You have seen it several times before on the screen that a person is told that he will be dying in few days and then he decides to live his life and fulfill all his hidden dreams with all he has got. It was there in Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikiru”, Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s “Anand”, “Mili” and some more too. But still “Dasvidaniya” manages to entertain you with its gentle approach and brilliant performances.

However it was again normal to see that the main idea of making a list of “Things To Do” before you die comes from the 2007 released “The Bucket List” starring Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman. But here the movie concentrates only on one character of Vinay Pathak and revolves around his last wishes to be lived in the remaining time span.

The debutante director Shashant Shah, extracts fine performances from every actor in the frame and that makes this movie a worth watching effort. You can relate to the character of “Amar” as he writes his last wishes, but only some sequences seem to be predictable, which make you feel ‘seen before’. The star cast has all the actors whom you may recall seeing in many comedy serials featuring Vinay and Ranvir. Ranvir also makes a special appearance in the movie as a person who inspires Vinay to go for it. That’s really nice to see that they all love to work together as a team and may be that is the reason why the chemistry between all the characters is quite cool & brilliant.

The movie starts with an ease and straight away comes to the point without wasting any footage. This rightly tells you the meaning of “Dasvidaniya” and also prepares you to see what will follow. Vinay Pathak puts his heart in his lovable act and carries the whole movie on his shoulders. He is supported competently by Saurabh Shukla (the boss), Neha Dhupia (his childhood beloved), Rajat Kapoor (his foreigner doctor friend), Gaurav Gera (his younger brother) and Sarita Joshi (his mother).

The use of his “Guitar Ambition” is used well, as 8 out of 10 humans have a romantic liking towards guitar and they all wish they could play it. But the sequence with the Guitar Teacher could have been better as it misses to touch you deep down. Another part which could have been avoided or should have been made more interesting is Vinay’s stay with the prostitute in foreign and losing his virginity. The plot here had much more scope of comedy and passion but the director played it very loosely.

The best scene of the movie is when Vinay confesses his love to Neha in a mute way standing in the rain. Though the scene is brilliantly executed but sadly it is all inspired from a similar scene in “LOVE ACTUALLY”, where a guy expresses his love to the girl at her doorstep on the Christmas Eve only with his actions.

Kailash Kher and his associates have given music and background score too for the movie. What works in their soothing music is the simple arrangement and calmness in the notes. All the songs were not needed in the movie but “Pyari Maa, Mamma” stands out and stays in your mind.

On the whole, the movie is well directed and acted but what goes against it is the cliché and overused plot of a cancer patient living his last days to the max. Still you should not miss it as it is worth watching once with your loved ones.

One point I would like to mention here for all my friends reading this. As I was moving out of the theater I noticed that all the couples, families and people just walked out of the hall returning to the same talks and giggles as usual and no one looked like thinking about the main theme of the movie.

In my opinion, movies based on death and similar theme, only have one creative and social motive. And that is to make you remember your end, to make you remind that you also have to face it one day sooner or later. “Dasvidaniya” also gives you the same precious lesson that start making your “Things To Do Before You Die” List as you never know what will be there when you wake up next morning.

Rating : 3 / 5