Auron Mein Kahaan Dum Tha review- This Ajay Devgn, Tabu starrer starts off as a romantic drama only to culminate into a whodunit thriller!
Auron Mein Kahaan Dum Tha
This Ajay Devgn, Tabu starrer is a testimony to the limit an individual can push himself for the sake of love and lover!
The silver screen has been a witness to many eternal love stories which have stood the test of time and eventually landed up acting as a benchmark for others to follow. Films like the Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta starrer Veer Zaara, where Shah Rukh Khan’s character Veer keeps mum and rots in a Pakistani jail, all for the sake of the love of his life Zaara (Preity Zinta). More recently, there is the very famous daily soap Anupama, where Anuj (the protagonist) waits for as long as 26 years to confess his love for Anupama (Rupali Ganguly). This week’s release Auron Mein Kahaan Dum Tha falls in a similar category.
The film begins with a hard-hitting line ‘Some parts of the film are true… The Impossible Part’. The film starts off with Arthur Road Jail and the inmates there. Amongst the hard core and toughened criminals, there exists the ‘simple-man-till-triggered’ Krishna (Ajay Devgn). And the reason for him to be imprisoned traces to a flashback of events that leads us to him committing a double murder.
In the flashback, we are introduced to a happy go lucky couple Krishna and Vasudha (Tabu), who are truly, madly and deeply in love with each other and also stay in the same society. With the passage of time, the two become so inseparable that one just cannot imagine the one without the other.
Things for the couple change drastically when Krishna saves his elderly Parsi friend from being robbed and stabbed by a bunch of henchmen. Krishna lands up recognising one of the robbers as Pakya, his notorious neighbour who also lives in the same society. Even though Krishna spares the robbers with his 'impromptu wise talks', he does confront Pakya the next day, which gets seen by many in the society.
Being extremely insulted, Pakya vows to take revenge. Seizing an opportunity, he and his group of evil-minded friends land up taking advantage of the late-night hours and drag Vasudha to a secluded place and try to molest her. Hearing her screams, Krishna rushes back to save the love of his life from the evil hands. In an attempt to save her, he lands up killing two of the men. It is because of these two murders he gets sentenced to an imprisonment of 26 years!
And the day when he gets released, he realises that Vausdha is doing extremely well for herself and is happily married now to Abhijeet (Jimmy Shergill). And when Krishna meets Vasudha, the latter tells him that she has already told everything about their relationship to Abhihjeet and that he was ok with the whole thing. What eventually happens to Krishna and Vasudha’s love story and does the ‘real reason’ about the former going to jail ever come out is what forms the rest of the film.
What works in the film’s favour is the ‘tried-and-tested’ onscreen chemistry between Ajay Devgn and Tabu. Additionally, the utmost sincere performance of Shantanu Maheshwari simply acts as an (much needed) icing on the cake. The film’s plot stands as a testimony to the fact that if the need be, then, lovers can push themselves to any limit, challenge and eliminate any road block which come in their way.
In addition to that, is the film's music (MM Kreem) is bang on! A handful of tracks are already a chsrtbuster. Background music is taut. FIlm's editing could just have been a bit more watertight.
The flipside of the full film is the ‘oscillated time-zone’ that it suffers from. Even though it’s the call and the need of the narrative, but irregular oscillation between the past and the present does get on your nerves in many places. The right term here is ‘consistency’ which the film lacks in many places. Many expected the heavens from the film’s director Neeraj Pandey (given his past track record).
But, with Auron Mein Kahaan Dum Tha, it seems that he has settled for the stars in the quest to reach the moon. Despite the film bearing a typical trademark of being a 'Neeraj Pandey film', the film still does not bear it in totality. Telling anymore will let the cat out of the bag.
Even though the film ‘stars’ Ajay Devgn and Tabu, but, in totality, its Shantanu Maheshwari who springs a pleasant surprise with his extremely convincing act that gives him a range to explore all the emotions. On the other hand, Ajay Devgn’s presence in the film seems more like a just a little bit more than an extended cameo! Ditto for Tabu. Jimmy Shergill, despite is limited screentime, is at his usual self. Saiee Manjrekar really needs to buck up on her emotional scenes.
Overall, the film will find its audience as it’s an Ajay Devgn and Tabu starrer and is expected to have a smooth run at the box office till the time it does not encounter a giant release in the days to come. All in all, Auron Mein Kahaan Dum Tha is highly recommended for all those who are in love or are ‘planning’ to fall in love!