Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat Movie Review: An Anurag Kashyap who is unleashed is an incredible force to reckon with. Case in point, Black Friday, Gulaal, Gangs of Wasseypur, Paanch (yes, yes... I admit I watched the bootleg version on YouTube), Ugly. An Anurag Kashyap that is subdued is just... I don't really know what to make of him. Case in point, some of his very recent films, including the just released Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat. Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat, starring Alaya F and newcomer Karan Mehta, isn't a bad movie, but it is so frivolous that I can't believe it has Kashyap's writing and directing skills in it. Aryan Khan Spotted at the Special Screening of Anurag Kashyap’s Film Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat (Watch Video).

Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat are about two sets of doppelgangers caught in a warped 'almost pyaar' equation across different time-zones and timelines. The common link between these two is DJ Mohabbat, played by Kashyap protege Vicky Kaushal, who keeps dropping in between to spout peals of quasi Gulzar, none of which makes any sort of impact. A true indicator of where this film is heading.

Okay, getting back to our doppelgangers. The first set is situated in Dalhousie and consists of Amrita (Alaya), a Hindu school-going teenager who is also secretly a burkha-wearing Tiktoker and adores DJ Mohabbat, and her platonic Muslim friend Yakub (Karan) who sells bootleg CDs and is also a Tiktoker himself. Their friendship, of course, doesn't bode well with Amrita's hardcore RW family, and things gets even more problematic when the youngsters run away to attend a DJ Mohabbat concert.

Watch the Trailer of Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat:

This part of the film is somewhat interesting, because there are elements that I could relate to with 'New India'. Kashyap tries to touch upon the incrementally rising hate against Muslims, frequent injections of 'love jihad' into any sort of discourse and the media trying to fan the fire using cheap emotionality to get its TRPs. There is one small scene that I really liked in the film, an exchange that's between Yakub and Amrita's grandmother over religious identities. After exchanging pleasantries, they both joke they are Hindu and Muslim by birth respectively. To which Yakub says, what if there was a shop where as grownups, people could choose what they want. When the gran asks if he would go to that shop and change his religion, he says he would never bother to go there. It is a subtle scene pointing out that even some of the more 'liberal' Hindus among us look to see the other religion as somewhat of an aberration that needs to be rectified.

But then, that's the only scene that stayed with me, and this is an Anurag Kashyap movie I am talking about. The director tries to explore the fragile conditions of the country today through today's Reels-obsessed youngsters, and comes to a conclusion that they may not see the seriousness of it all. Amrita, for instance, whines on about the lack of acceptance for love in the world, and people fighting over 'trivial' issues when there are bigger concerns to be tackled. Amrita represents the segment of youngsters whose social awareness is proclaimed loud but it is as shallow as most of the lyrics in the film. As for Yakub, he is comparatively bearable and even likeable, but is someone marked with a Damocles sword hanging over his head the moment you see him. With these two characters in the forefront, you know where the story heads and alas, the predictability disappoints. This is also where a subdued Kashyap comes as a disappointment. The portions of the leads bonding over Reels, bonfire and first shots of whiskey don't connect with you the same way as Mohsina telling off Faizal for asking her permishun before holding her hand in GOW. Almost Pyaar with DJ Mohabbat: Alaya F Recalls Shooting in Extreme Cold Conditions in Gulmarg with Karan Mehta, Says 'It Was An Amazing Adventure and Incredible Memory'.

As for the other track, it is about this introvert London-based DJ called Harmeet (Karan), who is born in German but has roots in Punjab. He is a huge DJ Mohabbat admirer, but he also finds himself uncomfortably followed by the infatuation of a spoilt rich brat Ayesha (Alaya). Ayesha is someone who simply can't take No for an answer and she just can't fathom why someone like Harmeet can't reciprocate her feelings when she is all over him.

This track is definitely the weaker of the two, as neither Harmeet nor Ayesha manage to form any sort of connect or relatability, even when they become into some sort of 'forced' camaraderie. There is also a subplot involving a nightclub manager, who like Ayesha, is obsessed with Harmeet, but that plotline is abandoned, just like Ayesha's friend Sapna (Sapna Pabbi) who disappears mid-way. The 'love story' here might be about breaking barriers of class but, like the other track, not getting success at that, because it is hard to care for these characters when they feel very skin-deep. For example, when Ayesha laments about how her uber-rich parents are sleeping around, it felt like she is auditioning for Veronica Lodge's character in Riverdale.

To give some credit to Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat, both the lead actors are really good. Alaya F adds spunk to two not so very likeable roles. Karan Mehta, whose uncanny semblance to a younger Ranveer Singh is even played as a joke in the film, is very earnest and successfully pulls off two diverse characters. The film also gets some form in the third act when Kashyap tried to sneak in some sliver of the filmmaker's earlier form, even if one track becomes nearly an episode of Criminal Justice.

However, still it isn't that much, which is exemplified in the last scene where the two segments finally coincide with the song "Mohabbat Se Kranti Aayegi" playing in the scene. While the song is waxing on about how only Love can bring a Revolution, what we have seen till now is an entirely cynical antithesis of that. Maybe that's the point. Maybe DJ Mohabbat is an oblivious idiot who thinks his gems on Love are enough balm to cure the wounded world. I don't mind the cynicism but why does it has to be so dull? When Kashyap has pulled off cynicism in the past with much better results... sigh...

Final Thoughts

With Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat, I now know what happens when Anurag Kashyap tries to make an Imtiaz Ali film about binding between damaged individuals, road trips in the snow and fake-deep philosophies of love. Sorry, but pass, not a fan of this side of Kashyap that feels way too reined in.

Rating:2.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 03, 2023 04:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).