Do Aur Do Pyaar Cast/ Actors: Vidya Balan as Kavya Ganeshan, Sendhil Ramamurthy as Vikram Sehgal, Ileana D’Cruz as Nora and Pratik Gandhi as Anirudh Banerjee.
Do Aur Do Pyaar Director: Shirsha Guha Thakurta
Do Aur Do Pyaar Release Date: April 19, 2024
Do Aur Do Pyaar Available On: Theatrical Release (likely to be released on Disney+ Hotstar)
Do Aur Do Pyaar Released/ Available In Languages: Hindi
Do Aur Do Pyaar Runtime: 139 Minutes
Do Aur Do Pyaar Critic Review:
Director Shirsha Guha Thakurta strikes an amusing opening note with a Groucho Marx quote on marriage being a wonderful institution. “But who wants to live in an institution?”
After fifteen years of marriage (and three years of dating before that), Kavya Ganeshan (Vidya Balan) and Anirudh Banerjee (Pratik Gandhi) certainly don’t want to stick around in the institution. She’s in a secret relationship with heartthrob photographer Vikram Sehgal (Senthil Ramamurthy). She’s even taken him house-hunting but hasn’t found the right moment to break it to husband Ani.
Ani’s been busy too, with girlfriend Nora (Ileana D’Cruz). And he hasn’t found the right moment either.
Unfortunately, despite three writers, Amrita Bagchi, Eisha Chopra and Suprotim Sengupta on board, what should’ve been a breezy, refreshing, romantic comedy turns into a flat, verbose affair.
He’s in the cork business – get it? Shrisha repeats it several times to emphasise how cork sounds like a word with a double meaning that should have you rolling with laughter. Not experiencing an orgasm is referred to as, “Lottery nahi lagi”. It’s that kindergarten childish.
If the humour is dosa-flat (Ganeshan is from the south, you know), the tense drama with her family is as stale as last week’s begun posto (a dish Ani keeps making). In today’s times, an educated south Indian family being frosty with Kavya for marrying a perfectly normal Bengali boy is inexplicable. Especially if they’ve been dating for three years in the same city before being forced to elope fifteen years ago. Kavya’s tension with her father is therefore forced.
Other situations that are just not seamless: in such an icy atmosphere, Ani voluntarily accompanying Kavya to Ooty when her grandfather passes away, Kavya’s male cousin showing Avi to the washroom which sets off one non-comic interlude and one bout of non-comprehensible indignation from Kavya’s father, Kavya-Avi sneaking off on a date, drinking, dancing, kissing and ending up in bed, Kavya’s parents dropping in unannounced on their way to America, Kavya’s eternally-frowning father visiting her clinic. The entire relationship between Kavya and her parents is one big question mark for its outdatedness.
The premise had the germ of a funny romance especially when the married couple start finding each other desirable and begin to cheat on their respective lovers. What’s nice is the unconventional way Kavya and Avi find out about each other’s extra-marital relationship though Nora’s piano-gift was neither here nor there.
The ultimate showdown between Kavya and Avi doesn’t ring true. Kavya saying they haven’t shared much together is misplaced since they’ve just rediscovered their old chemistry. The discussion on how Avi changed after his father’s death is also strange since she as his wife would’ve been a part of his familial journey.
Apart from each of the four main characters taking turns to be verbose, background songs like ‘Do kinare alag huye’ barely have you invested in the Kavya-Avi separation.
When there are performers of the calibre of Vidya Balan and Pratik Gandhi leading the cast, you can only feel wistful and say, what a missed opportunity.
PS: Wish Pratik had been groomed better in his first mainstream outing.
Do Aur Do Pyaar – Watch Or Not?: It’s the kind of film that should’ve gone directly to an OTT platform.
Do Aur Do Pyaar Review Score Rating: 2.5 out of 5 (i.e. 2.5/5)
Do Aur Do Pyaar Official Trailer:
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