They say, a lamp glows very brightly just on the brink of running out of oil. Spain, which may be on the brink of a sovereign default, glows brightly in this movie. Spain emotes along with the lead characters, helping them out in “Discovering new depths in life”, “pushing boundaries to the sky”, “shaking a leg in style, salsa-ing”, “Painting the world red using tomatoes” and finally “making pact with life if successful in cheating death”.

This road-trip through the arteries and veins of Spain, has its highs and lows, thrills and chills, ice-breaker and hot-geyser moments. Now we all know what Zoya Akhtar is made of. Although the idea of road-trip and casting 3 leading men may compel you to compare the movie with Dil Chahta hai, she has taken enough care not to remind you of the classic. If DCH celebrates friendship and male-bonding, ZNMD celebrates life in which friendship is also a part. Javed Akhtar’s poetic lines at the end of the movie gives the gist of the vision of Zoya.

The cast too comes in support for the director’s vision of “Celebrate your present life.” Abhay Deol as Kabir Deewan, stands as a pillar through-out the movie, very clear about his characterization and his portrayal. So is Kalki Koechlin as Natasha, the ease with which she embraces the role of a suspecting fiancé just amazes you. Farhan Akhtar as the poetic Imran shines in the role of a son in search of his real father.

Only misfits in the entire casting being Hrithik Roshan who plays Arjun and Katrina Kaif who plays Laila. Laila has the potential and depth to advise on life, however Katrina doesn’t enact it so. When Katrina delivers powerful lines on how to lead life, with her typical model-like expression, it just doesn’t sink into the audiences. Hrithik Roshan (Arjun) is well-off when he portrays the workaholic character initially. But the moment he turns thinking about life, he looks and acts funny. This is more evident when he realises how to lead life from a character that is portrayed shallowly by Katrina. But since Hrithik and Katrina are crowd pullers, you need to digest these two characters. Trust me, this movie has the capacity to absorb them and still shine.”Bag-Mati” pulled off a better performance, I must say. (Bag-Mati is a 12,000 EUR worth ‘hand-bag’ that catches the attention of everyone in the group.)

Shankar Ehsaan Loy manage to come up with the best songs of the season whenever they team up with the Akhtars, ZNMD is no less! The demographics in B-town are fast changing, where movies with no songs or movies with ‘dirty lyrics item-songs’ in the end fit the bill. In such times, songs that are soothing and songs that gel with the script are hard to compose and even harder to deliver. Special mention needs to go for the cinematographer Carlos Catalan, for having portrayed Spain so beautifully and also the adventure tasks that are taken up by the lead characters during the course of their vacation.

A feel good movie that speaks about life in a new language!