Dil Bechara


Dil Bechara is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age tragedy romance film directed by Mukesh Chhabra in his directorial debut, and produced by Fox Star Studios, with a script written by Shashank Khaitan and Suprotim Sengputa. Based on John Green's 2012 novel The Fault in Our Stars and its subsequent 2014 American film remake, the film stars Sushant Singh Rajput and Sanjana Sanghi as terminal cancer patients with an ensemble supporting cast, while Saif Ali Khan makes a cameo appearance. The film marks Rajput's unexpected posthumous appearance, following his death on 14 June 2020.
Fox Star Studios acquired rights for an Indian adaptation in 2014, after which it underwent four years of casting and screenplay changes. Filming commenced under the title Kizie Aur Manny by late June 2018. The film was shot across Jamshedpur and Ranchi with sporadic schedules in Mumbai; apart from the last one in Paris, France. The score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya. The cinematography and editing were performed by Setu and Aarif Sheikh, respectively.
The theatrical release suffered due to post-production delays, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding to this was Rajput's death on 14 June 2020, which resulted in a digital release on the Disney+ Hotstar streaming service on 24 July. In honour of Rajput, it was made accessible without subscription in India and select countries on the platform. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for the running time, the performances of Rajput and Sanghi, direction, story, characterisation, soundtrack, cohesion and screenplay.

Plot

Twenty-one-year-old Kizie Basu is fighting thyroid cancer when she meets 23-year-old Immanuel "Manny" Rajkumar Jr., who has previously suffered from osteosarcoma and is in remission. Manny and his friend Jagdish "JP" Pandey, who is suffering from glaucoma and is blind in one eye, are making a film together in which Manny plays the male lead, inspired by well-known actor Rajinikanth. Manny invites Kizie to be the female lead. The two bond over his love for Rajnikanth's films and her love for Hindi music, specifically an incomplete song by retired songwriter Abhimanyu Veer. Kizie and Manny gradually fall in love as they shoot scenes for Manny and JP's film. They decide to make 'Seri', the Tamil word for 'Okay', their secret word that will help them remember that everything will be okay in life and that it is important to stay positive. After an operation, JP loses sight in his second eye, making him go blind.
One day, Manny informs Kizie that he has managed to track down Abhimanyu and get in touch with him. Kizie e-mails Abhimanyu, who replies that he'll answer all her questions if she's able to visit him in Paris, where he lives. Kizie and Manny try to convince Kizie's parents to allow them to take the trip. They manage to convince them, on the condition that Kizie's mother joins them. As they are making arrangements for the trip, Kizie's cancer worsens and she is suddenly hospitalised.
After her recovery, she is weakened and initially distances herself from Manny, but they eventually reconnect. They go to Paris to visit Abhimanyu, who turns out to have no conclusive answers and no reason for not finishing the song, disappointing Kizie. Soon after, Manny informs Kizie that his cancer has returned and that he is now terminal.
As Manny's health deteriorates, Kizie convinces him and JP to finish the film. Manny then invites JP and Kizie to his mock funeral, where they deliver eulogies that they have both prepared. Manny dies a couple of days later, leaving a letter for Kizie, explaining that he had finished Abhimanyu's song for her and had even convinced Abhimanyu to help him with the music despite considering him a terrible person.
JP's finished film premieres in an open-air theatre to a heartwarming response from the crowd, which consists of Kizie and Manny's friends and family. In the final scene of his film, Manny breaks the fourth wall and directly speaks to Kizie, telling her to live life to the fullest, to which she replies "Seri".
The film ends with a tribute to the film's lead actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Cast

in the order of appearance as per film credits.
  • Sushant Singh Rajput as Immanuel "Manny" Rajkumar Jr.
  • Sanjana Sanghi as Kizie Basu
  • Saif Ali Khan as Abhimanyu "AV" Veer, a singer-songwriter who has disappeared into oblivion
  • Sahil Vaid as Jagdish "JP" Pandey, Manny's friend
  • Saswata Chatterjee as Abhiraj Basu, Kizie's father
  • Swastika Mukherjee as Sunila Basu, Kizie's mother
  • Sunit Tandon as Dr. Raj Kumar Jha, medical surgeon and palliative consultant
  • Michael Muthu as Immanuel Rajkumar Senior, Manny's father
  • Rajie Vijay Sarathy as Manny's mother
  • Subbalakshmi as Manny's maternal grandmother

