Ae Dil Hai Mushkil


Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is a 2016 Indian Hindi language musical romantic drama film directed, produced and written by Karan Johar. The music is composed by Pritam with screenplay by Johar. It stars Anushka Sharma, Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Fawad Khan with special appearances by Shah Rukh Khan, Lisa Haydon, Imran Ali Abbas and Alia Bhatt and released worldwide on 28 October 2016.
The film's soundtrack won four Filmfare Awards in January 2017. It went on to gross worldwide, becoming a commercial success. The film was declared a hit at the box office.

Plot

The film begins with the interview of Ayan Sanger, a singer who has newly acquired fame with his non-filmy songs. He tells the story of his experience of love in a flashback. A few years ago, in London, a chance meeting in a disco between Ayan, the son of a millionaire, a novice in terms of sex-related matters, and Alizeh Khan, who knows about sex a little more, ends up with them trying to make out, and it turning into a comedy. They get to know about each other and become friends. Later, when they discover their respective partners are cheating on them, they break up with their lovers: Ayan with Lisa D'Souza and Alizeh with "Dr." Faisal Khan and the two go to Paris to spend a week together. While Ayan falls in love with Alizeh but does not tell her while she considers him to be only a "friend". One day, Alizeh stumbles upon DJ Ali, her ex-boyfriend/lover, who wants to reconcile. Partially confused, but still in love with him, Alizeh decides to go with DJ Ali, and so unintentionally stops hanging out with Ayan and they cease communication.
A few days later, Alizeh calls and invites Ayan to her wedding with DJ Ali Khan in Lucknow. Ayan is petrified on hearing this but agrees to the invitation. At the wedding, he tells Alizeh he loves her but she rejects his feelings causing Ayan to leave the ceremony heartbroken. At the airport to board a flight to Dubai, he meets Saba Taliyar Khan, a poet, who is leaving for Vienna. She consoles Ayan and gives him a book with her poetry and number on it. Ayan calls after three months stating that he is in Vienna and wants to meet her. He learns that Saba is divorced and has no place for love in her heart. Later, he also meets Saba's ex-husband, Tahir Taliyar Khan in a fine arts gallery, who tells him that one-sided love is not a weakness but empowering. Ayan, who had blocked Alizeh from contacting him in all ways, finally calls and reconnects with her. He begins to send pictures of Saba to her to try and induce jealousy.
One day Alizeh informs Ayan that she's coming to Vienna and wants to meet him. Ayan invites her for dinner with Saba to provoke Alizeh into loving him, but Alizeh thinks Ayan has found love in Saba and is happy for him. Meanwhile, Saba begins to develop feelings for Ayan, but he loves Alizeh. Seeing his love for Alizeh, Saba asks him to leave.
Ayan continues to harbor love for Alizeh and becomes a famous singer with his channel. He meets Ali one day and realizes that Ali and Alizeh have parted ways. Ayan goes to Alizeh's favorite spot and waits there until she arrives. Alizeh tells Ayan that she is diagnosed with cancer stage IV and will not live much longer. Ayan and Alizeh try to make the best of their time together. Ayan tries to make Alizeh love him, to no avail. This leads to a fight between the two, and Alizeh decides to leave Ayan. Next morning Ayan tries to search for Alizeh, apparently reaching the airport and thus fulfilling her last wish also before death. Eventually, Ayan makes peace with the fact that he and Alizeh can at least be friends and nothing more. Alizeh dies soon. The screen blacks out and comes back to the present where Ayan, still a popular singer, is giving an interview based on the love of his life. Ayan sings the song "Channa Mereya", which is inspired by his one-sided love story, and finishes the interview.

Cast

Main cast

Development

The film was first announced in November 2014. Writer-director Karan Johar said that for the past year and a half, he had been developing a story that he needed to work on for several months. However, while he was in New York, the idea for Ae Dil Hai Mushkil came to him and he wrote the screenplay in 30 days. When he came back to India, he spoke to the three lead actors and they all signed on immediately. Johar stated that he was motivated to cast Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in the film after getting to know them by acting with them in Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet. He added that he was excited to cast Aishwarya Rai Bachchan after several unsuccessful attempts to cast her in his previous films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..., and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.
Actor Fawad Khan was cast to play a role of a DJ, describing his role as "not exactly a cameo but it becomes a backbone for a certain conflict of a character in the movie." Lisa Haydon has also confirmed that she will appear in the film. In September 2016 at the Toronto International Film Festival, Johar confirmed that Shah Rukh Khan had also filmed a scene for the movie. In October 2016, he confirmed that Alia Bhatt would also make a cameo appearance in the film.
On 6 February at the India Conference at Harvard, Johar revealed that in the film Ranbir Kapoor plays the character of a Hindu boy named Ayan and Anushka Sharma plays a Muslim girl named Alizeh. The two leading female characters were originally supposed to be Pakistani women in the movie. However, Karan Johar decided to change the female characters to Indian Muslims to avoid further trouble after the film ran into controversy over the casting of Fawad Khan, a Pakistani national.

