Review of Dhadak / धड़क, directed by Shashank Kaitan

Every time I go to my local library, I wander the DVD section in search of something new to watch, especially because I know my library has some titles that aren’t on the streaming platforms I pay for. The international movie section of the library is especially tiny, but for a solid year every time I went into the section I saw a copy of Dhadak on display.

No one ever checked out the movie, as I go to the library every week and I spotted it there every single time. I think because this is an area that doesn’t really have a South Asian population, no one is really interested in Bollywood—except for me, apparently.

It took me taking a Nepali class to finally be able to read the Hindi script on the front of the DVD—probably yet another reason no one has checked the DVD out. It’s in Hindi.

So once I figured out the name of the movie was Dhadak, I shrugged, decided its time had finally come for us, and then I pressed play on my DVD player when I brought it home. And, to be honest, I was not having fun with this movie.

Here’s my review.

The story of a rich girl and poor boy getting together despite the circumstances.

So this is a remake of a Marathi language film, which my friend told me after the fact. I had no idea the original film even existed, nor this plot line, but I think the closest comparison for my Western viewers is Romeo and Juliet, as the story with this one is quite similar to Romeo and Juliet in some ways.

The main character of the film is Parshya, who grew up in a family that was from a lower caste. His father is a fisherman, and despite his success in school, it will forever be overshadowed by the fact he was born into a low caste.

He goes to school with Archi, the daughter of an upper-caste influential politician in the area. Archi is pretty defiant of the gender roles that are imposed upon her, which might create some clashes when it comes her father’s position and what is expected of her as a woman in Indian society.

Archi and Parshya meet at college, and the more they spend time together, the more these two begin to fall in love.

But when they’re caught at a party together by Archi’s parents, it leads to her father beating Parshya and his two friends. As they flee through the streets from his men, who come after him, the two start to get the inklings that they should run away and elope.

When Archi’s father puts in a false claim that Parshya and his friends gang raped his daughter, the police come for him one day and arrest them all. The conflict continues to blow up, and everyone flees the city. Archi and Parshya flee together, and get on a train to Hyderabad.

From there, Archi’s privileged upbringings begint o show, as she doesn’t even want to drink the water coming from a spout.

They use their money to buy her bottled water, but this is only the beginnings of their hardship. They first stay with Parshya’s uncle and aunt in Nagpur for a bit, who advises them to go to West Bengal, in Kolkata, to start over their lives. Her father is looking for them, and they are going to start with all of Parshya’s family, putting his uncle at risk if they continue to stay.

So the eloped couple head to Kolkata. Their home is tiny, and Parshya’s rejected from jobs because he is unable to speak Bangla properly.

But over time, he learns, and they begin to adjust to their circumstances. Archi has a meltdown at one point because she thinks she wants to go home, as she can’t handle this kind of harder life, and she misses her home badly. But, with time, they get settled. Eventually, they decide to get officially married, and Parshya’s two friends visit.

Archi then becomes pregnant and they have a child, buying a nice new home in the process because they’ve managed to work their way up in Kolkata.

She makes amends with her mother and father, but during a Puja, her brother shows up invited to her house with his posse. She thinks nothing of this, and leaves them alone with Parshya and their son.

While she heads off to buy sweets, she returns home and is horrified to see her husband tossed from the balcony in front of her with their child. They are dead, and the movie ends there.

Overall Thoughts

Like I said before, I really struggled with this movie. I thought that it was pretty poorly paced throughout, and because I wasn’t able to get into either of the characters, since it felt like they had no chemistry, there was no connection with the movie.

I also had an inkling that the caste problems were seriously swept under the rug throughout this film, and because of that it was more of a tragic romance that didn’t work.

It needed more directed nuance than it had, which made it more difficult to watch in the end. After finishing it, I looked it up and saw that was the general consensus, which I’m not surprised by in the end.

I’m glad I watched it to rip off the Bandaid of curiosity, but I don’t think I’d watch it again.

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