Lekar Hum Deewana Dil

This article is about the 2014 Indian film. For the 1973 song of the same name, see Yaadon Ki Baaraat.

Lekar Hum Deewana Dil
Official poster
Directed by	Arif Ali
Written by	Arif Ali
Produced by	Dinesh Vijan Saif Ali Khan
Starring	Armaan Jain Deeksha Seth
Cinematography	Laxman Utekar
Edited by	Shan Mohammed
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Production companies	Eros International Maddock Films Illuminati Films
Distributed by	Eros International
Release date	July 4, 2014 (2014-07-04)
Running time	140 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Lekar Hum Deewana Dil (With Our Joyful Hearts) is a romantic Bollywood drama film that stars Armaan Jain and Deeksha Seth. Jointly produced by Saif Ali Khan, Dinesh Vijan and Sunil Lulla under the banner of Eros International and Illuminati Films, it is the debut directorial venture of Arif Ali, who was the assistant writer of the film Aahista Aahista, directed by his brother Imtiaz Ali. The film has music scored by A. R. Rahman. The film was released on July 4, 2014 to negative critical reception in India and worldwide. The screenplay, direction and score of the film were criticised but the performances of the debuting leads Armaan Jain and Deeksha Seth received mixed reviews by critics. Though the promotional activities of the film were suggestive that the film targeted more multiplex screens audience rather than single screens,the film had an uneventful and sombre opening at the Indian Box Office with meagre occupancy.

Cast

• Armaan Jain as Dinesh "Dino" Nigam
• Deeksha Seth as Karishma Shetty
• Sudeep Sahir
• Akhil Iyer as Mahesh
• Rohini Hattangadi
• Varun Badola
• Gautami Kapoor
• Nishikant Dixit
• Nikita Dutta
• Kumud Mishra
• Rahul Dev Shetty
• Anita Kulkarni
• Rinku Karmakar
• Prabuddha Dayama
• Darius Shroff
• Jaywant Wadkar
• Shravan Mehta
• Zuber K. Khan

Production

Development

In 2013, reports emerged that director Imtiaz Ali's brother Arif Ali was about to make a directorial debut love story. By October 2013, Saif Ali Khan through his official press release confirmed, "For starters, I am co-producing a film with Armaan Jain. It is being directed by Imtiaz Ali’s brother Arif Ali."Later on inclusion of A. R. Rahman for the film's music, producer Dinesh Vijan quoted, "We are excited about our collaboration with A R Rahman too. He has created a young and new sound, which is unlike anything we have heard before."The film was untitled for over six months prior to official announcements though there were several rounds of discussions amongst the team, suggesting title as Dekho Magar Pyaar SeLater it was director Karan Johar who came up with title Lekar Hum Deewana Dil, apparently, the chart-busting track of the same name from Nasir Hussain's 1973 film Yaadon Ki Baaraat. In an interview with Press Trust of India the lead actor quoted, "I gave the audition for 'Lekar Hum Deewana Dil' without telling any one in the family. When Arif sir selected me for the film, I called up didi (Kareena Kapoor) and broke the news to her that I am the next actor of their production."On their roles, Armaan stated, "My character 'Dino' is someone who loves thrill, adventure full of energy and full of life. He is someone who does things without really thinking about it. He does thing and then things about it or probably doesn't even think. So I think the crust of the character is that at some point in time we have always done things without thinking and often it can be a problem, you can make lot of mistakes. So just that carefree attitude, that energy is something I use to have when I was 17 so playing this character just took me back to when I was 17 years. So yeah it's just a lively character."Further, Deeksha noted that the film is realistic. Her character had less or no make up with simple hairstyles and costumes. She had kept her dialogue delivery normal without any filmy touches. A notable aspect, she added that the film warrants that the girl is not garish while the boy doesn't start showing off his abs.In an interview with The Times of India, actress Nikita Dutta who plays a supporting role in the film said she perceives her character as 'a sweet and smart girl'. She is paired opposite Sudeep Sahir in the film.

Filming

The film was shot on a scrimping budget with majority of filming in Mumbai. Officially, the shooting began in May 2013.By September 2013, an estimate forty percent of the filming was completed in Mumbai itself. The next schedule of filming began in the same city. Certain filming took place in Chattisgarh (wherein one of the longest scenes was shot), Ooty and Chennai.Filming was completed by February 2014.Choreographer Rahul Dev Shetty marks his Bollywood debut through this film. Dubbing works of the film were carried out at B. R. Studios in Mumbai.

Marketing

The first looks of the lead actors were revealed on May 7, 2014.The theatrical trailer was released on May 8, 2014and received more than 2 million views in three days. It was listed in 2014 May month's week top Youtube video in India.The video teaser of "Khalifa" sung by A. R. Rahman was released on May 13, 2014 and the teaser of song "Maaloom" was released on May 19, 2014..The first dialogue promo was released on June 24, 2014. In June 2014, the film was promoted by the lead actors, appearing at television shows-Comedy Nights with Kapil, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa Fifth season of Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega, Further promotions happened in Mumbai Metro, 92.7 BIG FM, 94.3 My FM, Pink City market and Jal Mahal in Jaipur, Agora mall, LDRP Institute of Technology and Research in Ahmedabad, airing promotions through Red FM 93.5 in Hyderabad, Presidency College in Bengaluru. On July 2, 2014 the lead pair promoted the film in New Delhi.Taking a cue from their film which shows the lead actress adopting a stray puppy, the makers of the film initiated a 'Adopt a Dog, Be a Hero Campaign' to raise awareness about animal welfare. On this the female lead of the film quoted, "Actually even in the movie my character 'Karishma' adopts a who is a very integral part in the movie and wherever Dino and Karishma go, the dog is with them. So because we felt so strongly towards it and we just felt that this is something we should spread and people should do it because we have a lot of strays in our country."

