Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Review

Anushka Sharma and Ranbir Kapoor in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Photograph: Fox Star Studios • • • • 
View more sharing options Mike McCahill Friday 28 October 2016 13.16 EDT Last modified on Thursday 15 December 2016 07.22 EST From the controversy, a movie emerges. A Diwali release from superstar Hindi director Karan Johar was always likely to attract column inches, yet Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has landed more than anybody anticipated: India and Pakistan’s latest impasse has made Johar’s decision to cast Pakistani actor Fawad Khan the hottest of hot-button topics. Threats of suppression were met by a video message in which Johar sheepishly confessed he’d misread the national mood and, like many colleagues, pledged not to hire Pakistani creatives in future – an industry climbdown some found disappointing, coming so soon after last year’s bridge-building megahit Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Bollywood film set to open in India after Pakistani actor ban Indian film producers ban Pakistani actors 'for ever' over Kashmir crisis What’s odd is that the movie itself turns out not to be some incendiary provocation, but squarely Bollywood trad, a globetrotting weepie unlikely to offend anyone but the most entrenched. This is the tale of Ayan (Ranbir Kapoor) and Alizeh (Anushka Sharma), Hindu and Muslim respectively, who meet as barhopping students in London and bond over 80s film references and their cheating other halves. Over several years, the pair tour the continent, twirling from Parisian cafe to Viennese nightclub, with Ayan’s burgeoning singing career shaping the narrative, and Alizeh’s DJ ex (Khan) standing between the pair becoming anything more than just good friends.