Daawat-E-Ishq: A undercooked story with tangy tadka of good performance
For the last few movies YRF has painstakingly tried to break the mould of the quintessential YRF movie
format and gone ahead in making movies which are based in smaller towns and stories which are more
realistic and says the stories of the common man.
“Daawat-E-Ishq” is on the similar lines with Habib Faisal, YRF’s in- house writer director. Habib’s
previous movies like “Do Dooni Chaar” and “Ishaqzaade” explores the middle class and the small town
sensibilities with élan. In “Daawat-E-Ishq” he tries it again with a social message on dowry and Section
498 (A) which is law against people who take dowry.
Story and screenplay by Habib himself in association with Jyoti Kapoor explores the story of Gulrez Qadir
(Parineeti Chopra) a sales girl in a shoe store and her father Abdul Qadir (Anupam Kher). Abdul’s attempt
to get his daughter married fails every time due to the dowry demand from the prospective groom’s.
Completely disillusioned the father daughter duo take up an unusual route to solve their issue and go to
Lucknow where they meet Tariq Haider, owner of the famous Haidiri Kebab Restaurant in Lucknow. What
culminates between these three is the crux of the rest of the story.
The weakness of the script is the beginning and the climax. The narration in the beginning takes time to
build up till the action shifts to Lucknow and the climax looks too hurried without any emotional quotient
or depth. Habib tries to keep the narration simple but it becomes too simple at times. The con acts in the
movie looks a bit too farfetched. The main attraction of the script are its three principal characters
Gulrez, Tariq and Gulrez’s father Abdul, these characters have been written with full conviction but the
other characters are neglected as more screen time is given to the principal chracters and the outcome is a
half baked story with some beautiful moments.
The dialogues again by Habib himself are witty and comic and he gets the dialects of both Hyderabad and
Lucknow spot on. Elahe Hiptoola’s contribution to the Hyderabadi accent cannot be ignored.
It is the performances by the principal cast which lifts the movie. Parineeti Chopra as Gulrez yet again
gives a sparkling performance especially her Hyderabadi dialect is so convincing. Aditya Roy Kapur was a
surprise packet for me; his portrayal of Tariq Haider is brilliant; right from his body language to his
dialect everything is spot on. Anupam Kher strikes back again with his portrayal of Gulrez’s meek and not
so confident father Abdul Qadir, watching Anupam after “Special 26” in his elements was a treat. Television
actor Karan Wahi debuts in this movie but is least impressive. Rests of the cast do not have much to do in
this movie.
Himam Dhanija’s cinematography is good and captures the by lanes of Hyderabad and Lucknow well. Production
design by Mukund Gupta is well done which complements the narration.
Music by Sajid Wajid is just a wee bit more than average, the title song and Mannat are the two
compositions which stand out, but unfortunately the filming of both the songs are average.
Habib could have made it better with some strong writing but he misses the plot. An attempt which is half
baked, I will go with 3 stars…
Movie Rating: 
(3 / 5)