'Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania' review: Varun Dhawan steals the show!

Karan Johar`s Dharma Production is out with another entertainer `Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya` with Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt for the second time. The two had previously paired up in their debut `Student Of The Year`.

Anindita Dev

Karan Johar`s Dharma Productions is out with another entertainer `Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya` with Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt for the second time. The two had previously paired up in their debut `Student Of The Year`. `Humpty..` is a tribute to the blockbuster hit `Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge`. The trailer of the movie garnered a good response specially among the young brigade and the track `Saturday Saturday` turned out to be a massive hit. Adding to the hype the movie marks the debut of TV actor Siddharth Shukla into Bollywood. Young Kavya (Alia) is bubbly and portrays a typical Punjabi girl from the city of Ambala and agrees to get married to a rich NRI guy (she has never met) her father (played by Ashutosh Rana) has chosen for her. On pretext of buying a designer `lehenga` for her wedding she escapes to Delhi to live life on her own terms, for a while. There she meets the happy-go-lucky Rakesh aka Humpty Sharma (Varun Dhawan), a typical Delhi-guy. Over a couple of pegs, clubbing and adventure they fall in love with each other. Humpty becomes the knight-in-shining armour man for Kavya and wants to fulfil all her dreams including getting her the dream `lehenga`. And Humpty`s gang of friends Shonty and Poplu are his partners in crime. Humpty now has to compete with the ideal groom America return Angad Bedi(Siddharth Shukla) and also win over his lady love`s stubborn father Singh `Sir`. Humpty does everything he can to win the heart of Kavya`s family and convince Singh `Sir` even if that means turning a waiter for the family. Mr Singh plays a strict dad a la Amrish Puri in `DDLJ` and `Pardes` who believes he can control the future of his daughter and his choice is the ideal one for Kavya. A tribute to `DDLJ`, the end is quite similar to it but with a twist. Kavya`s dad even borrows Amrish Puri`s famous lines from the Yash Raj classic `Ja Simran - jee le apni zindagi` not to his daughter but to Humpty. Debutant director Shashank Khaitan has done considerable justice to the story and screenplay. The movie is a smart adaptation of the Shah Rukh – Kajol iconic movie, and has some twists and turns in it. The chemistry between Kavya-Humpty is sweet and adorable. Ashutosh Rana is a witty albeit strict father and has a good sense of humour. The dialogues are crisp and the comic timing is quite apt. `Humpty`.. doesn`t have much to offer as a unique story but it has good actors, good performances and connects well with the audience. The music is average. Alia is bubbly, chirpy and spontaneous but it is Varun who eclipses Alia and steals the show. He plays the role of Humpty quite well and charms the masses. It has to be said that Varun has a vast female fan following, the girls in the cinema hall actually shed tears with the actor in a sad sequence from the movie. The romance between the two is refreshing and one can easily warm up to the couple. They are quite the cute modern day Raj-Simran couple. Siddharth Shukla too is welcomed with cheers and whistles from the crowd with his beefed up body but his role doesn`t have much to offer. Though there are few parts where the story falls flat, but apart from that it promises a good romantic story. The supporting characters are worth a mention and they are surprisingly good. Johar and Khaitan do a decent work in reprising the Shah Rukh-Kajol starrer `DDLJ` and one can quite obviously see the resemblance between the two. If you ignore the weird end, the movie is a mass entertainer packed with romance, drama, action and comedy. It`s a typical larger-than-life Bollywood movie, the kind that Dharma Productions is well known for and sure will attract young couples in love, even though it can not possibly leave an impact like `Dilwale...` did in the past. Watch out for `Humpty..` this weekend, if you are a die-hard fan of rom-coms - a lot of fun awaits you.