ZNMD is designed as a feel-good bromance. Arjun (Roshan) is a broker with a plush three bed-roomed house in London, who leads a frenetic deal-making, yen-and-pounds-and-dollar-collecting life. Imran (Akhtar) is a copywriter who writes poetry. Kabir (Deol) is the wealthy scion of a construction firm, whose engagement to uptight interior designer Natasha (Koechlin) sets the three friends on a road-trip to Spain.

So fixated is the film on trying to appear ‘cool’, even ‘minty-fresh,’ that the emotional connects all seem like afterthoughts. Especially the flashback each boy has, and their subsequent, convenient epiphany. It’s all so surfacial and unnecessary, even when well-performed, like the moment between Naseeruddin Shah and Farhan, when the latter is finally allowed to drop the forced grin and cry like he does best.

On the whole, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is a film for the multiplexes, the city-based audiences and the youngsters. However, it doesn’t have much for the masses, the single-screen cinema audiences and for the public in small centres. Considering its high price, it will not be able to make profits even though the youth and the city audiences will give it the thumbs up.