1.5 stars
Devika Bhagat, who's first job was that of a post-production intern for Monsoon Wedding (2001), came to light as the first & second assistant director in 2005's Tibetan language debut feature film, Dreaming Lhasa, and 2004's American-German action & spy film, The Bourne Supremacy, respectively. She then ventured out to explore the world of Indian small screen as storywriter in one of Star Channels make-believe horror show Darna Mana Hai: Season 1, Episode 4 -- Machine Age (6 November 2005). She continued her writing streak with Bollywood movies a la Manorama Six Feet Under (2007) (story & screenplay), Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) (screenplay), Aisha (2010) ((dialogue/screenplay), Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl (screenplay) (2011), Jab Tak Hai Jaan (screenplay) (2012), I, Me aur Main (story) (2013) to the latest outing ONE BY TWO (dialogue/story and screenplay), adding one more feather to her cap with this movie -- Direction. Abhay Deol, who's predominantly considered very selective/experimentative for picking & choosing his assignments, is teaming up with his real-life girlfriend actress Preeti Desai (who made her film debut with Raj Nidimoru and DK Krishna's Shor in the City, which was released on April 2011, opposite Indian-American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy) for this light-hearted coming of age true-blue romcom, produced by Amit Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, Vikram Khakhar and Abhay Deol, under the banner of Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, i.e. films and Cynozure Networkz. His last solo hero film was Aisha (2010) and he's returning to true-blue romcom genre almost a decade after his debut film Socha Na Tha (2005). Now that he is also turning a producer with this flick, the film is important for Abhay to a great degree.
Amit Sharma (Abhay Deol), a man of devil-may-care attitude, has given into the mundane and has no qualms about leading a monotonous life whatsoever. He is disconcerted of the good boy tag. Adding to his woes, his girlfriend Radhika (Geetika Tyagi) dumps him on account of his uneventful life for a more successful person. On the other hand, Samara Patel (Preeti Desai), a British citizen residing in India with her separated single mother Kalpana Patel (Lillete Dubey), aspires to be a famous dancer but can't search for an opportunity apropos to displaying her skills and eventually looses her spur and confidence. They both fell short of go-getter attitude to take another step closer to their ultimate dreams. Destiny brings them together behind their back and how they manage to rediscover themselves, forms the crux of the story.
The story (Devika Bhagat) is sophisticated metropolitan yet simple. It is *not* the typical cliched Bollywood romantic tales. Here the two leads' paths cross umpteen times but they don't get to know each other face-to-face right until the climax, yet they are influenced/inspired by each other's mindsets about real life.The characters are well-etched, realists and substantial. The intricate undertone of uncertainities or the psyche of the young i.e. lack of fellow feeling, despair, growing up issues and failed career preferences, are competently woven into the narrative. The dialogues (Devika Bhagat and Manoj Tapadia) too aren't preachy and are amusingly contemporaneous, which make the agony of youth palpable. Kudos to Devika for thinking out-of-the-box and for her direction! She is aptly supported by Sameer Arya's cinematography, which captures the vivid metropolitan with virtuosity and Mustafa Stationwala's production design, which thoroughly adds lustre and catches attention of the youths promptly. Eka Lakhani's costumes and Sher Bahadur Singh's makeup/hairstyling are hodiernal.
But the execution (screenplay: Devika Bhagat) is sheer complicated. Devika packs quite a lot in the film, owing to which the movie becomes off-kilter. The pace too, is lethargic and the length (editor: Shan Mohammed) is overdrawn. The second half of the film is a complete mess. The writer loses the grip on beating around the bush with sloppy/detached sequences coming up in succession, which makes the narration boring/tedious/emotionless/flat. The film hardly moves and seems like a TV dance competition show, because of Preeti's dancing sequences (choreography: Ashley Lobo) hither and thither. The viewers will be bored to death right upto the climax. Though the lyrics, penned by poet par excellence Amitabh Bhattacharya, are synchronous, amusing and intense, the music by the eminently dexterous trio Shankar Mahadevan-Ehsaan Noorani-Loy Mendonsa doesn't live up to the expectations. "I’m just pakaoed" (singer: Siddharth Mahadevan) is a rebellious track that represents today's pakaau zindagi but is more of a shriek and less of singing. "Kaboom" (singer: Anushka Manchanda) is a little too 'girlie' track. "Baat kya hai"'s (singer: Clinton Cerejo) introspective tune/lyrics are good enough to make listeners think but otherwise it's a sad track. "Khushfehmiyan"'s (singer: Shankar Mahadevan) heavy percussion-laden arrangement alongwith intoxicating lyrics make this one a melodic piece. The Unplugged version is dull. The retro jazz flavour of "Sheher Mera" (singer: Thomson Andrews) alongwith some lovely whistling makes this Mumbaiyaa track okeydokey. "Khuda na khaasta" (singer: Arijit Singh) is aptly supported by lovely melody and is an addictive piece. Tubby-Parik's background score is strictly okay.
