Lekar Hum Deewana Dil: Run Baba Baby Run

Rating: 3 stars Bottomline: Nice premise, underexplored Ever had a recurring dream? One of those where you have no control and things keep spinning on their own and the action and the result is the same. Highway director Imtiaz Ali had once mentioned in some interview that he always had a recurring dream involving trains. The result was Jab We Met. That journey never ended with that film. It continued with the runaway girl in Rockstar and later Highway. The running away theme has doubled now with LHDD. Imtiaz’s brother, Arif Ali, the writer, director of LHDD, has both the characters elope together. Thankfully, the premise is different and worth exploring. What happens when baba and baby from rich families happily ride away on a motorbike; a dirty puppy dog and a guitar in tow? Well, dirty puppy unfortunately ends up playing the most important role. Perhaps, in keeping with the culture of anything but wordly wise richie rich babas and babies. Remember Tuffy in Hum Aapke hain Kaun? Only Tuffy was white and fluffy. The street puppy here is black and dirty. Enough about dirty puppy in order to refrain from any spoilers here. Back to baba and baby. Kapoor family fans will be happy to know that the baba, (Armaan Jain) jumps around like Shammi Kapoor. He also smiles like Rajiv Kapoor. He of Ram Teri Ganga Maili fame, remember? Meanwhile, Nana, Raj Kapoor is probably smiling down at his grandson. Because, Armaan, does have a charm and some acting genes too. Poor chap will have to live up to comparisons with cousin, Ranbir. Hopefully, he will create his own style and niche. Now that the lineage distraction is out of the way, one can move on to the story. Dinoo (Armaan) and Karishma aka K (Deekha Seth) are college friends. Karishma’s Shetty amma appa are forcing K to get married now that she is all of 20. As K rightly questions, why do parents send their children to the best colleges and give them a modern upbringing, only to suddenly get traditional? D, impulsive baba that he is, decides to be her knight on a red motorbike and whisks K away to marry her himself. Since his own father either mocks him or slaps him senseless, he doesn’t have any other choice. The father’s forced obnoxious character doesn’t help the script either. The romance between the two GenNow adults, doesn’t just get ruined by the villainous parents but also at the screenplay level. The family drama suddenly gets screechy and the easy breezy film acquires a jarring tone every time the parents come on the scene. The story takes an interesting turn, as things get worse for the runaway rich lovers now turning poor. So poor and helpless that they end up in a jungle in Madhya Pradesh, at the mercy of some Naxalites. The city kids had never heard of the term ‘Maowaadi’. Their four walls of money and ignorance are touched upon, with gentle non-judgement. An irrelevant item number (worst music by A R Rahman) takes the film down a notch or two. Plenty of credit here to both the director and the actors for pulling this off without drawing too much ridicule. The casting is just apt here. Both Armaan and Deeksha look and act so endearing and innocent that they manage to take you through the otherwise unconvincing ride in the jungles. The premise so far, gets better. Faced with so much hardship, will love fly away from the hilltops where they had screamed and declared “I LOVE YOU” at the top of their voices at 3 a.m.? The answers blow hot and cold in the latter half. The ending is an easy cop out. But the ride, overall is light and popcorn fun. A R. Rahman’s music is another letdown. Deeksha Seth, who has acted in six Telugu and two Tamil films, has a fresh and natural screen presence. She and Armaan do a decent job of combining a friendship-romance chemistry that their roles demand. LHDD provides some decent popcorn entertainment that refuses to take risks. Enough to keep baba log and baby log happy. (The writer tries to make peace with her own filmmaking nightmares, of being a scriptwriter, actor and assisting film icons by moonlighting as a film journalist.http://gayatrigauri.blogspot.in)