    Production

Pre-production

In August 2014, Fox Star Studios confirmed adapting The Fault in Our Stars for Bollywood. In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Fox Star Studios CEO Vijay Singh stated "The Fault in Our Stars defines and resonates with the emotions of today's youth, across demographics". In September 2014, Varun Dhawan and Deepika Padukone were reported as the lead pair for planned remake. Producer-director duo Homi Adajania and Dinesh Vijan confirmed their association with the film. In an interview with aforementioned, the latter stated: "It's a story that I really feel needs to be told here. For me it's poignant at a time when we are consumed by technology and are manically running this make-believe race we think is "Life". Also, Karan Johar initially held the rights to remake the film. By October 2015, the duo backed out citing creative differences and Mohit Suri being brought on board as director. Dhawan could not be onboarded citing schedule conflicts. In an interview with Hindustan Times, Rajput denied being approached for the remake. He later confirmed through his Twitter handle about the film. In late 2016, the film was considered for debutante female lead for Sara Ali Khan, who backed out and her mother confirmed the project to be shelved. By December 2016, Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur were considered for the project.
In June 2017, reports stated that Ishaan Khatter and Janhvi Kapoor both as debutantes were supposed to star in the remake. The project was then to be directed by Shashank Khaitan, who eventually wrote the dialogues for the film and went on to direct them instead in Johar's remake of Sairat, titled Dhadak. The screen test was completed by 25–26 June 2017. Also, the project was considered under Johar, reportedly, with Kapur being dropped off. However, the news media incorrectly cited the debutante pair as leads in the remake.

Development

In October 2017, the project was confirmed to be starring Rajput as the male lead. Chhabra was selected to direct the film and was in stages of scripting with Khaitan and Suprotim Sengupta. Reports confirmed that Johar was not a part of the project. In March 2018, Chhabra confirmed Sanjana Sanghi as the female lead opposite Rajput. Whilst Chhabra served as casting director for 2011 film Rockstar, he recalled Sanghi's association with him. She was looking for a few ad jobs, was mature young lady by 2020. Since Rockstar, he wanted to make a film with her one-day, noting the film script as "ready to fit her in". That very month, A. R. Rahman was reported to compose the film's background score and soundtrack album. Mukherjee, who had previously worked with Rajput in Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, confirmed her presence in the project by September 2018.
Screen tests were completed by end of June 2018. In an interview with IANS, Rajput stated: "I and Mukesh share a great bond. He gave me my first film and I promised him that I would definitely be in his. This was the first film I signed without reading the script, as I know Mukesh is a terrific director. And now that I have read the script, I am glad that I said yes." In an interview with Mid-Day, Chhabra stated he was able to visualise things as a whole with "Kizzie Aur Manny". He gave the film his own language without getting influenced by the casting, thereby a fresh touch to the love story. At the 2018 Jio MAMI Mumbai Festival, Former UTV studio head Rucha Pathak, Chief Creative Officer of Fox Star Studios, India stated that it took four years to write the script of "Kizie Aur Manny", as the "Word to Screen Market" is really bringing the world of cinema and literature together. She confirmed Sengupta for the film's screenplay and Khaitan for the dialogues.
The working title of the film Kizie Aur Manny was announced on 9 July 2018. However, on 8 February 2019, the film's title was changed officially to Dil Bechara. Pathak added that the change was to embody the theme emerging out of the title track composed by Rahman and lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya.
In an interview with Gayle Sequeira at Film Companion, Sanghi summed up her character role "Kizie" in two phrases: "Emotionally demanding" and "oscillating between extremely happy to extremely romantic to extremely tragic". Kizie played the role of a Bengali girl where Chhabra wanted her to reach a state where she could converse in fluently in Bangla with Swastika Mukherjee and Saswata Chatterjee. For Sanghi, it took months of diction and cultural training, which she completed with the help of an NSD graduate. Sanghi also joined cancer support groups and spoke to many young survivors to understand the psychological and emotional impact that an illness can have on those who get diagnosed. In addition to Sanghi, Sahil Vaid in his role as "JP" also spent time with such patients. He called his character role both chirpy and cathartic. For the role of Kizie's mother, Mukherjee stated: "I think my natural maternal instincts kicked in for this... I didn't really need to work very hard." She found resemblance with her real life motherly behaviours into this role, extending the "dormant mother-in-waiting went into full-on active mode". In this interview with The Telegraph she went on to add that Kizie's father's role, played by Kahaani and Jagga Jasoos fame Saswata Chatterjee, was shorter than her role and people could connect with Dil Bechara on a personal level because it portrayed household scenes grounded with Indian cultures.