Despite
being screamed at, threatened and controlled by her egoist, rough and aggressive
husband, an Indian wife can’t gather enough guts to throw away her ‘Mangalsutra’.
As the matter of fact, she tries to shut her ears melodramatically with both
the hands when is suggested for the same from an old lady happened to be her
own mother-in-law. And when the unwanted husband makes an unexpected visit in
last 5 years, she doesn’t mind giving him a warm welcome with all the comforts
he can wish for. And, if overwhelmed by someone’s goodwill for her miserable
life, she can easily entitle him ‘God’. And, she cries all the time. Well, this
is not an overview on the condition of women in prehistoric India. This is Mohit
Suri’s regressively depressing and awfully hopeless film HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI
written by one of the most ‘ahead of his times’ filmmakers in India, Mr Mahesh
Bhatt.
Vasudha
[Vidya Balan] is a single mother working as a florist in an established hotel
and waiting for her gone husband Hari [Rajkumar Rao] - a prime suspect in a
terrorist-act. Impressed by her dedication at work, her new boss Aarav [Emran Hashmi]
offers her a better job opportunity but soon, falls in love with the lady. He loves
to help the needy. And he has a very convincing justification too, for his
compassion; as if no man on this earth can show empathy towards any woman
around without having a proper, emotional and dramatic back-story. Aarav’s
mother too has been a single-parent for the most of her life.
Hari returns.
Incidentally, he is innocent and is framed. The Indian wife has turned now in a
‘Savitri’ mode to save her husband’s life. Meanwhile, the crying has been accelerated
in fourth gear. The lover has to sacrifice all to play the kind-hearted matchmaker
between two poor souls. Poor not because of their misfortune but the bad regressive
writing! I bet, pick any old Hindi film of 60’s titled on its main female lead
and it will have more liberal, sympathetic and progressive plot than this. If
the plot doesn’t engage you at all, dialogues also don’t do any better. Everyone
seems to be in the race to mouth lines soaked in grave philosophy about life,
marriage, man-woman relationship and what not. It’s exactly like listening to
Bhatt Saab’s dreadful life-lessons at any social-forum. Melodrama is another abysmal
addition that creates an unbearable situation equivalent to any Balaji TV
soaps. The background score actually travels the same crescendo once when Hari
gets violent over Vasudha’s love confession.
HAMARI
ADHURI KAHANI has three bankable actors in its kitty. Emran Hashmi being the
crowd-puller tries his luck as a serious performer here. He took it in a
literal sense, I fear. Still, he is not unbearable at all but Vidya is. She
constantly posses as either the most unfortunate girl on earth or the most
undeserving for all the good things life has to offer her. In both conditions,
one thing remains same and unvarying; the crying. Rajkumar Rao is good. His
portrayal of a sadistic, male-chauvinist and solipsist husband could have more
shades but the length hardly allows him to open the wings. Narendra Jha (of
HAIDER fame) reminds me of Irrfan Khan getting wasted in his earlier acting-sting
in Bhatt camp. Actor of such caliber deserves more and better.
Overall, Mohit Suri’s HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI is meant
to have intent to get you sunk in deep, dead world of an uncompleted-unfinished
love saga but turns out to be a sob-sob dated story where nothing makes a
connect, neither the pain nor the love. I know a couple of single-mothers who
don’t need to put fake cards on her son’s birthday gifts in the name of separated
fathers; they are the fathers. Appreciate them if you get a chance! [1.5/5]
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