Gehraiyaan Movie Review: Match lost

GehraiyaanOn Amazon Prime VideoDir Shakun BatraCast Deepika Padukone Ananya Panday Siddhant ChaturvediRating 15I WATCHED Gehraiyaan after a long day at work on Friday night I didnt need for it to be a perfect movie but I wished it was going to be entertaining heartfelt and gripping The only expectations I was going in with was that I had liked director Shakun Batras work on the documentary about Ma Sheelas trip to India and that the trailers and glimpses of the movie had made me hopeful about Padukone and Chaturvedis chemistry I also hoped that we were finally talking about modernday dysfunctional relationships and what we do to make ourselves feel loved againIt was neither of the things I had wished for it to beAn hour into the movie I had a nagging feeling in my brain that I had witnessed the whole plot somewhere before And then it came like a bolt It was inspired by Woody Allens 2005 movie Match Point starring Scarlett Johansson Jonathan Rhys Meyers Emily Mortimer and Matthew Goode The plot of this underrated gem is loosely something like this Tennis coach Meyers strikes a friendship with wealthy boy Goode and then starts dating his sister Mortimer He eventually gets a job at Mortimers fathers company and they get married At a party he also meets Johansson who is dating Goode and they are attracted to each other They begin an affair and sleep together after Johansson is livid after a fight with Goodes mother who has a problem with her job as a struggling actor They thus begin a torrid affair Johansson eventually breaks up with Goode but gets pregnant by Myers She calls him in the middle of a family outing to tell him that Myers cant risk getting his perfect life upset by an affair What happens next as Myers is easy to predict with Myers killing off Johansson and somehow with a stroke of luck that throws the detectives off as well getting on with lifeNow if you have already watched the movie then the similarities will strike you right away The only tweaks are made to the endings and who is killed off And of course there is a back story given to Padukone Pandey and Chaturvedis characters to make them seem the sum of their past and parents mistakes But it doesnt translate in anyone other than maybe Padukone Chaturvedi as steamy as he may be as Zain and as much as he was a hit as Sher in Gully Boy cant grapple with the complexities of being a manipulative conniving complex yet charming yet confused flawed and yet beautiful boynotyetaman we needed him to be Hes fails at the F boy trope without the soul and the motivation the character needs He seems less attractive as the movie progresses thanks to his fumbling and we wonder why two women are ready to change their life for this loser We need a man we could hate but we also couldnt help but love And thats not ChaturvediPandey tries her best but her character looks worried all through out and we dont see her motivation for hanging on to Zain She feels hollow and I didnt end up empathising with her at all or even relating to her And as far as Karan played by Dhairya Karwa who essays the character of Padukones boyfriend well except the two jokes he cracks I couldnt care if he was there in the movie or notPadukone makes us feel for her even though at one point we wonder how a smart and gorgeous yoga instructor can have such bad luck with men Well then yes the back story comes into playyou get the love you think you deserve and all that In the last hour when she cries she makes us feel her helplessness But why does she cry for Zain Or care that she is pregnant with his baby I really dont know The fact that the director never goes into the details of why the couple falls in love other than through beach montages set to indie music is sorely a minus Their chemistry wears off soon enough But the main problem I have with this movie is that its inspired to the point that the line between a direct copy and inspiration is pretty blurred And if it had to be done that way I wish Batra would have got his own sensibilities and humour to the screenplay It aims to be conversational like Woody Allens movies are but it desperately lacks humour which Allen has a skill for His characters usually drop truth bombs about life in a poetic funny way that we are left smirking ya this is what life is like If it was meant to pay homage to Match Point then like Match Point it should have been an eerie thriller that keeps us guessing till the last moment But it dillies and dallies and floats and tries to be like a wave that comes and goes Nope Didnt workMy favourite two minutes of the movie is the final two minutes When Padukones character realises that she cant move on even if she wants toWell we can thankfully To another movie To another TV show

Gehraiyaan Movie Review: Match lost

Gehraiyaan
On: Amazon Prime Video
Dir: Shakun Batra
Cast: Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday, Siddhant Chaturvedi
Rating: 1/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / Gehraiyaan Movie Review: Match lost

Gehraiyaan Movie Review: Match lost

GehraiyaanOn: Amazon Prime VideoDir: Shakun BatraCast: Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday, Siddhant ChaturvediRating: 1/5

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Gehraiyaan
On: Amazon Prime Video
Dir: Shakun Batra
Cast: Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday, Siddhant Chaturvedi
Rating: 1/5