Dharmesh Darshan had a cropper on his hands with Mela and needs Dhadkan to succeed to get back some of his credibility as one of the leading directors of our time. How did he manage to get that accolade was through the raging success of Raja Hindustani, an old fashioned and very traditional film, with interesting performances, good music and a fresh approach.

Dhadkan has much of this but is unlikely to follow in the same path as Raja Hindustani in achieving its box office success or bringing in hosannas to its lead players. Anjali (Shilpa Shetty) and Dev (Sunil Shetty) are in love. She is rich, he is poor with a stubble, black clothing and broken chappals. How they met would have been a mystery but we are spared the details. Anjali insists on meeting his mother and Dev sends her up to her, not joining them. There, she is told by Dev's mother (Sharmila Tagore) that Dev is angry with her because he is illegitimate and cannot take this pain. Anjali promises to stay with Dev forever. On her return home, she is informed by her father (Kiran Kumar) that he has arranged her wedding. She informs him of Dev and the father agrees to meet him. The meeting is a disaster, not so much for the fact that the arrogant rich are looking down on the poor but because Dev obviously has such a major chip on his shoulders about himself that he is rude, arrogant and brimming over with self-confidence, sure that Anjali will follow him regardless of her parents.

Decision time for Anjali...parents of her love. She chooses the former and informs Dev leaving him shattered. When he tells his mother, she dies instantaneously! Anjali marries Ram (Akshay Kumar) but informs him on their wedding night that she wants nothing to do with him. He tells her about equal rights and that they should be good friends. Respect sparkles in the brattish wife's eyes. Ram is of course the epitomy of good. His family of step siblings and step mother despise him but his theory is that his love for them will turn their hatred to love. The family do not take long to be nasty to Anjali who stands up for herself but finds Ram siding with his step mother because one must respect one's elders. However, after another of her run ins with the family, Ram tells his family that he believes his wife over them and now the brattish wife flashes her huge doleful eyes with tears signifying true love. Cut to "na na karte pyaar..." song in switzerland and Venice.

Three years pass. On their third wedding anniversary, a surprise guest appears...No surprises for guessing who this is. Yes, its Dev having made 500 crore in three years (one dare not wonder how). He also has with him a beautiful business partner (Mahima Chaudhary) who is obviously madly in love with him but he is only obsessed with Anjali. Its all rather predictable and unbelieveable but this is a hindi film after all...and for what its worth, it is extremely watchable even if there is nothing unsubtle about it. In fact, it almost plays like a greek tragedy or an opera... melodrama at its best; But the director has firm control over his film and keeps the narrative flowing without too many diversions.

The film concentrates on its main theme and does this reasonably well. There is no comedy mercifully except of course Ram's family who are caricatures in themselves. However, the script needed to tie up many loose ends with the climax being rather tame. Something more dramatic was required and one comes away disappointed that the film did not pack the powerful if overdramatic punch that it had been building itself up for. The film is supposed to launch Shilpa Shetty into the big league but I doubt that this will do the trick. She is one actress who always seems to try so hard. There is just no spontaneity or naturalness in her performance although she certainly tries to give a good account of herself. She makes no impression. Or to be fair to her, she has underplayed this role which mercifully is a relief to everyone because she really does tend to go over the top.

Akshay Kumar has a change of image here, no fights, not rough and tough stuff, and is charming in a limited role. He is Mr too good to be true, a sort of Ajay Devgun from Hum dil de chuke sanam. But its not a well written role and his character does not evoke much feeling. His climax scene is simply too ridiculous...but as in the Ramayan Ram could do not wrong, this Ram can do no wrong...in fact, he would surely embarrass the Pope with his goodness.

Sunil Shetty has a great role and he tries his best...but no matter what he does, he simply does not convince. His expressions are plastic, his voice a complete disaster, showing no emotion. For Sunil Shetty, expression or feeling is expressed by jerky and exaggerated hand movements especailly in the songs. But I did feel sorry for him but I think it was more because he was trying so hard rather than what he managed to convey through his character.

Mahima Chaudhary is wasted in a two bit role. A shame because she is an actress who has shown that she is a consumate performer and she should not be bogged down in these one dance plus a few line roles. If only she could cut down on the pancake, she would look fresher...a sad waste. And what in the world was Sharmila Tagore doing in a 5 minute role as Sunil Shetty's broken hearted mother, first seen clutching the radio with a hint of madness in her eyes.

The music of the film is popular already, the best tracks being dil ne yeh kaha, na na karte pyaar and tum dil ki dhardkan ho. The background score is excellent. On the whole, Dhadkan is an old fashioned triangle, well told and fairly well executed. I must say that despite its predictabilty and for all its gaping holes and mistakes, it was fairly engrossing fare. But then, I quite enjoyed Mela and look what happened to that!