Movie Review-Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas: Pal Pal… is no Betaab

Johnson Thomas

Sunny Deol’s attempts to give nepotism a fill-up comes a cropper, literally. A customised launch pad meant to expose the many talents of the latest entrant, from a long line of Deols, into the Bollywood firmament, this home production is an indulgent, rather expressionless take on romance.

The backgrounds of the two central characters and their occupations may seem modern but their antics are so antiquated that they appear to have been transported unwillingly across time. This is no Betaab even if it tries the same tired and tested tricks to sucker the hapless audience. The touristy camerawork and the indulgent production values may make the visual appeal strong but whatever happened to story, plotting and treatment?

Sunny Deol doesn’t have the craft to make this romance meaningful. The hackneyed, stereotypical scripting fails to highlight the charms (increasingly dubious) of the two debutants and the dialogues sound too artificial to lend meaning to this misadventure. A vlogger, Saher (Sahher Bhabba) all set to review an exclusive trekking-cum-adventure camp meets up with the owner, mountaineer Karan Sehgal (Karan) and love strikes…or is it hate?

It’s an old-fashioned romantic construct set to the tune of modern times but the new generation is unlikely to be held captive by such a decadent, protracted and un-enlivening experience. The largely colourless performances (Saher is the only one with presence here), uninspired helming and unimaginative scripting makes this snow-capped, adventure hopping romance so trite and predictable that it becomes exceedingly boring and stressful over its overly arduous runtime.