely lacks the wow moments.

It is somewhat surprising that an experienced story teller like Karan johar has made certain basic narrative errors. The screen space of certain characters is tightly compartmentalized - first half has no Aishwarya, and once she comes we have no Anushka for a long time. There is very little overlap between characters with a conflict (and a couple of scenes with overlap are actually gripping). It is very difficult to create enough emotions and drama in a storyline/narrative of this type. Jab tak hai jaan was another film with a similar drawback.

I guess, ADHM is basically Karan's statement (and this is a bit of a spoiler) that his idea of showing Dosti as latent Pyaar in KKHH was actually misplaced. Friendship can remain friendship, and it can have all the love without fitting into the traditional mould of a romantic relation. The statement is good, but isn't very well made.