Despite Not Being Perfect, Dil Bechara Brings Us the Befitting Conclusion to Sushant’s Journey.

By Avik Basak

I have always heard from the elders in my life how in the year 1992, ticket demands for Amitabh Bachchan’s then supposedly the last film Khuda Gawah skyrocketed due to the die-hard fans’ dire wish to bid their favourite superstar a grand farewell. Although perhaps not on the same level, more so due to COVID-19 forcing theatre owners to shut shop and wait, but Sushant Singh Rajput’s final film, Dil Bechara enjoyed a similar hype. The only difference, perhaps the most crucial one emotionally, is that Mr Bachchan made a comeback in 1997 with Mrityudata but we will not see this talented young actor, who announced himself in Bollywood through a rocking performance in Kai Po Che!, gracing the silver screen ever again with a fresh outing.

Stakes for the film were high especially since the actor’s sad demise hit the entire nation with a thunderstorm with people from every nook and corner of the country demanding justice for him and calling for a war against nepotism. Even the people of Bollywood are divided on the subject and are engaged in a social media civil war against each other. Now, if we keep the emotions apart, if we look at the film as something more than just Sushant’s last film, do we really find an extraordinary piece of work to draw a poetic conclusion on the actor’s journey? Is Sushant really able to pull off a swan-song performance to cap his career? Let’s hold on to that for a bit before answering.

Based on John Green’s bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars, which was also adapted into an American film, Dil Bechara tells the story of Manny and Kizie, two cancer survivors or rather two souls fighting cancer, and how they fall in love, cope with life’s adversities and try to fulfil their small-big dreams. Set in the city of Jamshedpur, the film tries to subtly showcase the difficulties and desires in the lives of these dreamers battling their deadly disease.

Since its release, many have termed it a masterpiece, the best performance of Sushant’s entire career. Well, while it is certainly a decent film, it does have its shortcomings. The way Manny’s fandom for Rajnikanth has been portrayed here is quite clichéd and the fun moments that the makers try to derive from that sometimes seems forced. Also, there are some irregularities in the characterization of Kizie’s mother, played by an otherwise decent Swastika Mukherjee, especially her opinion towards Manny and how he could be a threat to her daughter. Moreover, there is one scene towards the end that reveals Manny’s fate to us. As I am one of the ones who just loved the American adaptation, I felt this scene fails miserably compared to the rendition in the Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort-starrer film despite the fact that Sushant and Sanjana try their earnest to do justice to it.

Now that we are done with the limitations, let’s talk about the positive points of the film and as you can guess, a lot of it has to do with the film’s leading star. Although Sushant’s performance sometimes makes him feel a lot like Ansel Elgort’s ‘desi’ version, he managed to subtly put his signature stamps on the character as well and made it his own. There are so many moments in the film, and I am sure you will also agree, where we cannot say whether we are looking at Manny or Sushant, especially due to the fact that both their lives have similar tragic conclusions. Whether it is the ‘always happy’ version of Manny or the one who grimaces and groans in pain, Sushant never misses a beat. The scene where Manny shares a beer with Kizie’s father and talks about fulfilling her dream is just beautiful.

The other cast members are also in fine form and it would be a crime to ignore their efforts by focusing on the film’s leading man. Sanjana Sanghi, in her first major film role, does a good enough job while Sahil Vaid as Sushant’s best friend, JP is brilliant. But the ones who deserve special mention are Swastika Mukherjee and Saswata Chatterjee as Kizie’s parents. Swastika does well to portray the concerns and worries of a middle-aged mother of a young daughter while Saswata once again proves that he is quite underrated as an actor on the national level. The scene where he just stands in the hospital restroom feeling helpless for his daughter’s fate and tears trickles down his cheeks in itself deserves special admiration. Saif Ali Khan in his cameo appearance is quite confusing but I would not blame him for that as the entire scene is very poorly written and does not have the desired effect at all.

Casting director Mukesh Chhabra makes a good enough debut with Dil Bechara but there is plenty of room for improvement. Shashank Khaitan and Suprotim Dasgupta’s screenplay could have been better without those irregularities here and there while A. R. Rahman’s music is as usual delightful. Cinematographer Satyajit Pande does a good job in capturing both the locales of Jamshedpur and Paris while editor Aarif Sheikh does well to make sure that the film has a runtime of less than two hours.

Overall, Dil Bechara is a decent film although it falls short by a small margin on creating the same magic as its Hollywood counterpart. But there are plenty of things to admire in this last screen appearance of Sushant Singh Rajput and the fact that this talented young actor whom we will never see again gave a memorable performance makes it worthy of multiple watches. It might not be the best performance Sushant has ever delivered but it certainly is one of the most special ones as it works as a befitting conclusion to his acting career which one could connect to after hearing that heart-breaking news that struck us on the afternoon of June 14, 2020.

3.8 Stars Out of 5 from Me...