Shalini Langer

Paraphrasing Billy Joel’s Piano Man, if you’all in the mood for a melody, this film has got you feelin’ alright. Seemingly discordant storylines are strung together into a pleasing whole by director-co-writer Daniel Roher (who won an Oscar for his Navalny documentary), largely due to the effortless charm of its cast. Leo Woodall is Niki, a piano prodigy who now tunes pianos for a living, having developed a hearing condition that has left him allergic to loud sounds. Two years of therapy, of being kept in a dark room, means he can just about get around the world of noise via ear plugs and noise-cutting headphones. Dustin Hoffman is Harry, a piano player of some repute and a friend of Niki’s late dad, who runs the piano tuning and fixing company where Niki works. The film begins with their effortless banter as Harry trades his wisdom and tricks with his beloved Niki, and tries to evade the sharp eyes of his wife Marla (the unmissable Tovah Feldshuh) who is worried for his failing health.

Romance, they say, dies in the first chapter of marriage. In what passes for an “adult romance” in Chand Mera Dil, marriage dies in the first chapter of marriage. Or, does it? You can’t be sure. Never mind their previous productions, director/co-writer Vivek Soni (Meenakshi Sundareshwar) and writers Tushar Paranjape (Killa), Akshat Ghildial (Badhaai Do) don’t seem to know where or whether they are coming or going in this one. Their lead pair, untested in the adulting department, just don’t have it in them to steer through this mess. Aarav (Lakshya) and Chandni (Ananya Panday) meet at an aesthete engineering college in Hyderabad. To attract her, he “twins”, that is, wears the same colours as her, every single day. When he doesn’t go further than that, she takes the initiative, and soon enough they are a couple.

Jon Favreau has a knack for lending a certain levity to the most grave of things. In the Star Wars universe that is largely unencumbered by gravity, Favreau’s vision (he has also co-written the film) is unwaveringly and dourly solemn. But, rescued just in time by the effervescence of being that is Grogu. You can say there is a Star Wars link because the title says so, and the two main characters, the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu (who is Baby Yoda), trace their origins back to that mammoth franchise. However, after dispensing with the topic of the Empire in the first few minutes, and the Rebellion in the next few, The Mandalorian and Grogu, which began life as a TV series, settles down to its own pace and narrative.