Eye
To
Eye
Sairat
begins
with
a
cricket
match
where
everyone
is
waiting
for
their
captain
(Akash
Thosar)
to
arrive
on
the
field.
Our
hero,
on
the
other
hand
busy
is stealing
glances
at
his
lady
love
Archie
(Rinku
Rajguru).
Parshya
wins
the
match
but
loses
his
heart.
The
cricket
match
gets
replaced
by
a
bizarre
eating
contest
in
Dhadak
where
Madhukar
(Ishaan
Khatter)
just
can't
take
his
eyes
off
Parthavi
who
has
just
arrived
at
the
scene
with
her
politician
father.
Love
At
First
Sight
You
felt
the
flutter
of
first
love
when
you
watched
Parshya
dive
into
the
water
when
he
hears
Archie's
name
or
when
he
went
'Yed
Lagala'
dancing
madly
amidst
the
sugarcane
fields.
Ishaan
Khatter
too
gets
to
recreate
a
similar
moment
in
Dhadak
and
well,
he
does
pull
it
off.
So
far,
so
good.
Parshya
vs
Madhukar
However
in
Dhadak,
Shashank
Khaitan
reduces
the
blossoming
romance
between
his
two
protagonists
to
mere
eye
stares
and
some
cute banter.
While
Ishaan
Khatter-Janhvi
Kapoor
share
some
electrifying
chemistry,
you
long
for
Archie-Parshya's
innocent
romance.
Remember
that
scene
in
Sairat
where
Parshya
tries
to
convey
his
feelings
to
Archie
in
a
letter
and
sends
it
through
a
kid? It
lits
your
face
with
a
smile
and
makes
you
feel
that
pangs
of
infatuation.
Dhadak
gets
Madhukar to
sing, "How
do
I
tell
you,
How
much
I
love
you" in
his
broken
English.
All
it
evokes
is
just
a few
laughs!
Parshya
looks
every
bit
of
a
lad
who
has
been
through
oppression.
Madhukar
on
the
other
hand,
comes
across
more
as
a
happy-go-lucky
teen.
Archie
vs
Parthavi
One
of
the
places
where
Dhadak
falters
is
Parthavi's
character.
You
never
get
to
really
see
her
assertiveness
barring
a
scene
or
two.
Archie
on
the
other
hand,
never
missed
to
depict
her
swag.
Be
it
riding
a
bike
or
a
tractor,
being
a
shining
knight
in
armour
when
Parshya
gets
beaten
up
by
her
cousin
Mangya
or
saying
'I
love
you' to
Parshya
in
the
sugarcane
fields.
Sairat
also
celebrated
the
female
gaze
with
its
classroom
scene.
Parshya
may
be
smitten
by
Archie
but
it
was
she
who
took
the
lead
when
it
came
to
wooing.
How
often
to
we
get
to
watch
this
in
Bollywood?
What's
Bollywood's
Obsession
With
Stereotypes?
Pradeep
Bansode
who played
Langdya
in
Sairat
had
an
integral
role
to
play to
the
plot.
The
scene
where
he
realises
that
the
girl
he
desires,
hates
him
because
he
is
not
good
looking
enough,
touches
you
heart.
You
want
to
comfort
him
when
he
cries
his
heart
out
at
first but
then
laughs
it
off. He
tells
Parshya then
it
doesn't
matter
if
he
doesn't
get
a fair
chance
at
love
but
he
will
make
sure
that
Parshya
gets
Archie!
Such
warm
depiction
of
friendship!
While
in
Dhadak,
Madhukar's
vertically
challenged
friend
Purshottam is
used
to
throw
in
some
comic
relief.
Grow
up
Bollywood,
it's
2018!
La-La
Land
If
Sairat
gave
you
candy-floss
Bollywood
style romance
in
the
first
half,
it
pulled
the
ground
beneath
your
feet
post
the
interval,
when
Parshya-Archie
eloped
to
Hyderabad
only
to
burst
the
bubble
of their
dream
world with
a
prick
of
reality.
The
makers
of
Dhadak
restrict
Madhukar-Parthavi's
'middle-class'
struggle
to
merely
scrubbing
the
floors of a modest hostel
home
in
Kolkata,
cooking
their
food,
washing
their
clothes
and
having
a
common
bathroom.
That's
Karan
Johar's
level
of
poverty
for
you!
Mind
you
despite
all
the
struggles,
Janhvi
Kapoor's
glossed
hair
looks Insta-perfect
right
from
the
first
frame
to
the
last!
What's
In
A
Caste?
Sairat
had
a
social
commentary
running
all
through
the
film
in
the
subtlest
way
possible.
It
spoke
about
the
horrors
of
caste
system
in
our
country
but
never
spelt
it
out
loud.
Instead,
Dhadak
has
the
lower-caste
hero's
dad
corner
him
and
warn,
"Woh
log
oonchi
jaati
ke
hain." Chalo,
if
you
thought
Bollywood
finally
spoke
about
the
topic
of
casteism,
well
then
my
friends,
I
am
sorry
to
disappoint
you
here.
Because
that's
the
only
time
when
you
get
to
hear
the
word
'jaati'.
For
the
rest
of
the
time,
Shashank
keeps
this social
evil under
the
designer rug.
You
chose
to
make
a
film
on
caste
divide
but prefer
to
turn
a
blind
eye
towards
it
until
the
finale.
Dhadak-
0,
Sairat-
1.
Post
Confrontation
One
of
the
most
touching
scenes
in
Sairat
is
when
Archie
decides
to
leave
Parshya after
he
humiliates
and
slaps
her
in
public
out
of
jealousy
and
insecurity.
She
sits
in
a
train
to
go
back
home
when
a
blind
beggar
couple
comes
to
her
seeking
alms.
Parshya
on
the
other
hand,
after
failing
to
locate
Archie
tries
to
hang
himself
but
immediately
shrugs
off
the
thought.
That's
the
moment
when
they
realize
that
they
are
truly
in
love
with
each
other
and
decide
to
wade
through
all
their
imperfections
and
misunderstandings.
Shashank
replaces
this
iconic
scene
with
a
mere
dialogue
exchange
between
Madhukar
and
Parthavi
near
the
Hoogly
river.
It
simply
fails
to
tug
your
heartstrings
unlike
Sairat.
The
Final
Word
Last
but
not
the
least,
the
climax.
When
your
eyes
fall
on
Parshya
and
Archie's
dead
bodies
lying
in
blood
and
their
baby
walking
into
the
room
to
discover
the
horror
and
then
leaving
behind
his
tiny,
bloody
footprints
outside,
the
gut-wrenching
silence
shakes
you
to
the
core.
It
comes
across
a
slap
on
the
face!
Shashank
fiddles
with
the
climax and
gives
his
own
take.
But
intead
ends
up
confusing
honour
killing
with
revenge.
If
Sairat
conveyed
the
message
through
its
blood-curdling
silence
and
the
haunting
music
in
the
closing
credits,
Dhadak
throws
in
some
statistics
about
honour-killing.
It's
almost
like it
finally
dawned
upon
the
filmmaker that
he has goofed
it
up,
but
then
realized
then
it's
too
late
to
be
undone!
What
could
have
been
a
turning
point
in
Bollywood
story-telling
ends
up
as
a
lost
opportunity!