Filming

Principal photography began in September 2015 with Kapoor and Sharma in London. At the end of September, the team filmed some portions in Paris. In October, they began shooting in various locations in Austria, including the city of Vienna. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan joined the crew in Vienna in mid-October after the release of her film Jazbaa. In March 2016, Kapoor, Sharma, and Khan were seen filming in Mandawa, Rajasthan. In July 2016, Johar tweeted a photo of Kapoor and Sharma on set in Mumbai for the last schedule.

Release

Screening issue

On 8 October 2016, Indian political party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, proclaimed that they would not allow the release of the film, following nationwide protests surrounding the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 18 September 2016 and the decision by Cinema Owners Exhibitors Association of India preventing the release of films with Pakistani actors in four states – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Goa. Citing the casting of Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in the film, the MNS warned theater owners around the country to not screen the film, threatening them with vandalism. Announcing that security will be tightened at theaters along with sufficient police protection, Maharashtra chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, commented on the issue, saying, "Anyone found taking the law into their hands will be dealt with firmly." He also informed that 12 MNS members were sent to judicial custody after they barged into a Mumbai theater and held a protest on 19 October 2016.
Commenting on the ruckus behind his film's release, director Karan Johar said that the circumstances in which the film was shot in 2015 were completely different. "Going forward, I would like to say that of course, I will not engage with talent from the neighbouring country, given the circumstance. But with that same energy, I beseech you to know one thing – that over 300 people in my Indian crew have put their blood, sweat, and tears into making my film, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. I don't think it's fair for them to face any kind of turbulence on account of other fellow Indians," he further added in a video statement. He was heavily criticized by news and social media for buckling under pressure. However, people from the film fraternity like Mukesh Bhatt and Shyam Benegal supported Johar and his film, and requested the people to consider the film and its release without giving importance to the actors' nationalities.
On 20 October 2016, Mukesh Bhatt said that his discussion with Union home minister, Rajnath Singh, had been consequential, and affirmed that the film will be screened throughout the country without any violence. However, he promised that he would not make any more films with Pakistani actors.

Box office

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was made on a total budget of over 100 crore, including marketing and distribution costs. Prior to its release, the film had already recouped 75 crore from music, satellite and digital rights, so it needed to recover only 25 crore from the domestic box office. Worldwide, the film earned ₹90.84 crore on its opening weekend, while ComScore reported an estimated $12.8 million from 14 markets. As of November, it has made $21.3 million worldwide.
In India, its domestic market, the film had to compete with Shivaay which was released on the same day during the lucrative Diwali weekend. On its opening day the film made 13.30 crore, the third biggest for both Kapoor and Sharma, and the sixth biggest for a Bollywood film of the year. Through its opening weekend, it scored a debut of 35.60 crore net in its three days on 3,200 screens, equating to a gross 49.84 crore, the ninth-biggest debut of the year and the best ever debut for Johar, beating My Name is Khans ₹31.50 crore. On Monday, it saw a hike in ticket sales, earning 17.75 crore due to the holiday season. In its first full week, the film earned ₹80.19 crore in India alone and $20.2 million worldwide. The film continued to dominate the box office in its second weekend, earning $3.2 million from 2,000 screens. In just 10 days, the film earned 97.17 crore net and has become the sixth highest-grossing Bollywood film in the country. Moreover, the film now ranks as the highest-earner for Aishwarya, beating Dhoom 2s 82.30 crore in 2006; the fourth biggest for Anushka as well as for Ranbir.
In the United Kingdom, it recorded the biggest Bollywood opening of the year with ₹4.88 crore, debuting at eighth place at the U.K. box office. However, this is inclusive of previews. Including previews, Sultan would be the clear winner with a $1.3 million debut in July. But excluding previews, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is ahead of the former. In the United States and Canada, the film received a limited release across 302 theaters and grossed 14 crore in its opening weekend finishing in tenth place.
By the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed 146.64 crore in India and 223.51 crore worldwide.

Critical reception

gives the film a 50% score based on 14 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 40 out of 100, based on four critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Bollywood Hungama gave 4/5 ratings and commented, "a contemporary and a progressive take on relationships from the master story teller Karan Johar".
Raja Sen and Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com respectively rated 4/5 and 3.5/5 and said, "Thank you, Karan Johar for this film feels like a sob. Johar has improved massively as a storyteller, this film is more polished and assured than anything he's done before." and, "As evident by his body of work, Karan Johar has a sweet spot for this attribute, in the splendidly romantic and richly satisfying ADHM."
Nihit Bhave of The Times of India rated 3.5/5 and said, "a beautiful-looking film that isn't bereft of logic".
Subhash K. Jha of Deccan Chronicle rated 2.5/5 and said, "ADHM is one good looking film with actors who epitomise human beauty." Sweta Kaushal of Hindustan Times rated 2.5/5, saying "ADHM offers little in terms of story and fails to get the audience empathise or feel for the characters and events in the movie."
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express rated 2/5 and said, "Johar is unable to go the extra mile, hope that Johar will come up with something newer and sharper the next time around." Mike McCahill of The Guardian rated 2/5 and said, "Despite controversy over the casting, Karan Johar's romance, has a failure of nerve about Hindu-Muslim relations."
The Hindu commented, "ADHM is the latest in the brand of cinema that isn't so much as plot driven as it is focused on characters, relationships, and interactions."
Reuters commented, "ADHM has neither gravitas nor the charm to be worth remembering."

Soundtrack

Accolades