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Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

STARRING: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, RanbirKapoor, Anushka Sharma, Fawad

Khan DIRECTOR: KaranJohar

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Let's get thisstraight. Karan Johar loves his films to look beautiful. He works towards gleaming, pol shing and grooming his locations and actors as though he were building a Taj Mahal for Gen-Y to rest its reposeful romanticism.

Ae Di/Hai Mushkil (ADHM) is one good-looking film with actors who epitomise human beauty. True, they strive helplessly towards reaching the inner core of their being to obtain a spiritual centre to match that abundance of physical beauty. That synchronised connectivity between innerand outer beauty escapes the f lmmaker, as well as his characters who are heard mouthing some beautiful poetry that seems ordered online.

It's all very designer-designer in

ADHM. You know, like kitchen interior and living room walls in a home decoration magazine. But nonetheless pretty to look at and enormously gratifying forthe high level of visual aesthetics thatKaran invests into his frames. Full marks to cinematographer Anil Mehta forshooting Karan's locations and actors with an intensity that frequently betrays theirshallow interests in life.

Though there are four pivotal characters in the capricious quadrangle, the focus is entirely on Ranbir and Anuskha who seem determined to make a tamasha out of their togetherness. And I do mean that literally. If lmtiaz Ali's Tamasha had paired Anushka with Ranbir, this would have been what Tamasha would have looked like. Thank the casting director, Deepika Padukone. Ranbirand Anushka, in no-brainer mode, whoop it up like two kids at a theme birthday party blowing up condoms in the mistaken belief that they are balloons. Not that Karan's vision would allow even a nip of non- vegetarianism. ADHM is an exceedingly pure take on love, of the unreciprocated kind.

Ranbir's Ayaan loves Anushka's Alize.

They have a lot of fun togetherand are constantly exploring the wild juvenile side to their personality. But she f nds him to be justfriendship material. Now what was that Deepika film where lmran Khan faced the same crisis of credibility. Ah yes, Break Ke Baad.

You will spot a likeness to many recent romcoms including Karan Johar's own Kabhi AlvidaNaa Kehna in this mish-mash of maudlin emotions and mushy poetry. By the time Fawad Khan saunters in as Anushka's object of adoration, we are physically exhausted by the juvenile antics of the RanbirAnushka pair.

While Ranbir behaves like the guy from Barfi! fused with the dude from Tamasha, both cloned into the angstridden singer in Rockstar, Anushka's chirpy high-octave act is doomed into self-destruction but salvaged by her spontaneity. Surely, she can do better than get typecast as the new avatar of Preity Zinta.

Fawad's entry is welcome and his exit baff ing. Why does he reject Anushka's love? If you are a Fawad fan, his meagre presence and sketchy role will infuriate you. There is also a paucity of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the plot. She looks svelte and extremely fetching. And her character spouts poetry with arresting allure. But her presence in Ranbir's Ayaan's life is never ratified beyond a scratch-level attraction.

It is not that these characters are not capable of deep-level breathing. It's only the directorwho keeps them af oat on the surface of a very blue, very tranquil, very scenic ocean. The scenic invariably overpowers the cynic in KaranJohar's cinema. He loves the good things in life and dislikes the thought of the make-up being washed by tears of desolation.

Consequently, we see the characters in ADHM not as individuals but an amalgamation of the surface beauty that Karan accumulates in his vision and invests on the screen in the hope that the audience finds a centre to the placid conflicts.

That is not to be.

By the time ADHM gets into a full-on Devdas mode, we are in no mood for tragedy. But what to do? Karan Johar won't let his characters enjoy theirselfinf icted painwithout a pay-off. These people love the good life and must pay a price forit.

Ranbiris adept at exhibiting designerangst. But his feelings for the 'heartless' woman never rises beyond youthful desire. At heart, he remains a philistine who thinks Mohammed Raf cried rather than sang. "Ae di/hai mushkil jeena yahan "

Subhash K.Jha