Daawat-e-Ishq Review

Daawat-e-Ishq has been billed up as a love story revolving around food according to the trailers and even with the promotional activities being centered around a food yatra. The film is produced by Yash Raj Films and stars their favourite Parineeti Chopra in the lead. Daawat-e-Ishq is also Aditya Roy Kapur’s first solo film after the mega hit Aashiqui 2. Is the film as delicious as the title?

Story: Contrary to what the trailers and promotions have you believe, Daawat-e-Ishq is NOT about food. It is about the dowry system and about how a daughter-father duo set it right in their own little way. Gulrez Gullu Qadir lives in Hyderabad and is in love with Amjad (Karan Wahi). But their marriage plans are scuppered when Amjad’s parents end up asking for dowry. Heartbroken, she devises a plan and uses her father (Anupam Kher) to carry out a plan to use the Alimony law in India to get money out of her prospective hands. To carry out this plan, both of them arrive in Lucknow and then they meet Taariq (Aditya). Are they able to get money from Taariq? Do Gulrez and Taariq eventually fall in love? Watch the film to find out more!

Habib Faisal who wrote the heartwarming Do Dooni Chaar and also the feisty Ishaqzaade is back with DEI. But he is not at his best in terms of storytelling. The film suffers from uneven pace, and the screenplay has a lot of loopholes as the plan the characters devise is unrealistic and too far from reality. The setting maybe realistic but that doesn’t hide the illogical scheming shown in the film. Saddest thing about Habib Faisal’s career is that he seems to have gotten progressively worse with his films.

Daawat-e-Ishq
Daawat-e-Ishq Movie Review

The technical aspects of Daawat-e-Ishq as is the case with all Yash Raj films are spot on. The cinematography gets the sights and sounds of both Lucknow and Hyderabad nailed. The production design is realistic and the editing is decent but could have been crisper. The music, however, doesn’t work. Most of the tracks seem to be suffering from a 90s lag as the tunes sound outdated. Sajid-Wajid could have done a much better job with the music of Daawat-e-Ishq.

Acting: Parineeti Chopra dominates the proceedings in Daawat-e-Ishq as with all of her films. She enjoys a lot more screentime than Aditya Roy Kapur. She’s spunky, and even vengeful at places. She’s at the top of her form but opting to play these bold, independent characters has made Parineeti typecast in these sort of roles. Aditya Roy Kapur is decent in his role but someone should tell him that just acquiring an accent doesn’t make anyone a better actor. Anupam Kher is delightful in his role. Karan Wahi does a good job in his role as Amjad.

Conclusion: Daawat-e-Ishq is one of the major disappointments of the year. A lot was expected from Habib Faisal’s third film but he disappoints. The film lacks any seriousness, has a non-uniform pace and suffers from a lot of loopholes. And it’s not even about food which is misleading the audience from the promos. Daawat-e-Ishq ends up being the film which could have been so much more but ends up being so little and messy and unentertaining.

Box office: Daawat-e-Ishq will take an average opening at the box office. We don’t expect the film to grow and become a hit but stranger things have happened.

Positives:

  • The novel social cause which raises a voice against the dowry system
  • The cinematography and production design
  • Parineeti Chopra and Anupam Kher’s father-daughter chemistry

Negatives:

  • The music disappoints big time
  • Aditya Roy Kapur out of depth
  • Uneven pace and loopholes in the script

Rating: ★½☆☆☆

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16 Comments

  • Decent review Indicine………
    And someone could bloody tell Aditya Roy Kapoor neither he knows acting nor does he looks an actor……. Very bad that such people become actors due to their contacts in industry and Genuinely good actor of non-industry struggle throughout and not get roles…….

  • Dawaat short review
    Thumbs up
    1 pari,anupam,aaditya’s performance
    2 strong message
    3 decent first half

    Thumbs down
    1 unconvincing and predictable screenplay
    2 bad music
    3 boring last half hour

    Rating-6/10
    Verdict-avg.dont watch it in theatre,wait for tv premiere if u r pariniti fan.I didn’t like the film

  • I already decided that I will watch khoobsurat tomorrow not daawat e ishq coz I dont want to see parineeti eating fast food

  • This film got so much coverage and promotion due to yrf. It will collect only due to yrf promotion. Same thing happens due to dharma banner. Dharma films collect only due to vigorous promotion. Star power ,content and acting skills play a little part in yrf and dharma and movies like crap gunday , shudh romance , dawat e ishq , gtpm ,htp ,hskd,2 states ,soty has proved it many times.

  • That’s a bold gud review, I mean for a movie coming from big prodn with money power. Or is it that they did not pay indicine? Lol, just kidding.

  • I agree. Music sounds outdated. The songs like mannat sounds good,but you will feel like it’s a song of 1998-2000. Title track is good.

  • Music was really terrible…what were Sajid Wajid thinking??
    Probably the worst music i have heard for medium to big budget film in few years…

  • The music is actually very good Mannat and Daawat-e-Ishq songs are the best. Looks like some people just dont know the meaning of music and lyrics.

  • someone said: bad music!!!! the music of the film is so nice specially the song Mannat.. what a bad taste u have!! I could say that Bang Bang would be a good film but not with good music, also HNY for Shahrukh, I didn’t like the songs, neither the film could be very good.

    Will.. as there’re young good actors 6 or 7 maybe, so that would effect the star power of all Khans, maybe it’s time to retire, as Aamir Khan is thinking to do!

  • Indicine team: honestly I would say that u r NOT honest in ur reviews!!! I noticed that u r always against Yash Raj films although they make very good films.. 95% of YRF’s are good n this is one of them.. a new script, interesting film good songs specially (Mannat), Aditya Roy is superb in this role, amazing performance, I just loved the film n enjoyed watching it..hey ppl, don’t miss this film otherwise u will regret it, if u believe in dishonest reviews ( my brother said to me that he saw only half but he didn’t like it but I didn’t bother about his opinion because the trailer said everything to me.. that it’s definetly a good film and yeah. It was as I expected it to be.. my niece too enjoyed it very much n she’s planning to see it for second time

  • SIR Emraan: who said that I didn’t hear Emraan Hashimi’s songs?!!they’re also good, but not all of them for sure! I loved Mannat, the melody, even Dawat e Ishq.. the last song too.

    In fact this year started with many good songs which all deserve attention e.g. Dard Dilo ki from X Pose ( am not sure the voice was Himesh Reshamya’s or any other singer because his voice wasn’t good in the past, then came Sang Marmar from Yougistaan which was very good, then Pathaka Guddi from Highway.. I just love this song, then London Thamk… from Queen, very nice, then 2 amazing songs from Ek Villain ( I loved all Heropanti songs specially which for me is the best: Rabba Rabba.. it deserves to win an award.. can’t get enough of it)
    And now.. Mannat.. beautiful song.

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