Dhak Dhak Review: Four Women On A Monotonous & Clueless Bike Trip

Dhak Dhak Review: Tarun Dudeja gathers four leading ladies for his feminist trip, Dhak Dhak, driving more towards finding yourself than the community. What's wrong with Hindi or any feminist drama in Indian cinema is that they have to speak about feminism by showing female characters that are unaware of it. That's why every story looks similar and starts boring you. Dhak Dhak is again the same old story with the same ambitions and the same conflicts, set on a new road. Four girls come together for a bike ride to Khardungla—that's similar to what we saw in Uunchai last year. They were going to fulfil the last wish of their dear friend, while here the females set out to find freedom for themselves. Coming back to the previous discussion, it's again the same old thing. It's so typical, and moreover, it's so long and slow.SKY (Fatima Sana Shaikh) is a biker and YouTuber who has gone viral because of inappropriate photo leaks from her boyfriend. She is going through a certain trauma of humiliation and breakup with her boyfriend-cum-partner, and she is set out to make things better. For her project, Barcelona, she is asked to make an interesting video story in which she gets in touch with an elderly widow, Mahi (Ratna Pathak Shah). Mahi wants to ride a bike to Khardungla—the highest point for bike riding and a sort of holy destination (Tirth) for bikers. Sky and Mahi convince a mechanic-cum-bike expert, Uzma (Dia Mirza), a victim of love marriage turned into male dominant marriage, to come along, and then there is a fourth girl, Manjiri (Sanjana Sanghi), who joins them on the advice of her relative. This 7-day schedule teaches them about life, their choices, problems, solutions, and new beginnings.Written by Tarun Dudeja, Parijat Joshi, and Anvita Dutt, DD is a dragged script. It runs for 140 minutes, when the maximum space this story deserved was 2 hours. Those extra 20 minutes work like 40, because you know it ain't gonna end anytime soon. The predictable script isn't an issue, actually, because that happens with almost every film nowadays, but here, it's atrociously boring. Four stories about four different characters, and yet they couldn't write an engaging script? How is that possible? I literally had 2-3 naps during the watch, and after waking up, I asked myself, "Isn't it over yet?". Dhak Dhak lacks those heart-thumping moments. It's so plain, dry, and soulless most of the time. I don't see any logic in writing about decades-old feminist issues in 2023 and calling them modern. This needs to stop somewhere, or else people will lose their faith in woman-led cinema. Bollywood certainly needs a wake-up call like what "Gargi" (2022) did to Tamil cinema. Such pathbreaking attempts should be made, not these outdated, soapy, and tedious dramas.Dhak Dhak has a good cast, and all of them have good screen space too. It came as no surprise to me that the film is ruled by the most senior member, Ratna Pathak Shah. She is superb in the film, except for some scenes and that unwanted accent. To cover that, she gives solid expressions in some scenes. Fatima Sana Shaikh looks the hottest among them, and as Mahi says, she is the bravest one too, according to her age. She has a lot of bold talk and questions, though it doesn't look very convincing with that kind of writing. Dia Mirza, again, another beautiful face and breathtaking beauty, is a dated, remorseful woman. Sanjana's character is overly innocent and extra anxious, but somewhere she brings some stability to this go-wild group. Benedict Garrett, Kallirroi Tziafeta, Poonam Gurung, and others have done decent with the limited scenes.Dhak Dhak has a heart that doesn't beat enough. Like Uzam says, "It's the heart (of a bike). If that's working well, then the body works well. Other parts are not that important". The same is the case with Dhak Dhak when it comes to the execution of the entire context. On the technical front, it's a well-made film considering its controlled budget. The cinematographer gets to capture picturesque locations, while the editor fails to put them in the right place. The editing is too thin and lackluster. It's not that trimming one or two scenes would have made it better, but there is a whole lot wrong with it. Tarun Dudeja's direction is also not up to par. Getting an idea and visualising it on the big screen are two different things. Dudeja could see it but couldn't make us see it. That's the major problem with Dhak Dhak. If it just doesn't hold you long enough to interest you, then how can it make itself like you? And the last thing, road trip movies don't mean melodrama and all problems. Please understand that. Overall, Dhak Dhak is a trip that can be skipped.