The film starts off with the introduction of the dysfunctional family of the Mehras which consists of Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor) who is not just a self made successful businessman, but also a self proclaimed one at that! His wife is Neelam Mehra (Shefali Shah) whose life is all about wicked, sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek one-liners. Despite having a million differences with each other, they pretend to the world that they are the 'best couple', only because their whole world revolves around the worry of 'log kya kahengey'.

High-society hi-jinks on the high seas. This, in short, is what 'Dil Dhakakne Do' comes off as primarily, even if there are multiple straining-for-depth strands in it. Of creeping middle-age and dwindling love. Of gender imbalance caused by dominant males, and the making of submissive women. Of lineage and privilege and position. Of life lessons from the wisest of them all, a dog named Pluto.

Dil Dhadakne Do has been advertised and promoted as a ensemble about a dysfunctional family. But after walking out of the theatre I realised there was hardly anything odd about the Mehras. If anything you might often find the awkward dinner table sequences or those stoic pauses and silences between the parents (Anil and Shefali) and their kids (Ranveer and Priyanka) extremely relatable. This time Zoya ditches the road and takes the ocean route. Setting the film against the backdrop of a cruise ship was an ingenious idea as it doesn't really allow the viewer to look beyond the characters trapped on the moving island.

If her earlier films are anything to go by, Zoya Akhtar is quite adept at the art of creating slice-of-life cinema. Her other three films, Luck By Chance (2009), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) and the Sheila Ki Jawani segment in Bombay Talkies (2013), have all touched the hearts of her audience somewhere or the other. It could have been the same with her latest box office outing, too, but alas. If a single-line review of Dil Dhadakne Do, it is not quite the film you can connect with.

In her last film 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara', Zoya Akhtar proved that she can tell entertaining stories without letting the audience be distracted by the beautiful visuals and Zoya has done it once again with 'Dil Dhadakne Do', a family drama set aboard a luxurious cruise. The Mehras are the cream of Delhi society, but all that glitters is not gold and the same is true for the ostensibly perfect family. Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor), the pompous patriarch is not a happy man because of his struggling business and his wife Neelam (Shefali Shah) is not happy because her husband is more interested in his 'business trips' than in her.

Relationships don't work on logic. They're better handled with all heart. Regardless of the nature of the bond - fathers, mothers, siblings, lovers, friends, relatives and just about everybody else, will vouch for the fact that feelings and emotions are a lot more crucial to a relationship than rationality. No reason then, why a film based on relationships should adhere to concrete reasoning. Dil Dhadakne Do (DDD), a comedy about a dysfunctional family, takes that concession. It's not the most brilliant film of all time. But it is an extremely entertaining and funny movie. Most importantly, it's got its heart in the right place.

A round-trip luxury cruise is a perfect metaphor for Zoya Akhtar's Dil Dhadakne Do: it's glossy, it's picturesque, everything on board costs far more than it ought, there are some pretty people, a few of whom make a scene, a family shakes a leg quite memorably, there is some motion sickness and -- for something that ends up precisely and predictably where it started -- it takes a helluva long time going nowhere. None of this is necessarily a bad thing. We need great movies and trashy movies and insightful movies and clever movies, sure, but sometimes we duck into a darkened theatre looking for comfort food, and that's when we need movies that do just what they promise on the label.

Kamal Mehra is a millionaire who is facing bankruptcy with his company AYKA. Trying to fix the issue he plans to call his friends and family on an exquisite cruise citing his 30th anniversary as the reason for celebration. Through this tour Kamal and Neelam plan to set their son Kabir up with Nurrie, the daughter of richie rich Lalit Sood. The planner of this cruise and Kamal's daughter Ayesha is a successful entrepreneur who is facing a rough patch in her marriage with Manav which gets aggravated after having her ex-lover and best friend Sunny Gill on the tour.

Like Zoya Akhtar's previous film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Dhadakne Do is also about a trip that changes the travellers' perspective towards life. Just that this time the journey is long, less memorable, and screeching to a halt often. The rich have their own set of problems and their lives are as miserable as any middle-class guy's life. This is the theme of a film which has the Mehras, led by a self-made business magnate Kamal Mehra (a golden-haired Anil Kapoor), at the helm of affairs. The family's 25-year-old son Kabir (Ranveer Singh) is expected to take over the business from his father, but he wants to add wings to his life: He's more keen on aviation, of all things.

There are films that win for their dialogue and there are those that say it all without literally saying much. Dil Dhadakne Do falls in the second category. Portraying dysfunctional families on celluloid isn't easy. Ensuring the madness doesn't tip over and establishing character quirks in a way that they seem preposterous yet adorable is a work of art. Artistes who've managed to toe this fine line are Wes Anderson and Woody Allen, and now Zoya Akhtar.

Straight away, Dil Dhadakne Do redefines the Bollywood family drama. Millionaire Kamal Mehra (Anil) faces bankruptcy. To shore up credibility, Kamal and his wife Neelam (Shefali) invite their rich friends on a luxurious Mediterranean cruise, joined by son Kabir (Ranveer), daughter Ayesha (Priyanka), her pompous husband Manav (Rahul), his complaining mother ( Zarina Wahab), the gentle Mehra dog Pluto - and lots of bitchy buddies.

This is a classic example of how when a pertinent, contemporary story (Reema Kagti, Zoya Akhtar) meets a stellar star cast and near perfect direction (Zoya Akhtar), it results in a wholesome film good enough to be taken home to mum. Even while holding our hands to take us through some of the most interesting parts of the world, Zoya Akhtar sometimes subtly and at times with a bulldozer aggression drives home certain bitter truths typical of most Indian families, but those we choose to avert our collective gazes from.

Zoya Akhtar's Dil Dhadakne Do is a film that has its heart in the right place but its beats are terribly irregular. It is an overly caramelised and flaky dysfunctional family drama that strives - and fails - to strike a balance between the sly and the syrupy. What the film posits as sly and self-serving simply aren't piercing enough to get to the heart of the disconcerting truths it is seeking to expose, and its generous dollops of syrup translate into a treacly- sweet overdose.

At some point in the first half of Dil Dhadakne Do, you might find yourself wondering whether director Zoya Akhtar is pulling an elaborate con on the audience. When it begins, we're informed that our narrator is a dog named Pluto Mehra. This is not a slight upon Pluto's character. Pluto is literally a dog; an adorable boxer to be precise, whose voice sounds distinctly like Aamir Khan's. Pluto is the not-so-silent witness to the Mehra family's antics. This is why he is the one providing us running commentary while Kamal (Anil Kapoor), Neelu (Shefali Shah), Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra) and Kabir (Ranveer Singh) go about making a mess of their thoroughly charmed lives.