A fortnight back, Shakun Batra's "Gehraiyaan" was released on Amazon Prime & more often than not, I would have checked it out on the day it had released. However, due to work commitments I had missed out on it at that point of time. Later on, the rather mixed reviews that I came across didn't quite motivate me to check it out until this weekend. Apparently, I had to travel to my hometown & in order to kill time on the bus, I decided to give it a try. To be frank, I was pleasantly surprised as it was much better than what I had expected.
Alisha (Deepika Padukone) was a yoga instructor who was in a live in relationship with her boyfriend, Karan (Dhairya Karwa). Both her personal & professional life weren't exactly smooth sailing as she was finding it hard to make ends meet since Karan was unemployed which put a strain on their relation. It was at this juncture that her cousin Tia (Ananya Panday) reached out to her ages and invited them over to her beach house to introduce them to her fiancé Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi). It was beginning of a change that none expected as Alisha & Zain engaged in a clandestine romance that threatened to wreck everything.
This is Shakun Batra's third directorial venture after "Ek Main Aur Ek Tu" & "Kapoor & Sons", and as in his previous ventures he has penned the script for this as well though with the company of Ayesha Devitre, Sumit Roy & Yash Sahai. It certainly seems inspired from Woody Allen's "Match Point" & looks into the complexities of relationships without merely restricting itself to a flick with superficial displays of love/lust. The intricacies of various relations and to what extent it pushes people to do the right or wrong was captured pretty well though I felt the climax could have been far better. All the technical aspects were impressive be it Kaushal Shah's frames, Savera Mehta & Kabeer Kathpalia's music and the art/costume designs.
Deepika was fantastic as Alisha as she effortlessly portrayed the various emotions that her character goes through. Equally impressive was Zain while Ananya's performance was a pleasant surprise and clearly showed that she certainly has the talent. Dhairya was ok while Naseeruddin Shah & Rajat Kapoor were commendable as expected.
Verdict: It's a type of movie that wont appeal to many people & hence it isnt surprising as to why there is a host of mixed reviews. Personally, I did enjoy as the screenplay was credible and performances were impressive. If at all there is one aspect that could have been better is the run time and it does drag quite a bit in the latter half. In short, give it a try if you dont mind watching a slow boiler on relationships!!!
Rating: 2.75/5
Regards...Ben
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