‘Let’s break up’ is probably one of the worst songs REVHUMAN has ever heard.

The biggest disappointment in the movie has to be the music. Now that we have addressed the elephant in the room, we can move forward and talk about the wonderful movie.

On the more brighter end of the spectrum, Alia Bhatt, and the supporting characters in the first half, built up a lot of relatability.
The movie shows a confused millennial, Kaira -portrayed by Alia Bhatt who’s struggling with romantic relationships while looking for a career-defining break.

Meanwhile, she sleeps with Guy ‘B’ and tells Guy ‘A’ leading to their break up, and acting apathetic to Guy ‘B’ who’s going to work on a movie with his ex abroad, who lands up getting engaged to said ex, cause he thinks she doesn’t give an f while she is ready to now tell him about her feelings.

Yes. Yup. That happened. Phew. so it’s basically a movie about a girl who’s complicating her own life due to lack of clarity and an acute case of living in the moment. Right? Maybe? Keep reading.

She obviously loses her shit after finding out about aforementioned engagement.

What’s the music director’s contribution to this situation? ‘Just go to hell… Dil’. Why you do this Amit Trivedi?

To add insult to heartbreak she was also asked to vacate her premises as the building would henceforth only take families and married couples as tenants. So the lady goes back to home where her family and family friends are talking about marriage.

There’s also a sequence where she is asked if she is Lebanese. You know like, lesbo. You know like, lesbian?

But it also shows how “millenials” view the previous generations and how they look back at them in return.

The song ‘Tu hi hai’ is probably the only song intentioned to be utterly ridiculous and was left so to draw attention away from the fact that the movie starred Ali Zafar (which is usually a very cool thing, but now is the time of the ban, so yeah sorry mate) as Guy C.

Shah Rukh Khan, who plays Dr. Jehangir Khan, the therapist she accidentally discovers during a shoot, steals the show with his anecdotes and therapy – packaged in stories and sarcasm and humour -JUST THE LANGUAGE WE UNDERSTAND!

Sorry there, REVHUMAN just got carried away. Through simply explaining her chaotic thoughts, and gently unwinding Kaira to her potential, he makes her feel lighter and more confident.

While we all question Kaira’s character progression on how she continues to repeat her mistakes, despite the therapy, we find out the actual reasoning behind her abandonment issues: The issue of her abandonment. (It was needed)

The confrontation with her family is well written and very well performed and sneaks in the plot twist which makes the viewer connect all the dots surrounding her character. Her behaviour towards her mother, father, friends and her romantic relationships, all fall into place.

“Safe feel karne ke liye saare darr mitaana zaruri hai.”

The movie is full of simple one-liners that you may ignore if you’re not attentive and are also open to interpretation.

The movie addresses ‘Millennial Depression and Anxiety’, (as cringeworthy as the generation’s name sounds, that’s a review for another session.)

And how an entire generation suppresses their traumatic experiences, and carry it for a huge part of their lives if not for the entirety. How we fill the void in our lives through unnecessary shopping, partying, lashing out at our loved ones, distancing yourself when it matters. The movie is basically a message to everyone going through such emotions that situations need to be confronted and you need closure before you move forward.

When observed technically, Dear Zindagi is a beautifully crafted movie. The monologue-ish dialogues between SRK and Alia were engrossing, while each prop and location that was a part of the movie had some or the other significance in the progression of the movie.

The ‘creaking of the chair’, in particular, when SRK sits on it was a very subtle giveaway to the relationship formed between the lead characters. Whoever noticed it knows what’s up.

The closing sequence didn’t need to have all 3 men Kaira attempted to be in a relationship with, but that was probably to establish her newfound self-confidence and clarity, even if it looked a little too Bollywood-y in the process.

But then we are in Bollywood.

The movie doesn’t end with what Kaira lands up doing with her life, but shows that she’s ready to start afresh. Which closes Kaira’s story at the perfect time, not saying she’s ‘fixed’ but as if saying it’s a ‘work in progress’. As told in the movie by Dr. Khan,

“Genius is about knowing when to stop.”