That’s what happened to every view at the end. Their hearts stopped for a second at the climax of Karan Johar’s ‘Dhadak’ that opened on this day in 2018. The film’s knockout actors – Janhvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter – both doing mainstream Bollywood cinema for the first time, shooting into the stratosphere with this avant-garde cinema directed by Shashank Khaitan.

There were several reasons why ‘Dhadak’ was a path-breaking success. Two were Janhvi and Ishaan. The film was a simple story set in the architectural splendor of Udaipur, their love taking them through the narrow, twisting lanes with shops and temples of another time zone, on Lake Pichola with its palace hotel, the serenity and slow pace of the city offset by the frenzied suddenness of the realization of their love, the zippiness of the songs.

The story shifted, from Udaipur to Mumbai, and Nagpur to Kolkata, the couple’s love going from urgent to anxious, humdrum to resentful, until viewers got the sinking feeling of doom. A sense of tragedy is about to develop in the midst of happiness. It’s a story that’s still happening with brutal reality in India today. But it was a story meant to be told. And Janhvi and Ishaan told it beautifully. Making the lesson hard to forget.

Everybody, the audiences, film critics, the trade pundits, expect the same kind of story and reaction in the “spiritual success” to the 2018 blockbuster in KJo’s ‘Dhadak 2’ that releases on August 1. Janhvi and Ishaan are replaced by a younger, equally promising and good-looking pair of actors in Triptii Dimri and Siddhant Chaturvedi. Both of whom have already successfully cut their teeth in Bollywood. The sequel directed by Shazia Iqbal is an official remake of the Tamil hit film ‘Pariyerum Perumal’. Just as ‘Dhadak’ was a remake of the Marathi runaway success ‘Sairat’.

Triptii and Siddhant promise to deliver a love story that is an intense and powerful drama about identity, power and the cost of love in these troubled times. The trailer was raw and emotional. And the film’s first song ‘Bas Ek Dhadak’ sparkles with chemistry between the lead actors reminiscent of what Janhvi and Ishaan brought to the screen seven years ago. There is huge anticipation for ‘Dhadak 2’. Will your heart stop beating again when the curtain comes down on this passionate love story on August 1?