Dharma Productions’ Chand Mera Dil (UA) is a love story. Aarav (Lakshya) and Chandni (Ananya Panday) meet in college and fall in love with one another. Even while they are still students, they get married to each other. Chandni delivers a baby girl. Since they don’t have good jobs, Aarav and Chandni struggle to make both ends meet. Then start the problems. One day, Aarav loses his temper while talking to Chandni. In a fit of rage, he even raises his hand to slap Chandni. That does it. Chandni walks out on him, taking their daughter with her. Aarav apologises but to no avail. Soon, she sends him a divorce notice. The couple’s families intervene but Chandni is unrelenting. Within no time, there’s a new man, Kevin (Paresh Pahuja), in her life. What happens thereafter?
Vivek Soni’s story is inspired by Hollywood film It Ends With Us although a lot of changes have been made. The story is good but it seems to have been stretched a great deal. The screenplay, written by Tushar Paranjape and Vivek Soni, with additional screenplay by Akshat Ghildial, is not very convincing. The viewers find Chandni’s obstinate, unrelenting and unforgiving stand irritating after a point of time, especially considering that Aarav had lost his temper and raised his hand in anger to silence Chandni for the first time. Agreed, Chandni had had a traumatic past, but that’s her problem for which she seems to be punishing husband Aarav. Therefore, although Chandni considers herself to be the victim, she soon becomes the perpetrator (at least in the eyes of the viewers) because of her rigid stand. What’s more, Aarav, who had wronged Chandni, soon gains the sympathy of the audience. While the gaining of sympathy is alright, Chandni becoming unreasonable will not go down well with the viewers. The audience also wonder why Chandni’s mother taunts Aarav’s mother on the point of a husband beating his wife, because Chandni herself had confessed before Aarav that she had had a traumatic past as her father used to beat her mother. The point of Aarav’s family being dysfunctional does not come through well enough. Also, the reason for Chandni’s change of heart after she gets engaged to Kevin (Paresh Pahuja) looks hurried and is not half as impactful as it ought to have been. This is because it is sought to be established through just a few dialogues. Another point which is bound to irritate the viewers is the number of times Chandni apologises to Aarav while herself not willing to forgive him.
This is not to say that the screenplay does not have plus points. It does! The romance between Chandni and Aarav is quite fresh. Hence the first half is fairly interesting. Even after interval, there are some scenes which would appeal to the public. For instance, the scene in which Aarav’s parents make a surprise appearance for Aarav and Chandni’s first wedding anniversary is very well written.
Although the drama is about separation between lovers, the writers are not able to move the audience to tears, which is the biggest drawback of the screenplay.
Akshat Ghildial, Tushar Paranjape and Vivek Soni’s dialogues are good but there’s nothing outstanding about them.
Ananya Panday acts with maturity, as is the demand of the character of Chandni, which she plays. That her character does not win the sympathy of the audience is, of course, the fault of the writers. Ananya looks pretty. Lakshya performs ably and makes his character (Aarav) endearing. Manish Chaudhari makes his presence felt in a brief role as Arav’s father. As Aarav’s mother, Irawati Harshe Mayadev’s acting is natural. Vidushi Kaul is effective as Aarav’s sister, Nandani. Charu Shankar does fairly well as Chandni’s mother. Paresh Pahuja is okay as Kevin. Akhil Kaimal (as Aarav’s friend, Chinna) and Manik Papneja (as Aarav’s friend, Sameer) lend nice support but their interactions with Chandni should’ve been more. Aastha Singh delivers a mature performance as Chandni’s friend, Jyotsna; her interactions with Aarav should’ve been more heartfelt. Atul Kumar is effective as Dr. Zeeshan. Pratham Umesh Rathod makes his mark in a tiny role as Aarav’s unruly student. Others do as desired.
Vivek Soni’s direction is alright but his choice of subject leaves something to be desired. Sachin-Jigar’s music is appealing. The title song and Khasiyat are the best numbers and are already very popular. Amitabh Bhattacharya’s lyrics are appealing. Song picturisations (Adil Shaikh for Khasiyat; Tejaswi Shetty for the title track; Tejaswi Shetty and Ruel Dausan Varindani for Tum hee ko) are eye-filling. Sachin-Jigar’s background music is of a fine standard. Debojeet Ray’s cinematography is nice. Amrit Singh’s action and stunt scenes are functional; there is hardly any scope for action. Aparna Sud’s (Matchstix) production designing is proper. Prashanth Ramachandran’s editing should’ve been sharper.
On the whole, Chand Mera Dil lacks in emotions and does not have much to entertain. It seems too stretched, and the heroine appears to be too unreasonable in almost the entire second half of the drama.
Released on 22-5-’26 at Inox (daily 6 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Dharma Productions. Publicity: very good. Opening: below the mark. …….Also released all over. Opening was not up to the mark at most of the places.