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DIL VIL PYAR VYAR . Director: Anant Mahadevan. Players: R. Madhavan, Namrata Shirodkar, Sanjay Suri, Sonali Kulkarni, Jimmy Shergill, Hrishitaa Bhatt. DVD (Metalight/Insight)
Intertwining no less than four romances set in the Mumbai, Dil Vil Pyar Vyar(DVPV) could easily be dismissed as one of the horrid T-series romances that had films added as an afterthought after a private label music album became hot. The magic wand over DVPV is the re-enactment of some of the most popular songs of the legendary maestro R.D. Burman. The result is a fascinating combination of new faces that lip synch to updated version’s of timeless music.
The four would-be couples are lead by Madhavan and Shirodkar that replay a mini-version of Abhimaan, while Suri’s record producer finds that he may have a discovered a new voice in his shy next door neighbor (Kulkarni). As the under-achieving son of a millionaire father (Kiran Kumar), Shergill meanwhile, is threatened with exile in remote Africa until he meets a beauty (Bhatt) that is not interested in his fortune.
In addition to drawing on decent performances that keep the viewer alert at all times, what DVPV also does well is re-introduce Burman’s music to newer ears. Since Burman’s timeless tunes have made wildly prolific inroads into the lucrative market for remixing Hindi film songs, these tunes may not be that unfamiliar after all.
In the hands of arranger Bablu Chakraborty, Burman’s songs sound excellent. “O Haseena Zulfonwali” by Abhijeet and Sunidhi Chauhan, just one of 14 tunes on the satisfyingly extended soundtrack, has the original 1960s bongo-drumbeats replaced by a techno drum-machine, while Hariharan’s rendition of “O Hansini” simply melts in your ears. DVPV is convincingly fresh and strangely original.
Globe trekker, aesthete, photographer, ski bum, film buff, and commentator Aniruddh Chawda writes from Milwaukee.