Reviews: Hamari Adhuri Kahani

DIRECTOR: Mohit Suri
STARRING: Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan and Rajkummar Yadav
RATING: 1.5 stars
There is a lot of pain in the movie. So much pain that I felt it. In my head. The kind of pain that the entire strip of Panadol won't be able to fix. My temples are still pounding.
Hamari Adhuri Kahani is a film about a woman who is in love with a rich man but feels dutiful towards her abusive husband. Decent storyline lost in cheesy, very cheesy, no no no, cheesiness-raised-to-the-power-infinity dialogues that I feel I have devoured the entire Cheesecake Factory at MOE. Take this for instance: Hari ki laash par main apna mahal nahi banaungi.' Or Woh apne vaasna ki keemat apne pati ki khoon se chukayegi.' For a moment, I thought I slept through the movie and missed a character called Vaasna. And why her husband would shed blood was so beyond me? It took me 15 minutes to understand it wasn't a character but the emotion of lust they were talking about.
The dialogues are so difficult that the Oxford Hindi dictionary is having a complex. It's almost like, "Hey, let's think of some really fancy words; umm Kalpana, okay.. Kainaat...yeah nice...umm...mrigtrishna!! What does it mean? Doesn't matter; just string them all in a sentence for the effect!!
Vidya Balan and her ateet surrounded her so badly that it crippled her from falling in love even with the kissy king Emraan Hashmi. Sheh!! Saara macho image kharab kar diya!! I somehow survived that only to stumble upon such regressive clichs that made this film look like Ekta Kapoor serials on steroids. There was a certain breed of flowers the fragrance of which makes Emraan Hashmi go cuckoo in his head. Then there was a lamp in Vidya Balan's mandir that goes off signifying a tragedy happening simultaneously in a land far far away. And my favourite- a Mangalsutra!!! IT'S AN EMRAAN HASHMI FILM. GIVE ME KAMASUTRA, NOT MANGALSUTRA!!!!!!
The film also boggles your mind around time and space. People move from Dubai-Kolkata-Simla-Mumbai-Bastar faster than I could ever make it to Meena Bazar from Dubai Media City. Speaking of locations, there is one particular scene where Vidya Balan leaves Emraan Hashmi in Dubai. The camera follows her as she walks lugging her suitcase on a road running through a deserted desert. Catch the frigging Metro woman or take a cab. That road doesn't go to the airport, it goes to Ras Al Khaimah.
One can't do much with such stock characters oozing corn in name of lines. Hence the performances were also just about average. Emraan-Bhatt-Naturally-Hashmi didn't feel any word but only lips. Alas those scenes were chopped. So he has a new kinky quirk in the movie. He wants to take a picture of Vasudha every time he sees her. Such subtle Samsung placement, god, I couldn't even notice!!
Vidya Balan's forever moist eyes were forever rolling. Like the only brief she got was to showcase all the pain, all the hurt and all the fear in just one second. Basically she has covered all the acting, all the emotions Katrina Kaif could ever cover in her entire movie career. She cried so much in the film that one of my friends Deepak doubted if they had a separate budget for glycerin.
Rajkummar Yadav plays the psycho husband like how all filmy psycho husbands should be: grumpy, suspicious, violent and unkempt.
In its defense, it could have been a good film. There are many women in our country who are in an abusive marriage and need to break free without any sense of guilt and shame. It's great the film addresses that. Only if they could show it without a Vidya Balan relentlessly clinging to her mangalsutra or mouthing lines like Main ek pyasa musafir hoon jo something something registaan pe something something...aur tum ek...something ho...jaise...that difficult Urdu word for mirage that I can't remember...' Say what???????
WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN
5 stars: Loved it. (This could make to top ten movies you must watch before you die!)
4 stars: Liked it. Recommend it. (This will help you sound intellectual and give you stuff to add at water cooler conversations.)
3 stars: Didn't hurt. Watch it once.
2 stars: It put me to sleep. Watch it if you are an insomniac or a newly wedded couple. Winks!
1 star: Do I even need to explain this?

