Humari adhuri kahani - Quite an adhuri kahani

Humari adhuri kahani
Starring: Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Rajkummar Rao
Rated: 4/10
Such a waste, such a huge waste — of the three mega actors, of a relationship story, of a ditty on our constricting social mores, on the music and of the storyline. Why and how director Mohit Suri could have gone wrong on such a huge mount is bewildering. Written by none other than Mahesh Bhatt, you feel all the more let down as you sit through this dialogue-heavy drama which resembles more the melodrama of a generation or two gone by than a representation of a society or a generation of today.
A single working mother can’t think of ending her marriage to an abusive man despite him having gone away from her life five years ago. A rich country hopping hospitality tycoon can’t stop crying over a lost relationship or running wild for the smell of a particular lily. A husband ends up on the loony fringe because he can’t let his wife go — not because he loves her but because he possesses her!
The story revolves around these conflicting characters and the way it goes round and round the two relationships  — you would have thought it would be a powerful drama, high on emotion and quite moving what with Mahesh Bhatt being at the helm of writing the story.
What stares back at you are over-the-top dialogues, a story that does not move, a situation that is too fantastic to be true and three actors trying to do their best to somehow save the situation. Add to that the let-down music and you have a stunner at hand, not a good but a bad, boring, stretching and so emotional that is gets to be funny with the outpourings.
Vidya Balan works hard at lending some weight but gets defeated by the storyline; Hashmi is wasted and Rajkumar Rao looks so obviously startled about his role that he keeps mumbling strangely about an awara wife, a badchalan aurat and a sighting of her in red.
It could have been quite a tear-jerker or even otherwise. But when an attempted tear-jerker brings in guffaws of laughter in the hall when it is mouthing its most serious dialogues you know why the title is so apt — it’s indeed the most adhuri kahani from the House of Bhatts.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, June 14, 2015

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