Umm...Picture
to
achcha
hai
jee.
Disregarding
the
rather
strenuously
upbeat
ending
Dil
Toh
Baccha
Hai
Ji
(DTBHJ)
turns
out
to
be
quite
a
charming
and
clever
concoction.
Though
this
time
Madhur
Bhandarkar,
one
of
the
strongest
celluloid
creators
of
contemporary
times,
veers
into
virgin
territory,
the
trademark
Bhandarkar
touches,
like
the
almost-incestuous
use
of
sex
as
a
bartering
point
between
the
sexes,
are
evident
everywhere
in
this
multi-plot
story
of
love
sex
and
betrayal
during
times
of
laughter
music
and
backchat
in
Mumbai.
The
writing
(by
Bhandarkar,
Anil
Pandey
and
Neeraj
Udwani)
weaves
skilfully
through
the
hearts
and
conscience
of
our
three
heroes
who
are
designed
to
be
a
study
in
contrasts
and
yet
so
believable,
you
can
touch
their
lives
by
just
watching
them
stumble
fall
and
redeem
themselves
in
tentative,
sometimes
funny
sometimes
moving
ways.
This,
then,
is
the
story
of
three
house-mates
wading
through
the
concrete
jungle
of
Mumbai
in
search
of
love
sex
and
yes,
a
sense
of
belonging.
Their
houses,
hearts
and
environment
look
believable.
They
are
shot
to
resonate
reality.
Though
projected
outwardly
as
a
comedy,
Dil
Toh
Baccha
Hai
Ji
has
deeper
darker
resonances
that
we
cannot
miss
even
if
we
are
too
busy
laughing
at
the
protagonists'
clumsy
attempts
to
get
lucky
in
love.
Bhandarkar's
narration
communicates
that
sense
of
empty
enjoyment
that
you
can
feel
under
all
the
glitz
and
noise
of
Mumbai's
racing
pulse.
Omi
Vaidya
who
plays
the
most
idealistic
love-seeker
of
the
triumvirate
says
to
the
go-getting
struggler
from
Mumbai
(Shraddha
Das)
at
a
pub,
"How
can
people
talk
in
here?" She
of
course
doesn't
hear
him.
She's
lost
in
the
pursuit
of
her
wanna-shine
dreams
that
take
her
further
and
further
out
of
reach
of
true
love.
Vaidya
is
in
splendid
form
here,
far
more
control
of
his
character's
destiny
than
in
3
Idiots.
In
the
way
he
hybridizes
his
yankee
accent
with
Marathi
and
a
sense
of
earnestness
with
a
subtle
tone
of
mischief,
Vaidya
is
absolutely
endearing.
So
is
Emraan
Hashmi,
playing
the
character
with
the
steepest
graph,
Hashmi
goes
from
Tisca
Arora's
toyboy
to
the
new-age
Devdas
rejected
in
love
by
the
savvy
NRI
chick
who
has
social
conscience
and
a
practical
attitude
to
men.
When
Shruti
Haasan
(looking
so
lovely
you
know
she's
found
her
metier
in
Hindi
films)
turns
around
and
tells
the
philanderer,
"Yeah,
so
we
slept
together.
So
what?
It
wasn't
your
first
time
nor
mine," you
know
that
Bhandarkar
has
not
abandoned
his
scathing
and
savage
exploration
of
urban
values
which
made
his
heroine-centric
dramas
from
Chandni
Bar
to
Fashion
so
unforgettable.
He's
only
added
laughter
to
his
cinema.
In
Dil
Toh
Baccha
Hai
Ji,
Bhandarkar
walks
a
tightrope.
He
has
to
balance
the
laughter
with
the
dark
underbelly
of
Mumbai's
beautiful,
but
alas,
desolate
people.
Besides
the
powerful
writing
(Sanjay
Chel's
dialogues
are
tongue-in-cheek
and
sometimes
killing
in
their
effectual
demolition
of
the
sacred
cows
of
urban
conduct)
and
razor-sharp
characterization
(barring
the
caricatural
people
in
Devgn's
office)
the
film
gets
high
marks
for
dead-on
casting.
Every
actor
breeds
life
into
the
constantly
mutating
comedy.
If
we
care
for
all
the
three
love
stories
that
run
in
criss
(never
crass)
cross
it
is
because
the
actors
enacting
the
love
relationships
go
beyond
their
own
personalities
in
search
of
the
people
they
play.
While
Omi
Vaidya
and
Emraan
Hashmi
make
a
great
impact
it
is
Ajay
Devgn,
echoing
Amol
Palekar's
Common
Man
from
the
1970s,
who
must
be
congratulated
in
the
loudest
voice
for
abandoning
his
6-pack
mean-mirth-machine
image
to
play
a
mousy
middle-aged
divorcee
with
the
hots
for
his
comely
secretary.
Among
the
female
cast,
Shazahn
Padamsee
is
extremely
easy
on
the
eyes
and
fits
her
bubbly
ingenue's
part
like
a
chic
glove.
Tisca
Arora
as
the
bored
socialite
who
strays
into
a
lust
liaison
with
an
ever-ready
glorified
gigolo,
lends
a
certain
weight
to
the
proceedings
with
her
fiery
eyes.
Dil
Toh
Baccha
Hai
Ji
is
a
true-blue
sex
comedy
that
doesn't
lapse
into
unnecessary
passages
of
vulgarity
and
innuendos.
Though
Bhandarkar
has
sought
inspiration
from
the
romantic
comedies
by
Hrishikesh
Mukherjee
and
Basu
Chatterjee
the
style
of
storytelling
and
the
tantalizing
merger
of
libido
and
urban
morality
would
have
flummoxed
those
wondrous
comedy
makers.
Times
have
changed.
So
have
the
films.
Thankfully
we
still
have
filmmakers
who
believe
the
story
is
the
hero.
This
is
the
world
of
Bhandarkar's
Page
3
coming
together
with
the
laughter
of
Blake
Edwards'
rom-coms.
A
must-see
film
with
enough
meat
in
the
plot
to
keep
us
engaged
till
the
end.
And
three
heroes
who
never
take
off
their
shirts
even
when
they
are
sweating
in
nervous
anxiety.
Love
is
like
that
only.
Story first published: Monday, January 31, 2011, 11:06 [IST]