The roles of Amit & Samara are tailor-made for Abhay Deol and Preeti Desai respectively. Abhay delves deep into the skin of a lax, confused guy with utmost ease and enacts his part with verve. Preeti Desai brings freshness in her character. Her dance moves are prepossessing. Her acting is neck and neck with Abhay's, consummately. She's supremely confident. This is her career best performance so far (casting director: Panchami Ghavri). Lillete Dubey, Rati Agnihotri, Jayant Kriplani, Anish Trivedi, Geetika Tyagi, Preetika Chawla, Tahir Bhasin, Yudhishtir Urs, Maya Sarao, Netrapal "He-Ra" Singh, Yashika Dhillon and Diwakar Pundir are expansive, truly. Actors of caliber Darshan Jariwala and Ragesh B. Asthana, are wasted consummately.
Before bringing this review to a close, I would like to say that Devika Bhagat's talent to have come up with such out-of-the-box story is brilliant, to say the least. Bravo! But it's the batty screenplay, that plays the spoilsport, which is far from romance, pain, joy, sorrow and sympathy but sleep. The intriguing moments are few & far between. Overall, it's a dreary effort.
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/reviews/somesh-sinha-one-by-two/rd24267md3260.htm#.Uut032Td_WQ.facebook
Devika Bhagat, who's first job was that of a post-production intern for Monsoon Wedding (2001), came to light as the first & second assistant director in 2005's Tibetan language debut feature film, Dreaming Lhasa, and 2004's American-German action & spy film, The Bourne Supremacy, respectively. She then ventured out to explore the world of Indian small screen as storywriter in one of Star Channels make-believe horror show Darna Mana Hai: Season 1, Episode 4 -- Machine Age (6 November 2005). She continued her writing streak with Bollywood movies a la Manorama Six Feet Under (2007) (story & screenplay), Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) (screenplay), Aisha (2010) ((dialogue/screenplay), Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl (screenplay) (2011), Jab Tak Hai Jaan (screenplay) (2012), I, Me aur Main (story) (2013) to the latest outing ONE BY TWO (dialogue/story and screenplay), adding one more feather to her cap with this movie -- Direction. Abhay Deol, who's predominantly considered very selective/experimentative for picking & choosing his assignments, is teaming up with his real-life girlfriend actress Preeti Desai (who made her film debut with Raj Nidimoru and DK Krishna's Shor in the City, which was released on April 2011, opposite Indian-American actor Sendhil Ramamurthy) for this light-hearted coming of age true-blue romcom, produced by Amit Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, Vikram Khakhar and Abhay Deol, under the banner of Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, i.e. films and Cynozure Networkz. His last solo hero film was Aisha (2010) and he's returning to true-blue romcom genre almost a decade after his debut film Socha Na Tha (2005). Now that he is also turning a producer with this flick, the film is important for Abhay to a great degree.
Amit Sharma (Abhay Deol), a man of devil-may-care attitude, has given into the mundane and has no qualms about leading a monotonous life whatsoever. He is disconcerted of the good boy tag. Adding to his woes, his girlfriend Radhika (Geetika Tyagi) dumps him on account of his uneventful life for a more successful person. On the other hand, Samara Patel (Preeti Desai), a British citizen residing in India with her separated single mother Kalpana Patel (Lillete Dubey), aspires to be a famous dancer but can't search for an opportunity apropos to displaying her skills and eventually looses her spur and confidence. They both fell short of go-getter attitude to take another step closer to their ultimate dreams. Destiny brings them together behind their back and how they manage to rediscover themselves, forms the crux of the story.