Music

Main article: Lekar Hum Deewana Dil (soundtrack)

A. R. Rahman has composed six songs for the film. The film has songs fitting several moods of the characters and covering different genres.The track "Khalifa", "Maaloom" and "Alaahda" were released as singles. The album was digitally released on June 3, 2014 by the record label 'Eros Music'. A special musical concert was held on June 12, 2014 at JW Marriott in Mumbai. The concert had A. R. Rahman playing the piano to the vocal performance of singers on their respective songs of the soundtrack. The event was presided by Imtiaz Ali, Karan Johar, Amit Sadh, Anaita Shroff Adajania, Kapoor family—notably Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Randhir Kapoor, Babita apart from the main crew of the film.

The soundtrack album received mixed critical reception upon release.

Critical response

The film received negative critical reception and was panned by most of the critics.

For NDTV, Saibal Chatterjee gave the film 2 stars out of 5 and opined, " Lekar Hum Deewana Dil is much ado about nothing and painfully pointless." Critic Blessy Chettiar for Deccan Chronicle assigned a score of 2 on 5 and called it a mediocre entertaining film and a mixture of Imtiaz Ali's former work(s), quoting, "In short, LHDD (Lekar Hum Deewana Dil) is Love Aaj Kal, Jab photographer (We) Met Rockstar, and set out on a Highway, landing in a Cocktail of sorts. Watch it only if you’ve exhausted all other movie options."At Mumbai Mirror, Rahul Desai awarded the film 1.5 stars (out of 5) and stated, "Deeksha Seth shows some spark, but it requires a better film than this to judge her. Both she and Armaan are undone by some poor writing and direction, and that is indeed unfortunate. While all's well that end's well for their characters, we would be hard pressed to say the same for the film itself."At Hindustan Times where the film received 1 star out of 5, Soumya Srivastava called the film an 'epic failure', 'intolerable', 'downright torturous' and gave the bottom line, "One dialogue from the film sums it up aptly for us: "yaar ye toh epic fail hogaya!" Watch it only if your life depends on it."Rohit Khilnani of Headlines Today gave the film 1 star out of 5 and reviewed the main aspects of the film as, "Armaan Jain is too young to face the camera and entertain the audience on the big screen and to hit the right chord, he should wait till he is offered the perfect script that suits his age. The female lead, Deeskha has a good screen presence but has little scope since the writing doesn't give her much potential to show any talent. A. R. Rahman's music is not as melodious and below average just like the film. Director Arif Ali fails to entertain through this stale formula with appalling direction." Anindita Dev for Zee News wrote, "Young Armaan seems to have made a bad choice for a debut and has a lot to learn before the audience takes him seriously. Arif Ali`s debut is nothing short of a huge letdown. The movie is not worth wasting money on as neither the story-line not the characters are entertaining. At Koimoi, critic Manohar Basu gave the film 1 out of 5 stars and felt, "Lekar Hum Deewana Dil is a bad film which is quite a blemish on romantic comedies. Neither romantic nor funny from any angle, it is an awfully boring film." Shubhra Gupta for The Indian Express gave a score of 0.5 (out of 5) and noted, "Deeksha has little more promise than Armaan Jain".Anuj Kumar for The Hindu hailed the film a dreary escapist fare—Strictly for the cool and the confused ones.Anupriya Kumar for Reuters noted, "It is an insipid disaster. Go for “Lekar Hum Deewana Dil” if clichéd plots, bad acting and occasional bursts of actual fun do the trick for you. Director Arif Ali’s Lekar Hum Deewana Dil will try your patience from the word go." Sneha May Francis of Emirates 24/7 summarized, "While the new star kid (Armaan Jain) on the block is sincere, his romance appears like a bizarre mix of old Bollywood love stories. At two hours and twenty minutes, Arif’s predictable love story is a drag, and definitely not the finest."At the India-West critic R. M. Vijayakar gave a headline, "This Silly Tale Is a Waste of Young Talent." He criticized the technical aspects and added, "We feel sorry for these two talents who needed better starts, and sincerely hope that they will be able to live this movie down."At Filmfare, Raedita Tandan called the film a big drag and opined the moviegoers to plan a road trip for the release weekend. She added, "While Armaan needs more polish, his sincerity and innocence is likeable. Give him a good script and he’ll certainly shine. Deeksha stands out in light-hearted scenes." Subha Shetty for Mid Day wrote, "As you go through this 140 plus minutes of love saga, which gets increasingly irritating, you stop caring if they are together or not, because going by the storyline, it seemed like they didn’t care either. Jain makes a strictly decent debut, he definitely needs a lot more grooming while Deeksha seems to have the potential though this was not the platform to judge her talent.

Nishi Tiwari of Rediff called the film 'A bit of mess' and summarized, "Lekar Hum Deewana Dil would have done much better for itself had it tried to find its original voice, instead of pandering to a vague idea of what sells when it comes to love stories." She gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5.Madhureeta Mukherjee for Economic Times assigned 2.5 stars out of 5, "The chemistry between the two is affable, but the daily bickering that is cutesy at start, becomes repetitive. Also, the story is far from unique. On the contrary, Taran Adarsh for Bollywood Hungama felt, "On the whole, LEKAR HUM DEEWANA DIL has several wonderful moments and genuine sparks that stay with you. The film should appeal to its target audience - the youth."

External links

• Lekar Hum Deewana Dil at IMDb