Rating : ⭐️⭐️
Genre: Romance
Year: 2024
Running time: 2 hours
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Cast: Ajay Devgun, Tabu, Saiee Manjrekar, Shantanu Maheshwari
Kid rating: PG-15
Auron Mein Khan Dum Tha comes from director Neeraj Pandey who has also directed action thrillers like Special 26 and A Wednesday. So he has a reputation as the director of well-made, fast-paced engrossing films. One would assume that a director who has made great films in the past would also make great films in the future. Alas, he proves that theory wrong.
This film’s plot line is a grand, sweeping love story. The kind that one would remember for ages and ages for that immutable, pure love. But the film itself is so lackluster, that it doesn’t carry the intensity of that kind of a love story, despite having stars like Tabu and Ajay ‘Brooding’ Devgun.
The story goes thusly: Vasu (played by Manjrekar) and Krishna (Maheshwari, whom we saw in Gangubai Kathiawadi) are very much in love. They live in the same chawl in Mumbai and meet each other secretly. He means to ask for her hand, once he is secure in his job and future. And they dream of a life lived happily together.
Then comes a tragic event which will separate them. For ever and ever.
But the love will persist.
For starters, the film is too long and too slow. Pandey follows his directorial habits from directing action thrillers. So each scene is protracted and long and follows the protagonist in every small minute detail. If the protagonist is climbing up a set of stairs, the camera will follow them climbing up. Each stair. Every step of the way. Accompanied by ever, increasing thudding music. Which is fine for some “action” scenes but does not translate well to a romantic tale.
This is a directorial failure because the actors are pretty good. Tabu and Ajay Devgan, of course, are veterans. But even the pair that play a young Vasu and Krishna – Saiee and Shantanu – do very well. I’m honestly quite surprised by how well Saiee acts. She reminds me of a young, slightly less perky Padmini Kolhapure.
The young romance is interesting enough. And honestly, I could have watched a mini film featuring Saiee and Shantanu. So that works. What does not work is the film going on and on and on, with the young, hopeful couple giving way to an older, melancholic pair.
The other problematic thing about the film is it’s jaded feel. There is 1 scene of attempted rape in this film and it reminded me of the 80s rape scenes with heroines being abducted and molested. In fact, the whole film felt like it was situated in a bygone era – one where lovers spoke in muted tongues, remained restrained and polite and were ever so well-behaved. The storyline veering into “Dubai don” territory, the violent jail skirmishes, Krishna’s band of loyal followers in jail (some terrible acting there) seemed to belong to Hindi cinema of a past decade.
A love story should be one where you are invested and moved. Preferably to the point of tears. Yes, preferably a weepie, especially if it’s going to have the lovers separated. But this film for all its great big lovesick scenes and declarations of unending devotion, left me unmoved.
I have no great big, warm fuzzy feelings for this film or its protagonists, worthy of sympathy though they may seem on paper. What little I do feel is so distant and so far removed that, I cannot say that I will ever recall this film fondly, or at all.
Auron Mein Khan Dum Tha is a very humdrum watch for a love story. I’m not sure it’s worth two and a half hours in a theater.
Kidwise: One scene of attempted rape. Somewhat gory violence with knives and other sharp implements.
