But one cannot live on music alone, especially in a cinema hall. One needs story, dialogues, craftsmanship, and Dhadkan fails on all these counts. If one did not know otherwise, one could be forgiven for thinking director Dharmesh Darshan had made Dhadkan as a farcical take-off on Yash Chopra's Darr, in which Shah Rukh Khan played the obsessed, rejected lover with much derring do.

Unfortunately, after a debacle called Mela earlier this year, Darshan cannot afford such whimsical notions. So one has to assume he was attempting to cash in on the successful storyline of Darr. But Dhadkan is neither compelling nor frightening. It's not even an amateur exploration of an obsessive lover's tortured psyche. It is just an absurd melodrama, which provokes its audience into cynical laughter every time Sunil Shetty, as Dev, the rejected lover, shrieks out his angst. Shetty's performance would win first prize with 100 per cent votes at any hamming contest.

Most of Dhadkan is in the loud, nautanki style, with everyone beating their (respective) breasts and making much ado about nothing. So you have Sharmila Tagore, who plays the impoverished Dev's unwed mother, exhorting Anjali (Shilpa Shetty), Dev's girlfriend, to right all the wrongs that have been done to her son. You have Sushma Seth and her two children, who are Ram's (Akshay Kumar's) step-family, plotting against him much like Macbeth's witches. And you have Kiran Kumar, Anjali's father, spouting the most popular dialogue in Hindi cinema, "Tumhe meri laash par se guzarkar jaana hoga."

Obviously, after all that, Anjali does not marry Dev, she marries Ram, the man her parents have chosen for her, and after some initial hiccups, settles down happily with him. She even manages to sweep the house clean of her scheming in-laws. At the couple's third wedding anniversary, Dev turns up, straight from London, suited and booted, the power of the pound sterling in his wallet, and a luscious Sheetal Verma (Mahima Chowdhury) on his arm. Nevertheless, Anjali is not tempted to stray, and so Dev decides she must be persuaded.

He takes over Ram's business, buys his house, and has him out on the streets. But Anjali is still not tempted. Instead, she tells him she's going to have a baby, so will he please just go back to London, and let them get on with their lives? Sheetal, standing in the sidelights, looks visibly relieved. But Dev is not convinced. So Ram turns up and gives him a `hello brother' touch, along with a lecture on how love is not all about winning and losing, he Dev has not lost a love, he has gained two friends instead. And Dev meekly trots back to London, Sheetal making plans for the wedding on the phone. And you are left wondering: If all Dev needed was a pep talk, how come no one gave it to him before then? It would have saved everyone a lot of trouble, most of all the audience.

Akshay Kumar, playing the understanding husband, has come up with an understated performance that stands out in all the shouting and screaming that comprises Dhadkan. Both Kumar and Shetty are trying desperately to make the transition from action to romance, but Dhadkan at least proves that Kumar is far ahead in the race.

Mimmy Jain