Directed by Mukesh Chhabra, ‘Dil Bechara’ is based on John Green’s 2012 American novel ‘The Fault in Our Star’. It is a coming-of-age romantic drama that revolves around the lives of Kizie Basu (Sanjana Sanghi) and Manny (Sushant Singh Rajput), who are suffering from cancer and fall in love.

Directed by – Mukesh Chhabra
Produced by – Fox Star Studios
Music by – A.R Rahman
Starring – Sushant Singh Rajput, Sanjana Sanghi, Swastika Mukherjee, Saswata Chatterjee

Plot

The film opens in Jamshedpur, where we first meet Kizie, a lovely young girl who has Thyroid Cancer. She first meets Immanuel Rajkumar Junior (Manny) at her college fest, where he is fooling around with his friend JP. JP suffers from eye cancer, and Manny lost his leg to Osteosarcoma, which is in remission. They again meet at a cancer counseling center and slowly find companionship in each other than their oxygen cylinders and metallic rod.

Analysis

‘Fault in our Stars’ is one of the most popular novels, at the same time equally polarising. Highly loved by a large number of audiences, yet it is not the most profound tale of demise and eternal rest. However, the story is poignant, profoundly moving, and more so because of how it unconsciously merged with reel and real.

When the essence of a film is so surreal, it is challenging to introspect. However, the issue floats on the surface when the main story of a romantic drama is portrayed by a usual method; boy wooing the girl, the girl not being interested but eventually falling in love. Although, the film in the entirety never really clarifies why Kizie and Manny fell in love? Nevertheless, their journey is heartfelt.

The film has two actors from the Bengali film industry; Swastika Mukherjee and Saswata Chatterjee as Kizie’s parents. Sanjana Sanghi shined as Kizie Basu on her debut film.

Though ‘Dil Bechara’ was archetypal of romantic storytelling and Sushant Singh Rajput portrays a dated hero, there are some moments in the film which are representative of who the actor was.

In one of the scenes in the veranda where Manny was pouring his heart out to Kizie’s father about his amputated surgery and why we should care about silliness, it was a real moment where he was vulnerable and suffering like a regular man. Or in a scene in Paris where he says, “can we just pretend …”. It is hard to pretend, but the film gives some closure to a mishap that has left the country stunned. It is a good and watchable cinema. Though this might be one of the last few times we will be able to see Sushant Singh Rajput but he will always stay in our hearts.