Kill/Dil seems like a tribute to the Bollywood screenplays of the ’70s and ’80s, but unfortunately, the ride is neither as entertaining nor as dramatic … it is just a 127-minute long mish mash of some badly developed characters, witty dialogue and melodious songs.

Two professional assassins Tutu (Ali Zafar) and Dev (Ranveer Singh) raised by Bhaiyaji (Govinda) now work as contract killers on his payroll. The bromance between Tutu and Dev is reminiscent of Gunday released early on but the oil-drenched muscles of the boys have been replaced by witticisms in this Yash Raj flick.

About 20 minutes into the movie — after all the back story, a song and some gun shots — things take an unexpected turn when Dev meets and (instantly) falls in love with do-gooder Disha (Parineeti Chopra) and decides to put all criminal activity behind him.

Post-interval, the filmmakers seem to be in a hurry to wrap things up without going into details or following a logical path, leaving the audience yearning for more after a (somewhat) entertaining first-half.

A bromance flick gone terribly wrong halfway!

Kill/Dil, through its trailers, promos and even songs, appears to be a promising and stylish desi Wild West feature with a Tarantino feel to it.

But, to our utter disappointment the promos are totally misguiding and the final product doesn’t even come anywhere close.

Govinda in a negative avatar sprung a pleasant surprise by delivering a brilliant performance in a slightly larger cameo role. It’s hard to think of someone else playing the badly written character of Bhaiyaji and doing justice to it the way he does.

The core problem is that Bhaiyaji is not defined enough to show how where he fits in the crime nexus and most of his screen time is spent in an empty courtyard sharing photos and passing gyaan to his chelas.

Ranveer Singh is in terrific form yet again when acts silly, cute, gets to be emotional and sing-song romantic. He is efficient and makes many scenes work. But it’s a case of ‘same old’ with different packaging — we know Ranveer can act and we want to see him in diverse roles. Parineeti Chopra looks cute and expressive, and Kill/Dil also shows her in a sexier avatar after having shed quite a few pounds. But frankly this is also her weakest character to date. She is completely wasted here in the role of a social worker who has only one thing to do — party hard and drink harder. Other than this, Disha has nothing to offer.

Moving on, Ali Zafar is just bad casting. He is the dark and brooding guy who takes the kill, gets the job done and doesn’t go after the girl. He also doesn’t look quite himself in most of the scenes. By now we all know that Ali cannot act to save his life. What he can do is look good and that works for formulaic rom-coms well — stick to that Ali!

After Saathiya (2002), Bunty Aur Babli (2005), Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007), Shaad Ali disappoints with Kill/Dil. The movie lacks atmosphere and style that creates a mood and it simply fails to connect with the audience at any level. It is quite strange that a film about gangsters and contract killers has the police in just one scene, and even then the meek interrogation doesn’t move the plot ahead.

The sharp dialogues are the saving grace here. They are brilliant and make any normal scene interesting. The series of SMS exchanges between the leads provide genuine LOL moments. Equally entertaining is the job interview sequence which sees a desperate Ranveer about to crack under pressure.

The music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is melodious, but the songs pop up unnecessarily in the narrative while the art direction and cinematography remains decent. Kill/Dil tries hard to entertain you but falls flat with a hackneyed script and over-simplistic treatment.

The writer tweets @samramuslim

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 30th, 2014