Do Aur Do Pyaar - Hindi - Romance/Drama - 140 mins - In Cinemas
The major lure for me to watch this in the cinemas last night was not just to visit swanky new PVR INOX Megaplex close to my home, but also to see if Pratik Gandhi can paint over his "Harshad Mehta (Scam 1992)" persona in my head.
The story is set in Mumbai (and Ooty for a bit) - A couple Kavya Ganesan (Vidya Balan), a dentist and Ani Banerjee (Pratik Gandhi) (a cork exporter - queue the jokes..). They have known each other for 15 ( married for 12) years. Both of them have found love elsewhere - Kavya with a vagabond Photographer Vikram ( American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy) and Ani with Nora (Ileana D Cruz), an actor in search of the big break.
Kavya is almost ready to move in with Vikram. Ani finds happiness with Nora. Yet they are unable to tell each other and lead a mundane life together. Kavya's grandfather passes away and she decides to go to Ooty - for "family" reasons Vikram also joins.
The next 45 mins are the best phase of the movie - we are introduced to the story of "Banerjee" and "Ganesan"'s wild romance and their "ghar se bhag kar" shaadi, angry father and all. The passion re ignites , they find ways to be with each other , Chicken 65 and beer, eventually cheating on their flings!...until...
The scenes between Vidya Balan and Pratik Gandhi feel very natural and rarely "acted" . Their chemistry is electric - the dialogue free flowing. Their drunk sequence at the "Elephanta Hotel" , dancing to a 90's song "Bin Tere Sanam Mar mitenge hum" will make you cheer as well. The confrontation scene towards the end, when everything starts tumbling, wonderfully captures the other extreme of their emotional arc.
Pratik is very good without any real overbearing bengali accent (i couldnt care much about him adjusting his glasses all the time) . He matches Vidya balan step for step. Balan is ever dependable and her smile lights up the screen. Sendhil Ramamurthy has two very good scenes (especially the one without any dialogue, when he runs into Pratik at their home).
Ileana D Cruz is good as well - playing a version of her character in "Barfi". Tamil actor "Thalaivaasal" Vijay is excellent as Kavya's stoic dad (and you wish there was one more scene with Pratik, but then it would have ended the movie along expected lines. )
The movie overall is a good watch for the wonderful performances by the lead. It could have definitely been tighter, some scenes edited, some characters perhaps cut out. The songs mostly play in the background are ok, not recall worthy. The cinematography is lovely, Monsoon Mumbai and Ooty look lovely!.
The movie will be on Disney+ Hotstar in probably 7 weeks and you could give it a shot, if you like mature romance/drama.
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