With most of my family away for a few weekends, I decided to catch up on movies. After queuing up a few, I realised that Farhan Akhtar was a common element in all of them; hence decided to continue the theme.

Farhan Akhtar is a multi-talented Indian filmmaker, actor, singer, and writer. Here’re the movies I saw, associated with him:

01-Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)

Farhan’s Role : Actor, Writer, Producer, Playback Singer
My Rating : 7/10

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (You only live once), is a road comedy drama film. The film stars an ensemble cast of Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif, and Kalki Koechlin. The film’s story follows three childhood friends, Arjun, Kabir, and Imran, who reunite for a three-week road trip before one of them gets married.

I had seen this movie before but didn’t remember much of it except the central theme. Second time round, I found the movie quite entertaining and well made; especially enjoying Hrithik’s acting and his character Arjun’s transformation over the course of the movie. I also enjoyed Farhan’s background recitation of poetry at pivotal points.

That being said, I didn’t like a few things, like how desperate the women were, for the men. And how they wanted us to believe that average people from India look anything close to the three lead actors and the 2 actresses.

02-Dil Chahta Hai (2001)

Farhan’s Role : Writer, Director
My Rating : 7/10

Dil Chahta Hai (The Heart Desires) is a coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Farhan Akhtar in his directorial debut. The film stars Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Akshaye Khanna as three inseparable college friends navigating adulthood, relationships, and diverging life paths. It also features Preity Zinta, Sonali Kulkarni, and Dimple Kapadia in pivotal supporting roles. Set in contemporary urban India, the film explores themes of friendship, love, and self-discovery among upper-class youth.

Of course I had seen it before, but I had no idea back then who Farhan Akhtar was. The movie is extremely well made and feel-good in nature and I enjoyed the acting of all 3 lead men, especially Akshaye Khanna’s.

However, the overwhelmingly 90s feel of this movie is a bit of a turn-off for me now, for personal reasons. Also, even though it was considered ground-breaking back then, it still carries some elements of bollywood of yore, especially silly jokes, unrealistic way people talk, characters suddenly breaking into dance sequences etc.

03-Dil Dhadakne Do (2015)

Farhan’s Role : Actor, Writer, Producer, Playback Singer
My Rating : 7/10

Dil Dhadakne Do (Let the heart beat) is a family comedy drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar. The film has an ensemble cast of Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma and Farhan Akhtar with a voice-over narration by Aamir Khan, as the family dog Pluto. The film tells the story of the Mehras, a dysfunctional family who invite their family and friends on a 10-day cruise trip to celebrate the parents’ 30th wedding anniversary.

I saw this one for the first time after a recommendation from Chatur; in fact I had never even heard of its name before. It was a nice feel-good movie with a (mostly) happy-ending for everyone. I especially liked the fact that the movie was narrated by a dog and is from his point-of-view.

04-Lakshya (2004)

Farhan’s Role : Director
My Rating : 4/10

Lakshya (Aim) is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age war drama film directed by Farhan Akhtar. I think I had seen this movie long ago, but can’t remember for sure. Even if I did, I didn’t like it much this time.

It was annoying the way they kept repeating the word “Lakshya” in daily conversation among the characters. What normal person even uses this word in real life?

Many scenes in the move are cringe, especially the flashbacks where Hrithik tries so hard to be awkward. Even an actor like Boman Irani doesn’t shine, because his character is inconsistent/not fleshed out. Preity’s reaction at Karan running away from the academy is un-realistic.

Also, no Indian war movie is complete without a customary moslem Indian soldier who puts country above religion. I also had to skip 10 minutes when the soldiers all broke into an impromptu song sequence.

I liked the scenes shot at familiar locations in Delhi – Lodhi Garden, India Habitat Center but not much else.

05-Luck by Chance (2009)

Farhan’s Role : Producer, Actor
My Rating : 6/10

Luck by Chance is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Zoya Akhtar in her directorial debut, and produced by Farhan Akhtar. It is about Vikram, a talented actor, but a selfish human being.

It was neither great nor bad, just average. I liked it because it showed the dark underbelly of Bollywood. Everyone acted well, but it was just a one time watch. This movie also has dance numbers, but in this case they are acceptable because the are part of the movies being shot inside this movie. I skipped them nonetheless.

06-Rock On (2008)

Farhan’s Role : Writer, Producer, Actor, Singer
My Rating : 9/10

Rock On!! is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language musical drama film written and directed by Abhishek Kapoor & produced by Farhan Akhtar. It is also my favourite Farhan Akhtar movie and one of my favourite movies overall.

I remember watching this movie with my friend Bhupesh at PVR at Ambience Mall in the late night show. While on the way back, we talked about how much we had enjoyed the movie.

The songs are kick-ass and capture the rock essence. I appreciate that both Arjun Rampal and Purab Kohli spent some effort to learn the basics of the instruments their characters play. Farhan was already an accomplished singer, but he did the rock numbers well.

Javed Akhtar’s lyrics, at that point considered ground-breaking for Bollywood, feel a bit wannabe now. Aditya’s reaction to the squabble is a bit overboard. Ditch the girlfriend and leave town?

Overall, top movie.

Common Farhan Akhtar Themes

Overall, I found the below common themes from all the movies

1. Even though the movies are not strictly bollywood-type movies, they do retain common bollywood elements like song-and-dance sequences, which I always skipped.
2. All the male actors are unbelievably (for real life) ripped. For some characters, it makes sense, but for many, it doesn’t.
3. Most of the major characters, with some exceptions belong to filthy-rich (by Indian standards) families.
4. Most of these movies have feel-good themes, with no real villains. The less-good characters more-or-less redeem themselves by the end of the movies.
5. All of these movies are quite long, even by Bollywood standards, most exceeding 3 hours.
6. Farhan seems to like working with the same actors
   • Hrithik Roshan in Zindagi na Milegi Dobara, Lakshya & Luck by Chance
   • Preity Zinta in Dil Chahta hai and Lakshya
   • Dimple Kapadia in Dil Chahta Hai, Luck by Chance
   • Aamir Khan in Dil Chahta Hai, Luck by Chance
   • Himself in Zindagi na milegi dobara, Dil Dhadakne Do, Luck by chance and Rock On!!