Reading a line about the plot of this film piqued my interest enough about the story and I was also curious how Ajay Devgan would handle such a role. Not having watched a film in around 6 months, I thought I’ll see one this weekend. Whereas I didn’t necessarily think it was beautiful execution, I thought it had enough fodder for an interesting review, which is why I’m writing one here.
THE MAIN CAST:
Rakul Preet Singh aka Ayesha
Ajay Devgan aka Aashish
Tabu aka Manju
THE ESSENTIAL PLOT:
An individual based in London, Aashish, who has been separated from his wife for 15 years, falls for a woman who is almost half his age. Things are going well for him. They consider marriage, but at times, they find themselves reconciling their age difference. For some obligatory and perhaps conscientious reasons, Aashish wants to introduce her to his ex-wife. That is the event the movie heavily dwells upon, this simple step leading to a series of unforeseen events, owing to the circumstances of his daughter’s marriage coinciding with his visit. The main outcome of the same is that the main people of this story sort of come to understand where they stand w.r.t. each other.
THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT THE FILM:
Performances: In my opinion, the performances are quite good from everyone. I don’t really think the performances were at fault in the film. The supporting cast put in some decent performances, while the main cast stood out, with probably Tabu marginally outshining the others. Ajay Devgan also puts in a good turn. In his younger years, I sometimes felt he was a tad too expressionless for romantic roles. But here, I think he does some reasonable justice to his subtle style.
Direction: Maybe Akiv Ali’s direction could’ve used some improvisation with the script at hand. But all in all, the direction was also not the main culprit. We had some decently executed relationship drama and some intentional or unintentional comedy, as a result.
Story & Screenplay: The idea or topic behind the story was something different and perhaps interesting, but the path the screenplay took, I think the basis lacked conviction. The story based on the idea it was, could’ve been more meaningful. That in turn, would’ve also made the screenplay way better than it was.
There was an air of pointlessness about a lot of things, which could’ve been resolved by earlier admittance of Aashish’s intent on visiting his separated wife, no matter the circumstances. If he had an obligation to his ex-wife and existing family, he also had one to his new lover, which he doesn’t fulfill in initial stages of the film. That in turn, subjects his new lover to a lot of unnecessarily embarrassing circumstances. To be honest, it felt one of 2 things – 1) Either it was about testing if Aashish’s new lover is really in love with him, with the person who he is and his actual past. 2) Or it was about him being a bit confused about what he actually wanted and this journey was to resolve that. Perhaps, it was a bit of both. The reason Aashish mentions for not disclosing actual matters at hand earlier, is hindering his daughter’s marriage. But I think that is a bit of a weak plot point as that could potentially have seriously adverse ramifications in a real story for him. The real disadvantage I can see here, is reducing the "runtime". But if your “runtime” is dependent on a weak path of the storyline and not actual content with substance, then in my opinion, it is a bit “contrived”.
Best & Worst Scenes: There were a few intriguing ones.
1] Well, the verbal tussle between Ayesha and Manju while Aashish is driving the car was very entertaining with double meanings galore. Might even be the most entertaining scene. There were some other funny ones too.
2] The scene where Aashish has to massage Manju’s body parts (sort of explicit) is a bit too much, while he is committed to his current lover and they are aware Ayesha is listening to all this. In reality, such a thing is probably only possible if all 3 have no commitment to each other.
3] There’s a lot of irony as well. Aashish lies that he is a brother to Manju to supposedly avoid misgivings and finds himself in humiliating positions as a result, in front of Manju and also afore the groom’s father who has come to visit, to marry Manju’s daughter. His lie about Ayesha also puts him in weird situations.
4] Not sure the scene with the reference to "Singham" was necessary. No relevance.
Other Things: There is only an “item number” towards the end and it was a nice one.
There is suspense here too, although I’m not sure any was necessary in such a film. The suspense was about why was all this drama unfolding, given Aashish’s intent of visiting his ex-wife with whom he was separated, all this while.
There were aspects which were visually appealing and the final outcome of the film is quite agreeable and meaningful.
To conclude: It was good as a one time entertaining watch. Although I agree with the final outcome of the film and even though it had some good performances from the cast, the plot with a potentially promising storyline, felt quite contrived in the form of this film.
I would maybe give it a close to 5 out of 10 at best. With some alterations in depiction, this could be a pretty good film.