Movie Review: A TRULY ‘ADHURI KAHANI’
Directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Mahesh Bhatt, Humari Adhuri Kahani is said to be based on a true story of the producer’s parents. The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan and Rajkummar Rao in lead roles. After being acclaimed for Aashiqui2, director Mohit Suri seems to have gone too overboard with this film.
The film throws light on the plight of Vasudha (Vidya), mother of a five year old whose father, Hari (Rajkummar), has been out of sight since ages. After a lot of turmoil and search for her husband she has resorted to believing that he might never come back. That’s when Aarav Ruparel (Emraan) is introduced in the film as a hotel tycoon who is only business oriented and too harsh and lonely in life that he seems to find solitude and love in Vasudha very quickly. But just when it seems like Aarav and Vasudha have found ‘the one’ in each other, Hari is brought back in the scene, this time, more psychopathic than before. There is so much melancholy throughout that you can’t rack you brains on whether the kahani will remain adhuri or not.
The intention behind the movie was to depict Vasudha as a woman who is caged and bounded by the ‘mangalsutra’ she keeps on holding as if to realise that she is a married woman who has to follow a set of rules and carry out the ordeals and duties of a ‘pativratha’ lady. It depicts her dilemma as someone who is caught up between her sexist husband who believes she became his property as soon as she performed the ‘saat phere’ with him and the man who she feels really has her heart. But the intention was overdone with melodrama and at many places it felt a bit unreal.
But what is displeasing to the eye is to see the three actors in main roles failing to prove their mettle like they have in their previous films. Known for her brilliant performances in ‘Kahani´ and ’Dirty Picture’, Vidya Balan would have executed better in this film too had there not been too much of chaos in her character. She keeps behaving like a very intimidated woman even when it is not required; be it tragedy or joy, her eyes are always filled with tears.
Emraan Hashmi looked handsome and charming throughout the film (a blessing in disguise for the ladies!) but again, the dialogues given to him were too clichéd and mainstream that it felt very amateurish of him to be delivering them.
Rajkummar Rao plays the role of a man so negatively obsessed with his wife that he can kill for her; by kill we mean not just anyone, who comes in between them, but kill himself, kill her too for that matter. Also, his time on screen is very limited and it feels as if he’s the third wheel in the film. He tries to do utmost justice to his role and plays the badass husband he is required to, but it doesn’t come out as powerful as it should.
There have been certain positives in the film. First will unsurprisingly be the music of the film. Composed by Mithoon and Jeet Ganguly, it’s the film’s music that comes to the rescue when it gets too hard to handle at same points in melodious playback voices of Arijit Singh and Papon, although more artificial emotions pour in when Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s Zaroori Tha is played.
The movie was shot in Dubai for a few scenes. The location gives a feel good factor. A cameo played by Amala Akkineni, who plays Emraan’s mother and a cabaret singer, was portrayed well.
All in all, the film would have been much better overall since we know the potential of the whole team involved in it. One should go watch the movie if they either love one of the three actors in the film or like to watch films devoid of much logic in them or simply because they have nothing more productive to do in the weekend.
We give Humari Adhuri Kahani 2.5 stars out of 5 only in hope that there isn’t going to be a sequel to complete this ‘kahani’ somewhere in the future.
