Review of Dhadkan

Introduction

Dharmesh Darshan might have hitted high in 1996 with the blockbuster `Raja Hindustani`, but many hardcore Hindi films fans saw the film as damn right awful. While the film had wonderful performances from Aamir Khan and Karishma Kapoor, it was also filled with too much melodrama, a poor screenplay, copied soundtrack & dull technical values. Afterwards the director decided to repeat similar use of his direction with the film `Mela` (2000), but this time the film failed to make any impact with audiences as their expectation had grown. Realizing that he decide to reproach his style of work for his dream project.

For the past three/four years Dharmesh Darshan was working on a script called `Dhadkan` and utilized the typical love story triangle seen in many Hindi films. But this screenplay would have something new, it would look at the situation from a different light. Lots of hard work went into the production of the movie, and by the late summer of 2000 the film was ready for release. While the soundtrack was a top seller the film met with harsh responses at the box-office during its first two weeks. However word of mouth spread about the fine work and the film continues to run in cinemas across India.

EROS Multimedia, whose pervious DVD`s of Mela and Raja Hindustani were poor,decided to do a similar change like the director for this film.

Video

The DVD is presented in its original aspect widescreen picture ratio of 2.40:1, preserving the original vision of the director. Another bonus is that the picture has received the anamorphic treatment and looks absolutely stunning on this DVD.

With no signs of any compressed artefacts or of any grain, the picture stamps out pure digital quality that really shows signs of EROS becoming a major player in Indian DVD`s. The picture has excellent sharpness detail which conveys out information that revels even the tiniest details that makes it very clear and easy to understand.

There are some minor shimmering and moiré effects present on this disc but they won`t bother you that much and rarely create any problems with viewing. The film remains very clean as wear and tear signs are near non-existent.

The colour fidelity is also very good, displaying vibrancy and giving a near three dimensional quality that was seen on anamorphic DVD`s done by DEI. The cinematography comes alive and really helped with the viewing of this movie on DVD. There are never any moments of colour bleeding or of any other kind of colour distortion.

Also dark and contrast details are spot on, and helps with the overall visuals that the film is presented on this DVD. Shadows are also very good, and will help with viewing especially in scenes in which light is weak. The song in chapter 28 when the lights in the house goes is an example. Here the darkness has many shades of dark shadows that this DVD elaborately brings to the eye without a hint of struggle.

Audio

While the picture was excellent the sound was slightly disappointing and had a similar problem to the Josh DVD, also done by EROS. Though the box states that it is 5.1 when hearing it on my home cinema speaker set up I was getting the impression of a 5.1 pseudo mix. Dialogues, which should only be heard from the centre channel, can be heard in the front and surround channels throughout the film.

The LFE channel however was quite active and handled some nice bass moments. I can also state that the sound is very audible and clear and has no signs of any sound distortion.

Features

Another nice feature on this DVD is that the intermission sign has been left there to create the needed impact of the plot. Also the optional English subtitles are well written in a very nice font and covers 100% of the film and songs translation - a help for those in need of understanding.

The menus are animated with clips and the soundtrack of the film being looped. They are well designed, and has easy navigation. There are two major supplements on this DVD. The first is a making of feature and is your basic promotion stuff. But it is quite entertaining and at times informative. The second supplement is the cinema trailer which is a nice feature to have, and enjoyable to view.

Overall DVD packaging was also very rich, adding a high value feel to the product.

Conclusion

Dhadkan is directed so tightly that there is not an inch of room for boredom. Director Dharmesh Darshan uses his camera as an audience, framing each shot as a stage setting. This would be ineffective for any film but suited a theatrical saga like this one. The acting is also outstanding. Akshay Kumar is brilliant as the loving and caring husband, and Sunil Shetty as the thoroughly creature who becomes ruthless in trying to win his love back.

Equally impressive are the rest of the cast who never fail to give a dull or overfilled performance. While stereotyped and cliché characteristics can be detected in some performance it never never hits us directly or makes us think `here we go again` as the director uses a very different approach to handling them. This films looks at relationships and how they are justified by what we make of it, doing so very successfully.

All technical credits are perfectly set and created with pure craftsmanship. Many wonderful touches like lighting and photography are utilized well. A sense of that can be seen during the touching scene where Dev and Ram talk to each other in the emotionally climax.

The music score is also very well done and is a welcome treat to hear as Nadeem Shravan, who have not done a score for a film since `Aa Ab Laut Chale` (1999). All the songs are melodious and will be memorable in the years to come. They also fit into the narrative structure of the film and are not just there to look good.

This is a film worth watching and a film which many poor Hindi movies dealing in love triangles, like `Aarzoo` (1998) and `Mohabaat` (1997), wish it could have been.