Gehraiyaan

The weakest part of Gehraiyaan, I thought, was its abrupt transition into a crime thriller. This was always destined to be an emotional drama, and the unexpected jump in pace startled me, and not in a very reassuring way. That aside, the drama bits are fantastically done. The contemporary struggles and feelings of two lived-in couples are splendidly captured. The leads, to my surprise, have incredible chemistry. What also helps is the character texturing. It's a family affair (pun intended!) alright, and leaving some dots deliberately disconnected for that end reveal made that climactic exchange between the characters of Deepika Padukone and Naseeruddin Shah a lot more impactful. Padukone also depicts breakdowns and anxiety attacks as they are, in a remarkable performance. Also liked how they ended it with effective throwbacks to phrases like "small world" and "the past always catches up." While the songs, visuals, and some of the dialogue carry the feel of regular Bolly fare, I'm glad they don't weigh the film's engagement factor down.

The movie Gehraiyaan has no depth in the writing. Shakun Batra's failed to deliver a compelling movie like Kapoor & Sons (2016), here his direction is just mediocre. The first half is a half-baked romantic drama and when in the second half the film takes a different turn, it falls flat. Deepika Padukone delivers a good performance and Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday & Dhairya Karwa were average in their roles.

Direction 2/5 Acting 2.5/5 Dialogues 2/5 Story 2/5 Screenplay 1.5/5.

Its journey of 148 minutes (including 16 minutes of pre and post credits) which finally takes you nowhere , neither its realistic nor it's entertaining to disappoint me further its not even as dark as I thought it would be . If you can sail through the first ninety minutes which will surely test your patience and intelligence then you will be rewarded for the last 40 minutes but when it concludes it feels like the writer could not handle the force he had unleashed in third act and leaves the end very conveniently where it does . Movie does try to add something with very last scene but then its credit leaves you with a movie which you would forget sooner than the time you had spent anticipating watching it after coming across the trailer or promotions .

In the first two acts of this movie most scene sequences are cut abruptly when it moves from one to another and it's noticeable . What seemed to be good cinematography from trailer isn't so in the movie , with mediocre scenes and the wave you see in trailer is the only wave you will see across the movie . Performance of Deepika Padukone is commendable but I feel it fails to be memorable given the weak and forgettable script . Naseeruddin Shah and Rajat Kapoor do their job with perfection in the limited time they are allotted and for other actors you can judge them with your perspective and taste as you go on a hectic journey but for me they were not that enchanting . Back stories and past of each character which seem much more interesting than what is going on in the present are never explored except small flashbacks and in dialogues.

Only thing that would leave a long impact on you is the song Gehraiyaan by Lothika except that everything else is unnecessary noise which you won't regret even if you don't watch this movie .

Special Mention : Movie explores the theme of infidelity ,depression and trauma but never gives real weight to either of these topics and lets it just flow like meaningless waves instead of depth.

Doobey has been creating waves for weeks before the actual movie released and it's commendable that the person who edited the music video made the movie seem exciting. But it was far from it, none of these characters had any actual motives for acting the way they did. None of their actions seemed to fall in line with what was previously established about them (which wasn't much to begin with) The so-called "deep", "complex" backstories each character had fell flat too since they seemed to come off as excuses rather than actual explanations.

The dialogues seemed so off, I found myself questioning whether people actually talk like this. Maybe an OTT release is subjected to comparatively low censorship but does that mean the word "f-ck" gets thrown around like confetti in every dialogue? It just comes across as lazy writing.

I was hoping there'd be no glorification of infidelity and we'd be able to at least empathize with the characters for cheating on their partners. None of the problems they faced were beyond the ordinary and didn't justify their motives to cheat. Are we supposed to believe that actual grown-up adults approach their problems like 16-year old's?

I wouldn't blame the actors for the bad performances since it was evident that they weren't given too much to work with anyway. All of the glitz and glamour, none of the substance.

The only objective of making such a movie is to showcase human emotions. This movie doesn't justify adultery or say cheating is cool. Worse, it doesn't do anything much at all. Shakun Batra does well with good cinematography. His attempt at bringing in a Sam Levinson-Luca Guadagnino type work into scenes is appreciable, much like Kapoor and Sons. So is Deepika's and Siddhanth's acting. But why cast Ananya Pandey? Her acting is so bad, she always seems like a clown in a board meeting.

Besides, there are glaring loopholes in the story. How does Zain run away from home, still manage to study in the US, scale up quick enough, return to India as a board member, start his firm, and still be young? Zain has no family? Why is Alisha onboard with cheating so quick? What is the cliffhanger even supposed to convey? 5/10 only for Deepika and Siddhant's acting, the cinematography, the music.