Dil Bechara

“Rajput was always a gifted performer, and he excelled in roles that probed his diverse acting vocabulary, such as Kai Po Che, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, MS Dhoni, and Sonchiriya. But many Bollywood productions also force-fit an actor into the generic template of a ‘star’: often, a good-natured prick who sings and dances and piles on. Rajput’s first such role was Raabta, where he looked woefully out of depth. Even his other films relying on staple formula — Kedarnath and Drive — were quite forgettable. A similar hurdle thwarts Dil Bechara. When Rajput is playing the carefree, assertive lead, especially in the initial portion, he’s not convincing. But when the film relaxes into a rhythm, asking him to play a vulnerable young man, he shines.”

| Full review

“When you are a certain age, the idea of romanticising death and illness is oddly attractive. As a 20 year old, I wrote a short story, a formulaic romantic triangle between a dying girl full of self-doubt, her humorous best friend and a handsome charmer who sweeps her off her feet. Glorious adventures, grand heartbreak, the works — there is something poetic about lessons of life in death. But as you grow old, you get too busy fulfilling its obligations to dwell on the fragility of life.”

| Full review

“Will go down in cinema history not so much for what its text contains as for the fact that it brings the curtain down on the career of a talented young actor who displayed panache for creative challenges (witness Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, Sonchiriya and the Mahendra Singh Dhoni biopic that he owned despite never having held a cricket bat in his life until he landed the role) and revelled in carrying burdens heavier than the one Dil Bechara places on his shoulders.”

Rating: 3 stars | Full review

“Twelve minutes into Dil Bechara and I was sad… It’s no shade against Dil Bechara—an adequate weepy romance—that the one thing that makes it unique is the circumstances surrounding its release. Rajput is gentle and moving, yet I doubt Manny would have moved me to tears had this released a year ago.”

| Full review

“How do you review a film whose star, a loved actor with a goofy, lingering smile, has left us abruptly? How do you review a film in which each and every frame he is in reminds us he is no longer in our midst? A film in which every time he smiles, your heart aches at the thought of a life extinguished too soon. A film in which you feel like reaching out and touching him, asking if you could hug him?”

| Full review

“In perhaps one of the most unaffected scenes in the film, Sushant Singh Rajput — teary eyed, his arms wound tightly around himself — asks, “Jee lenge na hum aise (we will live like this, right?)”. The line — whispered by Rajput between sobs — rang like a scream in our small bedroom.”

| Full review

“Equal parts dirge, and catharsis. You see Sushant, and the film recedes, and you want to reach out and freeze the frame. He was there, and he isn’t here. I brush back a tear.”

Rating: 2.5 stars | Full review

“So many overt and coded references to death, including death by suicide, all through this movie… making this far more a metaphysical an experience than all of Rajput’s #selfmusings put together… Have we ever been through a similar blurring of lines between true life and cinema, with regard to an actor on screen, who’s no more? Not to this extent.”

Rating: stars | Full review