The story (Devika Bhagat) is sophisticated metropolitan yet simple. It is *not* the typical cliched Bollywood romantic tales. Here the two leads' paths cross umpteen times but they don't get to know each other face-to-face right until the climax, yet they are influenced/inspired by each other's mindsets about real life.The characters are well-etched, realists and substantial. The intricate undertone of uncertainities or the psyche of the young i.e. lack of fellow feeling, despair, growing up issues and failed career preferences, are competently woven into the narrative. The dialogues (Devika Bhagat and Manoj Tapadia) too aren't preachy and are amusingly contemporaneous, which make the agony of youth palpable. Kudos to Devika for thinking out-of-the-box and for her direction! She is aptly supported by Sameer Arya's cinematography, which captures the vivid metropolitan with virtuosity and Mustafa Stationwala's production design, which thoroughly adds lustre and catches attention of the youths promptly. Eka Lakhani's costumes and Sher Bahadur Singh's makeup/hairstyling are hodiernal.
But the execution (screenplay: Devika Bhagat) is sheer complicated. Devika packs quite a lot in the film, owing to which the movie becomes off-kilter. The pace too, is lethargic and the length (editor: Shan Mohammed) is overdrawn. The second half of the film is a complete mess. The writer loses the grip on beating around the bush with sloppy/detached sequences coming up in succession, which makes the narration boring/tedious/emotionless/flat. The film hardly moves and seems like a TV dance competition show, because of Preeti's dancing sequences (choreography: Ashley Lobo) hither and thither. The viewers will be bored to death right upto the climax. Though the lyrics, penned by poet par excellence Amitabh Bhattacharya, are synchronous, amusing and intense, the music by the eminently dexterous trio Shankar Mahadevan-Ehsaan Noorani-Loy Mendonsa doesn't live up to the expectations. "I’m just pakaoed" (singer: Siddharth Mahadevan) is a rebellious track that represents today's pakaau zindagi but is more of a shriek and less of singing. "Kaboom" (singer: Anushka Manchanda) is a little too 'girlie' track. "Baat kya hai"'s (singer: Clinton Cerejo) introspective tune/lyrics are good enough to make listeners think but otherwise it's a sad track. "Khushfehmiyan"'s (singer: Shankar Mahadevan) heavy percussion-laden arrangement alongwith intoxicating lyrics make this one a melodic piece. The Unplugged version is dull. The retro jazz flavour of "Sheher Mera" (singer: Thomson Andrews) alongwith some lovely whistling makes this Mumbaiyaa track okeydokey. "Khuda na khaasta" (singer: Arijit Singh) is aptly supported by lovely melody and is an addictive piece. Tubby-Parik's background score is strictly okay.
The roles of Amit & Samara are tailor-made for Abhay Deol and Preeti Desai respectively. Abhay delves deep into the skin of a lax, confused guy with utmost ease and enacts his part with verve. Preeti Desai brings freshness in her character. Her dance moves are prepossessing. Her acting is neck and neck with Abhay's, consummately. She's supremely confident. This is her career best performance so far (casting director: Panchami Ghavri). Lillete Dubey, Rati Agnihotri, Jayant Kriplani, Anish Trivedi, Geetika Tyagi, Preetika Chawla, Tahir Bhasin, Yudhishtir Urs, Maya Sarao, Netrapal "He-Ra" Singh, Yashika Dhillon and Diwakar Pundir are expansive, truly. Actors of caliber Darshan Jariwala and Ragesh B. Asthana, are wasted consummately.
Before bringing this review to a close, I would like to say that Devika Bhagat's talent to have come up with such out-of-the-box story is brilliant, to say the least. Bravo! But it's the batty screenplay, that plays the spoilsport, which is far from romance, pain, joy, sorrow and sympathy but sleep. The intriguing moments are few & far between. Overall, it's a dreary effort.
first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com/reviews/somesh-sinha-one-by-two/rd24267md3260.htm#.Uut032Td_WQ.facebook
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