All That Could Have Been is Mahesh Bhatt's book version of the film Hamari Adhuri Kahani (Our incomplete story), which he wrote and produced. And that's the theme for our review of the tragic love story. Because all that it could have been is a real good film.
You see, when you have top-notch actors like Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi and Rajkummar Rao, you do not turn them into cliched Bollywood characters who are reduced to mouthing the cheesiest lines you could think of.
"There are no dried leaves here, it's too perfect," says Balan's Vasudha in a scene shot at Dubai's Miracle Garden, where a smitten hotel magnate Aarav Ruparel (Hashmi) stands over her, hanging on her every word. "Nothing's perfect in this world. Even the moon has spots."
This is no poetry recital. Vasudha is a florist and part-time philosopher who selflessly saves' Aarav in a mock fire drill in his hotel in Mumbai. He's so impressed by her dedication he gives her a promotion to work in his hotel in Dubai.
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And now the poor woman's being driven straight to the Miracle Garden from the airport and asked what she thinks about it.
It's not long before something flies into her eyes, causing tears to stream down her softly-focused face. Aarav reaches out to wipe it, forever sealing their tragic fates.
Cue the first song.
But life's not so simple. Vasudha is a married woman, with a young child. Her husband Hari (Rao) has been missing for the last five years and the police have evidence he's joined a terrorist group. There's also a back story about how she was married off to Hari against her will by her religious father and forced to tattoo her husband's name on her arm.
So this tug-of-war of emotions continues for a while until Aarav declares his love for Vasudha with the beautiful Abu Dhabi desert as backdrop. There's a random spin-the-bottle game inserted somewhere here, but I digress.
Vasudha tearfully rejects it, saying she's bound to her husband, and tradition, pointing to her mangalsutra (a necklace some Hindu women wear to signify they're married). But, horror of horrors, she's forgotten it in her hotel room. She runs, in slow motion, knocking everything over in the process.
That effectively signals the halfway mark of the film.
The second half slowly picks up pace when, predictably, Hari reappears to cause mayhem. But things get really muddled at this point. While our lovelorn hero continues with his quotable quotes " "To love somebody you have to first stop loving yourself" " Vasudha finds her strength, and the film briefly turns into a woman's empowerment drama with references to the Hindu deity Durga et al.
"I've been watching like a coward as every one fights around me. No more," Vasudha says at one point.
Alas, it comes so late in this cheesefest of a love story that you'd already been knocked out senseless. Even when one character dies, you feel nothing.
I blame Bhatt and the director Mohit Suri for turning Balan, undoubtedly one of our finest actors, into a whimpering, crying mess of a woman. Considering much of Bhatt's work as director have featured strong women even when it wasn't fashionable in Bollywood, this film really makes no sense. Hashmi's talent is wasted like Balan's tears, while Rao shines in his brief psychotic role.
What the film could have been, and which it briefly is, is about a woman, who, despite her over-bearing reality, breaks free from tradition, follows her heart and triumphs. Instead, she stupidly walks with her suitcase into the sand dunes.
No, this is not an incomplete story. It's just a badly told one.

Rating
Hamari Adhuri Kahani
Starring: Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Rajkummar Rao
Director: Mohit Suri
Stars: 2 out 5

Don't know about the 2nd one but you can clearly see that the first one is written by a hater. And the reasons listed by the person are so ridiculous.. I can't take a review with such statements serious: "T'S AN EMRAAN HASHMI FILM. GIVE ME KAMASUTRA, NOT MANGALSUTRA!!!!!!"

Seriously? Give me a break.

yeah, ill wait until tommorow for the reviews. 😆

I will wait for reviews of thirsday or friday

By Bollywood Hungama News Network, 12 Jun 2015, 00:09 hrs IST
Rating: 2/5 |
2 Life in Bollywood is all about ironies. A classic example of the same is that, while on one hand, showing an 'extra-marital affair' was never the in-thing here; on the other hand, it was never even outdated! There have been many films that have been made on the sensitive yet bold topic of extra-marital affair. Examples to this are in the form of classics like ARTH, SILSILA to the recent ones like MURDER, KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA, etc. This week's release HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI also treads on the similar lines (if not the same). Will it give a new dimension to the 'concept' of onscreen 'extra-marital affair' or will it turn out to be a dead affair at the box-office, let's analyze.

