Kya Dilli Kya Lahore Movie Review: Poetic And Heart Touching

Wars are always devastating and for us what was more devastating than the India-Pakistan partition in 1948 which occurred on a big pool of blood?

Yes, Kya Dilli Kya Lahore released on May 2 starring Vijay Raaz (Rehmat Ali) and Manu Rishi (Samarth Pratap) in lead roles that portrays the pain associated with the 1948 partition and strongly advocates peace.

The story unfolds like Vijay Raaz playing the role of a Pakistani soldier crosses the border to India to dig out a blue-print of a supposed tunnel being built from Delhi to Lahore by Indian Force to attack Pakistan and he comes across Manu Rishi who happens to be a cook of the Indian Army.

Eventually the two foes turn friends when they realise that they share very common sorrows and fate as both recall the suffering and humiliation they underwent in their new homelands after partition. Although the film mostly revolves around Vijay and Manu, Rajendranath Zutshi (Barfi Singh) and Vishwajeet Pradhan also had brief but significant roles of a postman for Indian Army and Pakistan Army Captain, respectively.

Though we have seen many films based on the 1948 partition in the past, Kya Dilli Kya Lahore feels fresh with its heartfelt emotions and fine presentation. Initially, the film goes on with expressing the hatred and wrath stuck deep inside the heart of Vijay and Manu with a couple of bullet exchanging scenes, as they both blame each other's nation for the partition and later, the film smoothly goes into a more emotional phase when the two soldiers recall their childhood in Delhi and Lahore, respectively. This is when the two heart-broken men in uniform realise the commonness between each other and they turn more friendly.

Crafted by legendary Gulzar, the film Kya Dilli Kya Lahore is blessed with some strong and poetic one liners with a heavy background score, which brings in the feel of the old days, though some words might appear out of the dictionary for the young and non Urdu-Punjabi viewers.

The film Kya Dilli Kya Lahore directed by Vijay Raaz himself witnesses a fine performance by both Vijay and Manu, while the story though slightly stretching is capable of hitting the heart straight.