The year was 2018 when Manmarziyaan hit the screens. From the looks of it, no one could have guessed that the romantic drama that features one of Bollywood’s favorite tropes – a love triangle – was helmed by the unconventional and avant-garde Anurag Kashyap. For many, this marked the birth of Anurag Kashyap 2.0. The filmmaker, who made his directorial debut with Paanch, a film that was never released, became synonymous with dark, noir, experimental and psychedelic motifs. But with Manmarziyaan, he turned a new chapter and with his latest release, DJ Mohabbat Almost With Love, he took that adjective further.
Despite being offbeat, it doesn’t detract completely from quintessential Bollywood. It is packed with eight songs and is based on a kind of love that can make you, break you and has the power to bring about a ‘revolution’. It intends to explore the nuances of modern relationships by bringing Ghalib and Amrita Pritam to the fore. It talks about the heartfelt and frenzied intensity of ishq, pyar aur mohabbat using the phrase ghunghor connection. And with these contradictions stuffed into the narrative, it may all seem pretty chaotic on the surface and in some parts, it is.
Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat has two stories running parallel to each other. The first story is set in Dalhousie where Amrita, a young school-goer, has recently stepped into adolescence. Like most of Anurag’s female characters, she is feisty and waits to find out what lies on the other side of the norms set by her family which includes traditional parents, two stern brothers and a seemingly lenient grandmother. She secretly makes videos for Ting Tong in the guise of Saloni Ammi (probably inspired by content creator and comic Saloni Gaur’s famous avatar of Nazma Aapi) and is obsessed with DJ Mohabbat’s music. Accompanied by Yakub, the son of a local shop owner, who helps her make Ting Tong videos, she elopes to see DJ Mohabbat live at a concert near Manali, leaving her family distraught and furious .
The second story revolves around Ayesha and Harmeet and is set in London. Ayesha falls in love with Harmeet, who is a DJ in a London club, and constantly tries to pursue him. A dedicated, driven and aspiring musician, he pays no attention to her. But as luck would have it, he warms to her. Here, the villains in the story are again her family – especially her father – who go to all lengths to protect their rich and pampered daughter from the middle-class hermit.
Anurag tries to fill the story with a lot of trending topics. It touches on issues such as predatory behaviour, status differences and homophobia, and also mentions love jihad. In what was being billed as his homage to modern love, he aimed to present the intricacies and complexities of new-age relationships in all their glory. The problems faced by today’s youth and the ideological and emotional conflicts they face with their own family members are intertwined in the narrative. But what makes the plot a bit of a distraction is that none of them really leave a very deep mark. The pace of the film is another hindrance and it is only in the last thirty minutes and almost love with DJ Mohabbat that the ending picks up and makes you worry about the fate of the four characters.
Touted to be a romantic musical drama, the film marks the fourth collaboration between Anurag and composer Amit Trivedi after Dev D (2009), Bombay Talkies (2013) and Manmarziyaan. But sadly, no song stays with you except Mohabbat Se Kranti. To make the song resonate with the millennial and Gen Z audience, the lyrics are full of Hindi and English words that could have been gotten away with. The music should have formed the heart of the film but sadly it does not add much to the story.
Through the film we are also explained and recognized that no matter how different the language, syntax and grammar (quite literally) of love has become today, its core essence is still found in the ballads written by many Sufi poets. , resounds with poems and couplets. Moon first. And to connect and converge these timelines comes DJ Mohabbat, played by Vicky Kaushal. He is your regular maverick and idealistic lover of music and poetry, who has a lot of advice to give to the younger generation. His character plays the role of a narrator as he informs the audience about what true love really is and how love will behave if Ashik turns up at his doorstep. It might sound like a brilliant idea on paper but in the film, it only creates jitters and jerks in the flow of the narrative.
But all said and done, the film is written and treated with a rare tenderness and lots of love. Light work is remarkable. Ignore the change in lighting as the story keeps on swinging between Dalhousie and London. It almost becomes like a character in the movie as it perfectly embodies the mood of the protagonist and the places where the story currently stands, almost causing a change in your own self.
Alaya F is almost the heart and soul of Love with DJ Mohabbat as Amrita and Ayesha. She grabs your attention with her compelling presence and embodies the complexities in both her characters. There is a seasoned actor within this starlet and this film is another interesting association with her that boasts of Jawaani Jaaneman (2020) and Freddy (2022). She surrenders herself completely to her director and allows him to mold her into two women who are strong and unflinching, but also extremely fragile and vulnerable.
Speaking of vulnerability, the film begins with the narrator talking about men and how emotionally brittle they are. It sets the tone for debutant Karan Mehta’s characters – Yakub and Harmeet. He shines, but rather quietly. The emotional graph he plays with makes his characters interesting and Karan delivers an impressive performance.
Vicky as DJ Mohabbat is credited as the third protagonist in the film. Apart from speaking poetry and helping Karan’s hermit realize his true potential, he doesn’t have much to do. But it is heartening to see the actor in a never-seen-before avatar on the big screen after almost three years!
Almost in love with DJ Mohabbat isn’t one of Anurag’s better works, but it definitely has a heart. It may not be as edgy or revolutionary as it promised, but it has a sublime quality to it. It may not be the answer to end the noise, hate and prejudice, but it hits home. After all, who isn’t hungry for love and passionately looking and fighting for it? ,
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