The film starts off with the old, tired and worn out Vasudha Prasad (Vidya Balan) who is almost on the verge of collapsing on the streets of Bastar district. On the other hand, her old and weak husband Hari (Rajkumar Rao) is pouring his heart out to a doctor emphasizing on the fact that Vasudha did visit him wearing a red dress, something that the doctor rubbishes as his hallucination. Amidst that time, he gets to know that Vasudha has set for heavenly abode. That's when he visits his son's home to do the last rites of his dead wife... only to be shooed away by his son. When everyone is fast asleep, he escapes with Vasudha's ashes to be immersed in Bastar and not in river Ganga. But before leaving the home with the ashes, he leaves a diary for his son (and the audience) to tell the unknown tale of Vasudha. The 20 years flashback shows Hari leaving Vasudha within a year of marriage, but not before making his presence 'felt' in her life. Also to act as an everlasting memory, he gets a tattoo done of his name of Vasudha's arm. In the diary, Hari mentions about Aarav (Emraan Hashmi), the multi millionaire business tycoon and also an owner of a whopping 108 hotels! It was actually a love at first sight for Aarav the very moment he sees Vasudha, who works as a florist in his Mumbai hotel. Aarav gets impressed with her simplicity and selflessness so much that he immediately offers her a dream job in his plush Dubai hotel. After initial reluctance, she picks up the job. Love blossoms between the duo and they find solace in each other's company. Just when everything is going smooth, there re-enters Hari into the life of Vasudha. Hari then explains the reasons and the circumstances as to why he disappeared and why the police have mistaken him as a dreaded terrorist. Vasudha, who initially is mighty upset and angry at the very sight of Hari, then seeks Aarav's help to free Hari from the police by proving his innocence. Despite this being a tough task, Aarav takes it up solely for his selfless love towards Vasudha. While accomplishing the task, a very unexpected calamity strikes Vasudha which completely shatters the lives of Aarav, Vasudha as well as Hari. What is the calamity that strikes the trio, will Vasudha and Aarav ever be able to marry each other and does Hari overcome his selfish ways to help his wife 'unite' with her real love Aarav... is what forms the rest of the story.

First things first. Despite having a huge 'star presence' in the form of acting power horses like Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan and Rajkumar Rao, the film simply fails to register in the minds of the audience. And the main reason for the same is its weak script that is combined with heavy melodrama, which is tough to digest in today's time. It's hard to believe that Mahesh Bhatt who has written this script after a long time is stuck in such a time warp. It is indeed even more shocking that HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI comes from the same filmmaker who gave back to back hits like AASHIQUI 2 and EK VILLAIN last. But, in the case of HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI, one can't help but blame its poor script and direction. Despite the fact that the film does have its share of gripping moments, in totality, the film seems to be a letdown. The film's characters are half baked and operate on some bizarre logic which makes you laugh after a point! There is also barely any built up for Emraan and Vidya's love story. Eventually, you just don't feel anything for any of the characters!

As far as the performances are concerned, the film (rightly) belongs to the trio of Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan and Rajkumar Rao (in that order). While Emraan does put up a strong act as the protective, caring and sensitive lover, it is his eyes that do most of the talking. Vidya Balan, despite being such a talented actress, seems to be wasted in this film. This can be attributed to the poor way in which her character has been written. There are moments which make you feel the pain and the agony that her character is going through, but looking at her character cry helplessly after every few minutes makes you immune to her pain. Rajkumar Rao, on the other hand, has a small role and will be best remembered for his howls and shouts. The rest of the characters help in moving the film forward.

Despite the film being made as a soulful one, its soul seems to be sorely missing in its music (Jeet Ganguly, Mithoon, Ami Mishra), the title song notwithstanding. The dialogues done by the Bhatt camp regular Shagufta Rafique are so outdated that it makes you wonder how disconnected they are from the today's time. One has to admit that the film's editing (Devendra Murdeshwar) is not watertight, which could have acted as a saving grace of the film, otherwise. The 'soul' saving grace of the film is in the form of its background music (Raju Singh), which helps to keep you hooked to the proceedings on the screen. The DoP (Vishnu Rao) has done a decent job.

On the whole, HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI is definitely very 'adhuri' on entertainment value and can be skipped.