“Ajeeb kahaani hai pyaar aur dosthi ki rishthe ki.. pyaar hamara hero dosthi hamari heroine”. This one dialogue pretty much sums up Ae dil hai Mushkil.

Ayan (Ranbir) wants love. Alizeh(Anushka) wants friendship and feels that friendship is strength and love is weakness. So what happens when these two characters go through a journey with different people in their lives like Alizeh’s ex Ali (Fawad) and Ayan’s new love Saba(Aishwarya)? Did they find a common ground for their relationship to sustain?

This story is something which we started watching with Karan’s “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai”. But what makes this film special is the subtlety with which it’s done and it’s brilliant lead pair Ranbir and Anushka. Ranbir is really a gifted actor. His intensity and honesty in performances is impeccable. From being comical to heartbroken, he portrayed varied emotions with ease and it’s really a treat to watch him on screen. When he sings the title track and “Channa Mereya”, your heart just melts out. Glad he got what he deserved after three years of waiting.

This is by far Anushka Sharma’s best work till date. She’s so brilliant that we start missing her badly in the second half though we have world’s most beautiful woman on screen. She never hits a false note. Aishwarya got a limited role but she still sparkles with her unmatchable grace and beauty. Fawad too has a limited role and he did his job. There’re two surprise cameos which you may have come to know already by now.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil definitely has Karan Johar’s stamp allover. But somewhere during the film, you may feel like watching an Imtiaz Ali’s film. Rockstar to be precise. Music by Pritam is outstanding. I don’t think you’ll hear a better album than this for a while. Songs are beautifully woven into the narrative, so are the iconic themes of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kal ho Naa Ho and couple other old hindi film songs. But what kills the film majorly is the second half. The narrative gets dull and a bit tiring at places. There are dialouges which felt absolutely unnecessary and forced on us to create an emotional impact. (I may be wrong in this part given my average hindi knowledge) This is the first hindi film which gave me hard time to understand few dialogues. The end twist is ok on emotional level but Karan could’ve done lot better in writing the climax rather than settling for such a simplistic solution.

From Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham to Kapoor & Sons, we saw the evolution of Dharma Productions and Karan as a producer. Now, Karan decided to bring his real inner-self as a director to make the films which he wanted to rather than making films just for commercial success like his first few films. With Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna he started baby-steps towards his original style and to now Ae dil hai mushkil he has matured in his way of story-telling. Though the story is pretty much similar and known, he invested much more depth into his characters and tried to make a sensible film rather than a fool-proof masala blockbuster which he can easily do. In this process he might not have succeeded to complete extent. But at least he came out of the bubble and started to make films which matter to him the most.

You may love/hate Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. But I’m sure you’ll remember the two characters for a considerable time. Thanks to Ranbir and Anushka.

I’m going with 3 stars.