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Slow and steady—sadly, in movies, that does not always win the race!
Do Deewane Seher Mein (more on the title later, and please note ‘Seher’ means a stroll or outing, but not so here!) is a languorous romance. It’s all cutely old-fashioned, very Basu Chatterjee-esque. There are no baddies, no devilish parents, no acts of God that are villains by default.
The thorns in the fleshes of the hero and the heroine are their ingrained complexes from childhood and beyond. Yes, their circumstances are to be blamed for them, if at all. But the way the resolutions come takes all of 138 minutes, which is about 48 minutes too long of screentime! This was material for a classic love story of 90 minutes!
Shashank (Siddhanth Chaturvedi) hails from Bihar’s uber-affluent family and works in Mumbai in the marketing department of a washing machine-manufacturing unit. Roshni (Mrunal Thakur) works for a fashion unit or periodical under a weird boss (Achint Kaur). At home, she is badgered to see boys for marriage but turns down all. Her father (Joy Sengupta) and grandmother (Ila Arun) are not desperate, but her mother (Ayesha Reza Mishra) is.
It so happens that Shashank and his parents (Deepraj Rana and Mona Ambegaonkar) go to Roshni’s house for the same purpose and Roshni turns him down too. But Shashank is curious. When the two seemed to jell with each other, why did she turn him down? He begins ‘stalking’ her when she leaves her office demanding to know the reason. Roshni stubbornly refuses, stating that her refusal to their match is enough.
Shashank persists. They keep meeting and soon a rapport develops. Love follows. But after that the graph goes up and down like crazy. Why? And what are they complexed about?
Well, Shashank is congenitally unable to pronounce the ‘Sha’ syllable and thus even calls himself ‘Sasank’ and her ‘Rosni’. That is why the title actually means Do Deewane Shaher (or city) Mein! The lady has a complex that is best revealed on screen. Into the picture come also Roshni’s cute brother (Inesh Kotian) and elder, married sister (Sandeepa Dhar) and Shashank’s benevolent boss and best buddy (Naveen Kaushik and Viraj Ghelani).
The film has realistic dialogues and a couple of songs, Tera mera saath and Aasma aasma, sound nice when on. The re-creation of a famous song from the 1977 Gharaonda that gives the film its title comes too late and is wasted. The background score is good.
This is director Ravi Udyawar’s most wholesome film—his past work includes Mom and the abhorrent Yudhra. Having directed Sridevi and Alia Bhatt in these films respectively as protagonists, he works his directorial magic this time on Mrunal Thakur, who is simply getting better by the film. She is tremendous as the mercurial Roshni.
Siddhanth Chaturvedi is good as Shashank but shows no evolution over his past work. Ayesha Reza Mishra, Ila Arun and Inesh Kotian make a mark while Sandeepa Dhar, Mona Ambegaonkar and Deepraj Rana are alright. Scoring high are Naveen Kaushik as Shashank’s boss and Viraj Ghelani as his friend.
Technically good, the film is one in a long list of simple films that are abominably slow considering their material and should have been ideally released on OTT to gain eyeballs.
They can be compared to food that is nutritious, yes, but quite bland.
Rating: ***
SLB Films’, Zee Studios’, Rancorp Media’s & Ravi Udyawar Media’s Do Deewane Seher Mein Produced by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Prerna Singh, Umesh Kumar Bansal & Bharat Kumar Ranga Directed by: Ravi Udyawar Written by: Abhiruchi Chand Music: Jaidev, Sachin-Jiagr (White Noise Collectives), Jackie Vanjari, Hesham Abdul Wahab & Shreya Puranik Starring: Mrunal Thakur, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Sandeepa Dhar, Ila Arun, Deepraj Rana, Mona Ambegaonkar, Ayesha Reza Mishra, Joy Sengupta, Naveen Kaushik, Viraj Ghelani, Inesh Kotian, Achint Kaur & others
