Dhak Dhak review: Four women from all walks of life make you wanna sing ‘Who run the world? Girls!’ by the end of it!

In our Dhak Dhak review we talk about how the film celebrates being a woman who’s all about breaking stereotypes!

Dhak Dhak review: Bollywood has, time and again, glorified 'the guys going on a road trip' so much so that it is etched as one of the classics in Indian cinema. So it was high time the girls hopped on this bandwagon as well. Dhak Dhak, directed by Tarun Dudeja, is a movie that revolves around four women from very different backgrounds who unite to go on an epic bike expedition to Khardung La point near Leh and as the movie says, somewhere in the middle of nowhere they find themselves. Women on bikes is a really cool trope as it is, and to add to that, the film really highlights the struggles we face as a gender as well. 

It’s about ordinary women like you and me wanting to experience something larger than life. Something that makes their hearts go ‘dhak dhak’ and for all four of them, it’s their love for bikes. Sky (Fatima Sana Sheikh) is a YouTuber. Her channel is heavily just bike content and she has a huge following for it. She is also working with Royal Enfield and helps them with marketing their bikes. Mahi (Ratna Pathak Shah), an elderly woman who is currently living alone on her husband’s pension, wins a bike one day, simply by luck. Realizing how she is often not valued by her family, she decides to go on this road trip to Leh and finally live the youth that she never did. Sky meets Mahi through a friend and Mahi convinces her to go on this trip or rather this ‘tirth yatra’ for bikers as she likes to call it. In the process of getting her bike fixed, she meets Umza (Dia Mirza) who is a suppressed housewife stuck with an orthodox husband. She has grown up around bikes since she was little as her father owned a garage and today she wants to join Sky and Mahi not only to set a good example for her daughter but also because she needs the money to pay for her school supplies. And the fourth member Manjiri (Sanjana Sanghi), a naive and coy girl who has literally never had the opportunity to see the outside world and or do anything by herself, needs this one and only trip before she gets married. 

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So the biker gang begin their journey from New Delhi to Leh. Of course they knew it was not going to be easy and from accidents to health scares they truly face every obstacle together. The movie subtly speaks about so many things that women face and leaves an impact on you. Be it Umza explaining how consent is important or all four of them discussing fake orgasms in a hilarious yet wholesome scene. I felt like I was watching my girl gang unabashedly discuss the things we want to rant about. This movie has soul but it also accurately portrays the selflessness that most women in our country have by default. Putting other people’s feelings before our own, planning to stop at every mandir possible on the way or moving heaven and hell just to save a life; they’re all, in a way, victims of patriarchy and they want to break free from that. Each one of them has a good enough screen time but Ratna Pathak Shah truly brings life to this story. Seeing her as the sophisticated Maya Sarabhai and now watching her talk in a heavy Punjabi accent as Mahi, I’ve fallen in love with her all over again. She can truly convince you that she is one with the character. The rest of the cast bring their best to the table as well and that really is one of the biggest selling points of the film. 

A film about a road trip and good music go hand in hand. The songs in Dhak Dhak are inspirational and bring out the essence of the scene. But what doesn’t work as much is the duration of the film. In a time where attention spans are so short, even a 60 second Reel feels too much so a 2 hour 20 minutes film feels like a whole other ball game. It does feel a bit dragged by the end but the film is a one time slice of life watch because like Sky’s poem reads, it’s not the destination that matters, it’s the journey we take and the people we find along the way. And that’s exactly what Dhak Dhak is like! 

It’s their beautiful journey that brings out the emotions in you, their friendship and banters, and how they take charge of their own life. It breaks the myth that women can’t really have fun or be friends after a certain age. Women will have each other’s back and the four of them are proof of that in many ways!

Dhak Dhak is currently playing at a theatre near you!

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