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Rajshri Productions (P.) Ltd. and Jio Studios’ Dono (UA) is a love story of Dev Saraf (Rajveer Deol) and Meghna Doshi (Paloma Dhillon) who meet for the first time at a wedding. Dev Saraf’s ex-girlfriend, Alina Jaisingh (Kanikka Kapur), is due to get married to Nikhil Kothari (Rohan Khurana). Nikhil’s best friend is Gaurav Shah (Aditya Nanda) who is Meghna’s ex-boyfriend. Incidentally, Alina is clueless that Dev loves her. While Dev is reluctant to attend the marriage because of the awkwardness he might feel on seeing his beloved wed another guy, Meghna is not at all apprehensive about coming face-to-face with her ex, at the wedding. On Alina’s persuasion, Dev musters courage to attend the wedding and all the pre-wedding functions. He convinces himself that his affair with Alina, even though it was one-sided, needed closure for him to move on.
Dev and Meghna meet at the pre-wedding celebrations and sparks fly. However, the love story is not simple. Gaurav tries to woo Meghna by apologising to her for having treated her very shabbily, leading to their break-up. More complications arise when Alina has second thoughts about her own marriage with Nikhil. Will Dev get his first love? Will Meghna return to Gaurav? Or will the love story of Dev and Meghna triumph?
Avnish S. Barjatya’s story is too simplistic and fails to create an impact. That’s mainly because the warmth of a love story is missing. Avnish S. Barjatya and Manu Sharma’s screenplay is dull. Inane scenes have been stretched beyond imagination so that what could’ve been said in a minute, gets conveyed through 7- or 8-minute sequences. Even that may not have been problematic had the end result of such sequences been either terrific or entertaining but the conclusion only underlines the futility of the lengthy scenes. The comic scenes are dull and rarely get a smile to the face. For instance, the lack of planning and coordination (bride’s dress, headgears, etc.) irritates the audience.
The awkwardness of Dev Saraf for attending the marriage does not touch the heart for two reasons — Alina is unaware that he loves her, and the audience is hardly let into the one-sided love story. Perhaps, the weakest part of the screenplay is that there is no heroism of Dev Saraf on exhibit. If the writers thought that the audience would laud Dev for guiding Alina in the right direction, well, that doesn’t happen for two reasons — Alina’s problem is not as massive as she makes it out to be, and the fondness of Dev for Alina hardly comes across to the audience for them to feel a lump in the throat. Similarly, the demanding nature of the bridegroom’s family is sought to be established more through dialogues rather than scenes, reducing the impact drastically. What’s more, the viewers wonder what Alina’s problem is because the things that happen with her are considered usual in marriages but nobody revolts the way she does. Also, Alina walking out mid-way through the religious ceremony doesn’t win her any brownie points. Rather, it looks outright defiant on her part and, therefore, unpardonable. Frankly, the love story tries too hard to underline that Alina’s happiness is more important than anybody and everybody else’s but that doesn’t go at all with the oh-so-cute family functions leading up to the marriage. It is clear that the writers wanted to sail in two boats — highlight the family affair that Hindu marriages are, and condemn the same, that too, on the slightest pretext, because no action of Nikhil Kothari’s family appears condemnable or disgusting. Obviously, the audience will, therefore, not approve of this dichotomy. Another drawback of the screenplay is that the viewers rarely, if ever, route for Dev and/or Meghna. That’s because although it is a love story, neither Dev nor Meghna touch the hearts of the audience so much that they would want them to unite in matrimony under any circumstances. Yes, the climax is quite nice but the entire drama leading up to the climax is drab. The duo’s dialogues are ordinary.
Before talking about performances of the actors, a word here about the casting. Since the film introduces new faces in the lead roles, the supporting cast ought to have consisted of either saleable names or fantastic actors. Neither are the faces well-known and endearing nor are the actors of a fine standard. Rajveer Deol looks quite good but makes an average debut. He needs to work harder on his dialogue delivery and general demeanour to appear more dashing and lively. Paloma Dhillon has the right attitude but her performance lacks fire. She looks quite nice in some scenes. Both, the hero and the heroine, seem to have gone through their roles as if they were doing their jobs rather than enjoying what they were doing. Kanikka Kapur does fairly well as Alina Jaisingh. Rohan Khurana is average in the role of Nikhil Kothari. Aditya Nanda has his moments as Gaurav Shah. Manik Papneja makes his presence felt as Gappu Agarwal. Suparna Marwah is earnest as Rashmi Jaisingh but she gets such an inconsequential role that even her earnestness doesn’t come in handy to impress the audience. Mohit Chauhan is so-so as Ashok Jaisingh. Micky Makhija (as Dilip Saraf) and Sonia Srivastava Verma (as Nita Saraf) lend routine support. Poojan Chhabra is dull as wedding planner Vilas Kothari. Sanjay Nath is hardly impressive as Jagmohan Kothari. Gurdeep Kohli is okay as Shilpa Kothari. Chitra Banerjee James (as Leena), Garima Agarwal (as Sumitra), Gayatri Phulwani (as Nirmala), Kuldeep Malik (as Subodh chacha), Muskan Kalyani (as young Alina) and Varun Buddhadev (as young Dev) are passable. Paintal and Tisca Chopra provide ordinary support. Others pass muster.
Avnish S. Barjatya’s direction is fair for a debut venture, but how one wishes, he had selected a more wholesome and entertaining script for his first film. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music is a mixed bag. The title song is the best. There are a couple of other melodious numbers but some songs are ordinary. Irshad Kamil’s lyrics are good. Vijay Ganguly’s choreography lacks fire. George Joseph’s background music is okay. Chirantan Das’ cinematography is appropriate. Abbas Ali Moghul’s action and stunt scenes are functional. Production designing (by Sujeet Subhash Sawant and Sriram Kannan Iyengar) is of a good standard. Shweta Venkat Mathew’s editing ought to have been tighter.
On the whole, Dono is unexciting and lacks fire. It will, therefore, go unnoticed.
Released on 5-10-’23 at Inox (1 show; in daily 2 shows from 6-10-’23) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Yash Raj Film Distributors. Publicity: quite good. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was not up to the mark at most of the places.