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Sunny Deol’s Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas sets a new bar — for how bad Bollywood can get

The film is downright bizarre with bad acting by the lead pair, unimpressive music and staccato storyline.

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New Delhi: Some films leave you speechless because of how well they’re made, and some render you incapable of putting in words how horrific they are. Sunny Deol directorial Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas falls into the second category.

Karan Deol, Sunny’s son, makes his debut alongside newcomer Sahher Bambba in this love story, which is reminiscent of his father’s films before he became Bollywood’s typical angry man.

Karan plays Karan Sehgal, a young man who owns a resort in Manali that offers the best adventure sports and trekking that money can buy. Sahher plays Sahher Sethi, a popular video blogger who reviews hotels for a living.

Sahher goes to review Karan’s resort and starts off on the wrong foot with him, as the two embark on a week-long trek in the mountains. As the days progress, the two warm up to each other and fall in love. After the trip, the two take their relationship further and meet Sahher’s parents. But her jealous ex-boyfriend, who happens to be the son of an influential Member of Parliament, plans to ruin their relationship and exact his revenge.

Debuts are notoriously nerve-wracking and obviously a little shaky for any actor, but Karan puts in zero effort to actually act — perhaps, because he can’t. Even a novice knows that emoting and facial expression are vital elements of acting. 

The debutant’s acting skills are practically non-existent, so much so that it almost feels like he took up a challenge to make a film without showing any emotion whatsoever. Whether he is happy, sad, angry or flirtatious, his face and remain the same — may be an inspiration for extras playing a corpse.

Sahher, on the other hand, is a slight shade better as she tries to pull off the energetic, headstrong female protagonist. However, in her enthusiasm to bring out her character, she goes overboard and just comes off shrill, screechy and downright annoying. 

Over-the-top dialogues, sloppy editing

The storyline is staccato to begin with and just changes completely in the second half, taking rather bizarre turns. The first half has no connection with the second half — almost making it two separate films. The first half is visually pleasing, thanks to the breathtaking mountains of Himachal and is packed with a lot of panoramic drone shots. The second half, then, deals with abusive relationships, feminism, victim-shaming, and politics. Perfectly logical.

But even the snow-capped mountains of Manali cannot save the film from stretching on and on with forgettable music, OTT dialogues and sloppy editing.

In the first 30 minutes, the audience sees Sehhar vomit and lose consciousness due to altitude sickness — and that really is the perfect summary of how the audience will feel while watching the movie.

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11 COMMENTS

  1. i already watched it and it was a great movie….i just don’t understand what is happening to all reviewers ..i mean why they all talking negative about this movie…as a debut they tried their best….and u cannot judged their acting skill on their 1st film…..there are lots of debutante who doesn’t go well on their 1st film….but now they are well known superstars …..their acting will be grow after they do more works….so pls stop doing negative review in such a bad way..

  2. For: MADHAVI POTHUKUCHI
    Every idiot with a word processing software and kindergarten level grasp over the English language pretends to be literary. On the contrary, acquiring employment by fluke or good fortune doesn’t qualify you to be a film critique. Did you go to school for it or do you have credentials to be one? More than likely, Not. In that case, rather than displaying your affinity and affection toward western sensibilities and your false progressive cultural assimilation it would serve you and your readers more if you remain true to Indian sensibilities and review a product for its merits. Discuss the director’s techniques, the writer’s skill, but your review does not do that. It lacks any common sense, all the while praising the product for trouncing it because you are clueless in your abilities and devoid of film reviewing skills. Even your writing sucks. Consider the following brief paragraph from your review it’s laden with basic errors. I suggest first improve your writing skills, then take a course or more to learn about cinematic skills and then return to resume work as a critique. Self-made critiques like you are a dime a dozen, visit youtube.

    The storyline is staccato to (Missing a comma – Interrupters should be set off with commas to signal the break) begin with and just (just as used here can make you sound uncertain and vague.) changes completely (overused word) in the second half, taking rather bizarre turns. The first half has no connection with the second half — almost making it two separate films. The first half is visually pleasing, thanks to the breathtaking mountains of Himachal and is packed (passive Voice) with a lot of panoramic drone shots. The second half, then, deals with abusive relationships, feminism, victim-shaming, and politics. Perfectly logical.

  3. Good Movie , I don’t know, why are reviewers giving negative remarks. Such a beautiful movie, how much money, they put to make it & hopefully, if movie becomes successful, everyone should be got benefit from it, namely crew members, govt. & so many more. Request to people, don’t believe upon their opinion, they sells themselves, if some one will give money, they gives good reviews otherwise bad. Go & watch, it is very nice movie. God bless you.

  4. I did not watch the movie yet but your review of this movie to write karan off from acting is very bias and bullying , one thing for sure you cannot expect to be like his dad sunny at the moment, the boy is trying to be himself so don’t look for sunny in him, sitting down in social media given stupid reviews, you can’t make a 10 minutes move. So pls stop your nonsense reviews

  5. Really pleasant movie. Good for a one-time watch. This I think is just the launching pad for both Seher and Karan. With time, they are surely bound to grow. We have already so many actors written off so early but coming back strong and still going strong (such as Saif). Much effort has been put into making this film, so the least we can do is go out there and support it at our best. Nobody cares about a goddamned opinion of a reviewer, I think their opinions are as good as a whore’s.

  6. Superb comment . ….In the first 30 minutes, the audience sees Sehhar vomit and lose consciousness due to altitude sickness — and that really is the perfect summary of how the audience will feel while watching the movie.

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