Dil Dhadakne Do

Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor) is a self made businessman who owns Ayka, a company on the verge of bankruptcy. He has a troubled relationship with his wife, Neelam Mehra (Shefali Shah) and his two children, Ayesha Sangha née Mehra (Priyanka Chopra) and Kabir Mehra (Ranveer Singh). The Mehra family also includes their pet dog Pluto Mehra (voiced by Aamir Khan). Ayesha owns a successful travel portal of her own but is unhappy with her marriage to Manav Sangha (Rahul Bose), who is a controlling, narcissistic husband, who together with his mum Smita Sangha (Zarina Wahab) disdains Ayeshas family. Kabir unwillingly participates in the family business even though he yearns to become a pilot.

In celebration of Kamal and Neelams 30th wedding anniversary, they invite their family and friends for a 10-day cruise across the Mediterranean. Among their invitees are the Sood family, consisting of businessman Lalit Sood (Parmeet Sethi), his wife Naina Sood (Dolly Mattdo) and their daughter Noorie Sood (Riddhima Sud). Kamal and Neelam plan to get Kabir married to Noorie, in exchange for Lalit Sood investing in Ayka.On the cruise, Kabir meets dancer Farah Ali (Anushka Sharma) and engages in a romantic relationship with her. Noorie, on the other hand, is in love with Rana Khanna (Vikrant Massey), the son of Vinod Khanna (Manoj Pahwa) and Vandana Khanna (Preeti Mamgain).

The Soods and Khannas do not get along. Kabir and Noorie decide to manipulate their parents into believing that they are dating each other, while continuing their respective relationships. Meanwhile, Ayesha considers divorcing her husband, whom she believes is incompatible with her; her parents, however, are staunchly against it as they believe it will dishonour her and the family. Meanwhile, Sunny Gill (Farhan Akhtar), the son of Kamals manager Amrish Gill (Ikhlaque Khan), arrives on the ship. It is revealed that Sunny and Ayesha dated each other as teenagers; Kamal, who was unhappy with their relationship, arranged and paid for Sunny to study abroad to separate his daughter from Sunny.

Ayesha realises that she still harbors feelings for Sunny who is now a successful journalist. He, unlike her husband, appreciates her strong personality and believes in female empowerment.Neelam sees Kamal flirting with one of the female guests, and wonders why she did not divorce him despite his past infidelities. Ayesha confronts Sunny about his sudden departure abroad and ends up kissing him, which she regrets later, not because of her feelings, but because of her marital status. Meanwhile, Farah hears that Kabir is planning on marrying Noorie, and ends their relationship.

Elsewhere, Kamal spots Noorie making out with Rana and has a fit. He is rushed to the emergency room on-board suspected to have had a heart attack, but it turns out to be excess stomach gas. In the hospital room, Kamal tells Kabir that he saw Noorie with Rana and asks him to not be involved with her anymore. Kabir admits to his family that he knew about the couple all along and that he is in love with Farah, a dancer and a Muslim. He also tells them of his intention to leave the family business and persuades them to consider Ayesha, who is actually interested in business.

He also tries to persuade them to let her proceed with her divorce as she is not happy with the marriage, but Kamal and Neelam still refuse on the grounds of their belief that marriages are lifelong commitments. Infuriated, Kabir reveals to Kamal that Neelam, Ayesha and himself were all aware about his adulterous pursuits and that Neelam pretended not knowing, bearing his infidelities and suffering emotionally in silence to save family. After all this Kamal and Neelam realise that their kids are disappointed with them. Kamal asks Neelam why she hadnt divorced him after knowing everything. She reveals to him that after leaving him she had no choice as her family wont accept her back due to dishonour similarly like Ayesha.

Kamal realises his mistake, asks for forgiveness and consoles her. Later, while in efforts to reconcile Manav and Ayesha, Kamal becomes infuriated when he sees Manav misbehaving with his daughter and asks him and his mother to leave immediately. He agrees to the divorce and begs Ayesha for forgiveness.Kabir tries to persuade Farah to forgive him for lying to her but she ends up getting fired from her job for being involved with a passenger and was told to leave the ship. Kabir finds out about her being sacked after the ship has set sail.

Seeing no other option, Kabir jumps off the ship, aided by Sunny, hoping that his family will rescue him and help him get to the shore. Kamal, Neelam, Ayesha and their dog Pluto eventually find a lifeboat to rescue him. While departing, Ayesha asks Sunny if he would wait for her to which he replies forever. This indicates towards their re-union later in the plot. The family pick up Kabir and head towards the shore while being chased by the ships crew.

The Mehra family is seen happy in each others presence for the first time.In a 4 star review for Mumbai Mirror, critic Kunal Guha compared Akhtars direction to that of Woody Allen and Wes Anderson, and praised Ranveer Singhs performance in it. Conversely, Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters called it Akhtars weakest film yet, because she tries to tell too many stories at once and tells none entirely. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV criticized the film as well, calling it an overly caramelised and flaky dysfunctional family drama that strives - and fails - to strike a balance between the sly and the syrupy, and gave the film 2.5 stars.

Bollywood Hungama scored the film 3.5 stars, particularly praising Akhtars direction for [pulling] off such a magnificent film with such utmost ease. Subhash K. Jha also praised the direction, writing that Akhtar proved that she was the master of dysfunctional selfserving relationships and gave the film 4 stars. Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times, however, gave the film 2 stars, writing that there is hardly any takeaway from Dil Dhadakne Do and its characters are not likely to stay with you for long.

Film critic Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN, who particularly praised the performances of the lead actors and the humour in the screenplay, concluded that the film is easy and breezy, and packed with terrific actors who appear to be enjoying themselves, although he did criticize the pacing and climax of the film. Srijana Mitra Das of The Times of India gave the film 4 stars, also praising the performances of the lead actors, especially Singhs, and reviewed, On this ship, a few bolts could be tighter. But these are fleeting clouds on an otherwise beautiful sea, hosting a cruise.while searching beyond Bollywoods emotional Botox for a familys warts - and its heart. Rachit Gupta of Filmfare described the film as a spunky comedy, straight from the heart, attributing the performances of the lead actors as the prime reason for the films success.

Shubha Shetty-Saha of Mid-Day gave the film 4 stars, and praised the story, stating, If this film looks like an entertaining, escapist film at the outset, it is, but it is also much deeper than that. In a 3 star review, film critic Mayank Shekhar of ABP News found that patiently drawing out emotions from every character made the film horrendously long [and] too languidly paced, although he did call the film intensely real, intrinsically adult, with several sharp observations about relationships and life. Sarita A. Tanwar of Daily News and Analysis gave the film 2.5 stars, and wrote that the film would have been a lot of fun [if] had it been shorter, crisper and less indulgent.

Scoring the film 3 stars, Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com wrote that Dil Dhadakne Do unravels like an entire season of soap opera condensed into a nearly three-hour movie but found it too facile to rise above the charming fluff. Ritika Bhatia of Business Standard wrote that the film does have its enjoyable moments, but with a three-hour runtime, it fails to sail the high seas, and termed the film ambitious but meandering.