Kill Dil movie review - A hackneyed plot is the undoing of Kill Dil

[Dr. Jai Maharaj]

Kill Dil Movie Review

By Saibal Chatterjee
NDTV
Friday, November 14, 2014

A stylishly shot and neatly packaged action caper, Kill
Dil could have been a killer film. It isn't.

It simply doesn't have enough soul and substance to be
able to go all the way to the finish line with its grand
design in one piece.

Director Shaad Ali, back in action seven years after the
Jhoom Barabar Jhoom debacle, shows clear signs of
rustiness.

In one scene, on a wall of an insurance company's
boardroom, he hangs a portrait of Hindi cinema's most
iconic mother, Nirupa Roy, under a nameplate that reads
'Founder'.

His ideas may not be quite as ancient as the much-revered
character actress that he invokes, but much of the
material that Ali juggles with in Kill Dil belongs firmly
to the past.

Remember all those 'No Vacancy' montages that would pop
up every now and then on our silver screens in the good
old black-and-white era, with the unemployed hero wiping
the sweat off his forehead after each job rejection?

Kill Dil has its own variation on the theme: the
protagonist, having traded his gun for a fake graduation
certificate, hops from one place to another desperately
looking for employment. Predictably, he is summarily
ticked off by stand-offish interviewers and sent packing.

But don't forget that we live in a "new and shining
India". So the guy does eventually get lucky with a
character played by a suited and booted Alok Nath (who
else?).

The director, on his part, banks upon his only trump card
- lyricist Gulzar's evocative lines, some of which are
rendered in the poet's resonant voice - to hold the thin
narrative together.

But neither the surfeit of songs nor the quirky
storytelling devices that Ali employs to liven up Kill
Dil can prevent the dagger of futility running right
through the heart of the film's aspirations and draining
all life out of it.

A hackneyed plot is the undoing of Kill Dil. Have a good
look at the poster on the way out: the slash between the
two words in the title is about the only thing that
eventually stands out.

Continues at:

http://movies.ndtv.com/movie-reviews/kill-dil-movie-review-1059

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

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