Applause Entertainment and Ellipsis Entertainment’s Do Aur Do Pyaar (UA) is the story of a married couple. Kavya (Vidya Balan) and Ani (Pratik Gandhi) are married but the love in their marriage seems to have gotten over. Kavya is a dentist while Ani looks after his father’s business. Their inter-caste marriage has not gone down well with Kavya’s family, especially her father. Anyway, Kavya finds more joy in the company of noted photographer Vikram (Sendhil Ramamurthy). Ani has also found a soulmate in Nora (Ileana D’Cruz) who is an actress by profession. Of course, the husband and wife don’t know about the other’s escapades as they are very discreet in their extra-marital affairs. Both are waiting for the right opportunity to announce divorce.
The film is based on Hollywood film The Lovers (2017). Suprotim Sengupta and Eisha A. Chopra have adapted the story and screenplay from the original. The story idea is good and different. But the adapted screenplay is so badly written that the drama simply doesn’t take off. The screenplay is so slow-moving, so verbose and so boring that the drama makes the audience wonder what the two writers want to convey. If what they want to convey is the modern times in which anyone can stray, well, they haven’t been able to say that in an engaging or interesting way. Scenes are lengthy and the talk between the characters is often so inane that the proceedings get on the viewer’s nerves. Of course, a couple of light scenes do evoke laughter but that hardly means anything when viewed in entirety. The track of Kavya’s parents coming unannounced to spend time with her and Ani in their house looks forced to create more drama. The rekindling of romance between Kavya and Ani — that too, while both of them are in extra-marital relationships — is so half-baked that it looks contrived. Kavya questioning Ani about when they were last close to one another doesn’t ring true if only because they are shown to be having sex and enjoying each other’s company just a few days before that — soon after their return from Kavya’s maternal home.
The romance in the film is far from heartwarming. Emotions fail to touch the heart. Truly entertaining light moments are few and far between. Consequently, there is nothing to hold the audience’s attention for long. Dialogues, written by Suprotim Sengupta, Amrita Bagchi and Eisha A. Chopra, are ordinary at most of the places but good at times.
Vidya Balan does a very fine job as Kavya. Her spontaneity is delightful. Pratik Gandhi shines in the role of Ani. His sense of timing is simply fantastic. Ileana D’Cruz, as Nora, acts ably. Sendhil Ramamurthy is unable to make a place for himself in the viewers’ hearts with a lacklustre performance as Vikram. Thalaivasal Vijay is wonderful as Kavya’s strict father. Rekha Kudligi is effective as Kavya’s mother, Savitri. Kumaradas T.N. (as Pulli), Hitha Chandrashekhar (as Lata), Priti Shroff (as Aditi), Dipika Pandey (as Sumi), Akshay Sharad Bhagat (as Mapuskar), S. Subrahmoniam (as Periappa), Sheela Shetty (as Sudha Athai), P. Nambi (as Ranjan Chitappa), Kamala (as Paati), Arun Ajikumar (as Surya), K. Rajan (as Krishnan Chittapa), Janhavi Jagdish Joshi (as Rama aunty), Veenah Nair (as Swati), Suma Murali Rao (as Lalita Chittapa), and the others provide decent support.
Shirsha Guha Thakurta’s direction is below the mark. She has not been able to make an entertaining fare. Music (by Lost Stories, The Local Train, Abhishek-Ananya, When Chai Met Toast and Subhajit Mukherjee) is more functional than anything else. Lyrics (Paras Thakur, The Local Train, Kunaal Verma, Trina Mukherjee, Manoj Yadav, Ankur Tewari, Abhiruchi Chand, Azazul Haque) goes with the mood of the film. Choreography (by Rajeev Surti and Shampa Gopikrishna) is average. Subhajit Mukherjee’s background music is ordinary. Kartik Vijay’s cinematography is eye-pleasing. Shailaja Sharma’s production designing is fair. Bardroy Barretto’s editing needed to be sharper.
On the whole, Do Aur Do Pyaar is too dull to create an impact. Given its poor start on the one hand and weak promotion on the other, it may remain a non-starter.
Released on 19-4-’24 at Inox (daily 4 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: so-so. Opening: weak. …….Also released all over. Opening was poor everywhere.