De De Pyaar De

IT’S THE AGE OF LOVE

De De Pyaar De Story: An affluent middle-aged man living in London falls in love with a girl half his age. All hell breaks loose when he tries to seek approval from his separated wife and estranged family back in India.

De De Pyaar De Review: “This is not an age gap, it’s a generation gap,” warns Ashish Mehra’s (Ajay Devgn) shrink (Javed Jaffrey), when he learns about his client cum friend’s affair with a 20-something hottie Ayesha (Rakul Preet Singh). But it’s not a one-sided love story that has a man dating his beti ki umar ki ladki. It’s a full-fledged love affair that has all the trappings of a meet cute romance and more. What starts as harmless flirting between two starkly different personalities, leads them to discover that they can be more than just a habit for each other. This is pretty much what the first half of ‘De De Pyaar De’ (DDPD) is all about.

Ajay Devgn is in top form (physically and otherwise) playing his age and having the last laugh, even as he lets the audience laugh at him for being repeatedly called Buddha and ‘Uncle’ in the film. He takes it in his stride, knowing well that even at 50, he can give the 20-year-olds, a run for their money. Little wonder then that, his chemistry with a young and vivacious Rakul Preet Singh doesn’t feel out of place. She compliments Devgn’s suave charisma with confidence and glamour. Like in every film, Tabu excels in this one too, with her understated performance and measured expressions. She is not only the voice of reason in the film, but also grace and beauty personified. Even her comic timing is spot on.

It’s a shame that writers Luv Ranjan and Tarun Jain don’t fully exploit her comic potential. Neither do they deep dive into revealing details of what could possibly be the deal breaker for Ashish to leave Manju.

For most part, DDPD remains light and fluffy with awkward situations and conflicts in the second half. However, the narrative wobbles each time director Akiv Ali tries to strike a balance between modern thinking and age-old moralistic values. While some major conflicts resolve very conveniently (almost unbelievably), there are characters like that of Jimmy Shergill, who purely add to the noise and confusion. A clear opportunity to generate some memorable laugh out loud moments with the talented actor is lost in the process. The rest of the cast is also reduced to being caricatures you cannot take too seriously. The songs are weak, but the background score is consistently strong to lift many of the scenes.

The film maturely handles a few touchy topics like divorce, live-ins and age-inappropriate romance, without getting too overbearing. Thankfully, director Akiv Ali wraps it up with a slightly unpredictable climax minus the melodrama. Overall, DDPD is a fun ride that reinstates the fact that when it comes to love, age is just a number.