So, yet another movie revolving around 3 male friends, their lives, love lives and a long time promise to keep - the road trip. The movie begins and sails well with intentionally written humorous dialogues (though not totally refreshing) by Farhan Akhtar in the typical DCH style (you just can't ignore even if you've wanted to). But, there are no complaints until they get repetitive for too long.
The movie strikes with a philosophy to preach and that is live life to the fullest and live every moment of it. There's nothing new in such a thought though Arjun (played by Hritik Roshan) in his mid or early 30s seems to be realizing it only after coming into a holiday with a few scuba diving sessions. It's interesting to watch a scene between Arjun and Laila (Played beautifully by Katrina) when they almost get into an amateurish teenage talk discussing the kind of boyfriend/girlfriend they're looking for. Laila's character is turned into a preacher more than anything else here. As she says 'tumhari zindagi badalne wali hai', an excellent camera work takes you into the deep sea showing various marine lives that nearly breath on screen. Yet, there's something that goes missing for the audience to get connected with Arjun.
The guy who plans the road trip - Kabir (played decently by Abhay Deol) is cursed with an annoying girlfriend who's more suspicious than any girl could ever be to suspect her fiance right after engagement and just before marriage so much to even bump into his bachelor's party! Someone who would doubt her groom-to-be having an affair with his friend's date is hardly convincing to the urban crowd of today. So, its not just the other characters but even the audience feels she's interrupting their lives. Poor Kalki deserved a re-look into a character she portrayed well!
The savior comes in the form of Imran (played superbly by Farhan Akhtar). There's a serious quest, there's some mystery, there's lots of fun and there's some life in the character the team wrote for him. They might have just spent some time on others too. However, Farhan Akhtar doesn't disappoint a bit. If you thought he was a good director, a decent actor and a singer, now he proves he's versatile enough to share screen with Naseeruddin Shah, yet keep your eyes on him. Kudos lad. It's a rare combination to have. Whether the constant friction with Arjun or a beautiful chemistry he shares with the Spanish beauty (who dazzles in one of the smallest cameos), the writers deserve a thumbs up! One might assume Hritik to be playing a cool-guy and Farhan to don a serious one, Zoya thinks otherwise and just gets it spot on.
So, ZNMD is after all not a bad film or a bad watch either. It just could've got better with more realistic characterizations. And for the beautiful songs by Shankar Ehsaan Loy that sound great on an iPod, one foreground song comes after almost an hour into the movie while the rest barge in more frequently almost halting the progress. A few of the pranks could've got edited rather than getting repetitive for the viewers to even grin or care for. The uncomprehensible poetry that comes in regular intervals throughout, might just sound too heavy for half of the audience but thoughtful for few. Yes, the adventures spread evenly across the screenplay do get one involved and even inspire to a large extent. There are a few hits yet, some misses and what could've been an excellent movie falls short.
I did enjoy, but not as much!
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