Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha Review: Plot - Krishna (Ajay Devgn/Shantanu Maheshwari) is a migrant in Mumbai in 2001, where he falls in love with a girl named Vasudha (Tabu/Saiee Manjrekar). One tragic night and a hunger for vengeance led to Krishna being imprisoned for 25 years. Will Vasu wait for him or move on? The man hopes to find her outside the prison when he walks out free, but he also deep down knows she won't be there. When they come face to face, they address the demons from the past and the love that has been unrequited.

Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha Review: Analysis

It is always part thrilling and part risky when a filmmaker who has found a niche in a genre jumps into a completely different genre to make a film and mounts it on a scale where he reunites two actors who have built a legacy together for their partnership. There is so much that stands on uncertain waters because the said filmmaker is entering an alien territory that has its own stalwarts and prime examples of finesse. Imagine a filmmaker who has found his comfort spot in thrillers, espionage, and con dramas suddenly making an out-and-out romantic movie where he doesn't scale borders, fire guns, or even have a secret agent or spy lurking. Well, don't imagine, because it has happened for real with Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha, directed by Neeraj Pandey.

Written by Pandey himself, Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha is very exciting on paper. Now imagine telling your friends a story that reunites two lovers after almost two and a half decades, where one has moved on at another's request and time wasn't really just for the one who faced the consequence. There is so much pain, anger, and unfulfilled desire for love—two roaring youngsters turned into adults who now have responsibility and know nothing is the same between them.  

So when you see Tabu and Ajay Devgn saying yes to this script as their tenth reunion (which is iconic and cannot happen in today's day and age so easily), you know why they made this choice. But then it also needs to be translated on the screen, and that is where the movie starts losing the thrill it promises on paper.

Now, Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha borrows from many movies we have seen over the years and kind of makes a concoction that eventually leads you to a climax that cannot be revealed (also, you will predict it in the first half). There is a lot of Sapta Sagaradaache Ello in the film (if you haven't seen the iconic 2023 Malayalam movie series, what are you even doing with your life?). So this is not really a very novel idea, and there is no problem with that because eventually love stories end up following a mold most of the time, and that is okay. It is on the filmmaker to look at these characters and where they go in the end. But the problem in Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha exactly begins at this point.

It is a clueless mix of things that is disjointed and doesn't really know or care about where it is leading to. This is Neeraj Pandey trying to be an Imtiaz Ali by jumping back and forth in the timeline so wildly that it expects a lot of patience from the audience. It is a plot device Ali has mastered, but Pandey makes it look like a messy affair with no start, middle, or end. The way the chapters are placed makes the screenplay too predictable and even borderline boring because you have seen the twist coming from miles away if you have seen enough Bollywood movies. Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha never really becomes the dramatic love story that will hit the emotional core because it never takes the crescendo to the screaming heights as its background score intends to.

Shantanu Maheshwari as young Krishna is an actor who has finally gotten a spotlight and he is not ready to share it. He becomes the soul of the film, for whatever is left of it. Maheshwari does all the heavy lifting in a movie that has Tabu, and that works both as a compliment and a wake-up call to the writing team. The rest of the cast does their job as expected. Ajay Devgn continues to give the same reactions with a different look (I wish he realized he did the surreal Raincoat too; bring that Ajay back). He comes out for the first time from prison after 23 years, his reaction to the entire changed world is a plain, reactionless face. Why is he not shocked by cars, technology, or the skyscrapers even? Tabu doesn't really have the moment to hold all of it in her tight grip here. Saiee Manjrekar is growing in a good direction, and this needs to continue.

Meanwhile, whoever was on the production team, we need to talk. How does Ajay call someone in Dubai with a basic phone with no internet? Marine Drive was renovated in 2012, and the 2001 version of it was different. Bandra Worli Sealink’s foundation stone was laid in 2000 but was not almost completed in 2001. Also, who will take the efforts to dress up the actors used as fillers in the frame era appropriately? Why does Tabu live in Hotel St. Regis because there are no efforts to make it look like a ‘home’ and it is so clearly visible. I am not even going into details about how the visual department didn't even care about the supreme high-rise building being visible in the 2001 part of the story in a scene.

The background music by the legendary M.M Keeravani is soothing minus the track sung by Jubin Nautiyal that plays more times than one can bear. It has Sunidhi Chauhan too, so we are saved for a bit. But the background score is the most spoon-feeding one in recent years. It tries to tell the viewer what to feel about and for these characters every single minute. It goes like, ‘Hey see he is emotional, let's play a dramatic tone that overpowers the dialogue even.’ DOP Sudhir Palsane tries to be playful with the camera work because you can see him trying to include long shots and very interesting handheld shots that do introduce good drama to the scenes.

Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha Review: Final Verdict

The Ajay Devgn and Tabu starrer is too surface-level to be a soul-stirring love story and too messy and disjointed to be a drama that can keep its story and crescendo in sync. Neeraj Pandey’s attempt at romance is inspired by many others but also very bland if you look at it. Also, why is the film titled Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha?

Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha hits the big screen on August 2, 2024. Stay tuned to Mobile Masala for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.

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