Movie Review – Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha by Suhel Johar
Watching Ek
Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha Is A
Mind Numbing Experience.
There have been countless instances of
filmmakers/actors who have launched their own child in their films. Many films
out of these were well-made and even the star-kid turned out to be very
talented. On the other hand, there have been star-kids that turned out to be
miserable in their launch pads, mostly produced or directed by daddy dearest.
Many of them don’t see the writing on the wall and keep on making films with
their son in lead in successive films. Suneel Darshan goes the similar path and
re-launches his son Shiv Darshan in Ek
Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha after the disastrous Karle Pyar Karle (2014). You must have seen several bizarre films
in the past but this goes way beyond your imagination! What does one say about
a film that does nothing at all to you, that doesn’t even give you a headache
to register its painful presence?
With the exception of debutante Natasha Fernandez, all
the major names in the credits are of men making a comeback: producer-director
Suneel Darshan, lead actor Shiv Darshan, Upen Patel and music composer Nadeem
Saifi, the man who, with creative partner Shravan, held sway over the Bollywood
music scene in the 1990s.
The story of Ek
Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha goes
like this; Natasha (Natasha Fernandez) is all set to get married to her best
friend Sunny (Upen Patel). She wishes to get married in the family’s ancestral
mansion, which recently got free of legal complications. The mansion at one
point saw a shocking tragedy happen with Natasha’s maternal grandmother. The
moment Natasha sets foot in the palatial home, she feels as if she’s been here
before. At the mansion stable, she comes across the caretaker Dev (Shiv
Darshan). His mysterious persona and his ‘shayaris’ attract her instantly. He
makes her believe they are lovers who were separated in their previous birth.
She falls in love with him which saddens Sunny since he loves Natasha deeply and
their marriage was just a month away. Confusion abounds as the film progresses
and the resultant complications throw all three into an emotional vortex that
goes back and forth between the tense and the intense without making any sense.
You’ve guessed it, it isn’t a pretty spectacle.
Ungainly ghosts from the past ride on the shoulders of the Haseena and the
Deewana. But the ghost element is treated in a juvenile way.
It isn’t any surprise that Ek Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha
does not have anything new to offer? Bizarre is the only word that comes in
mind when asked to describe this film in one word. All the major developments
in the plot defy logic and common sense. In our world, when something strange
or predictable happens around us, our first instinct is to ask ‘How did that
happen.’ Well, that’s not the case in the world in which the film is set. The
robotic acting all around only makes matters worse.
There’s a twist at the interval point that does
catch viewers unawares but soon enough, the stupidity takes over that again
takes the film down. The narrative gets even stranger as the film passes. This
tests patience, despite the fact that the film is just 105 minutes long.
Another twist is unveiled in the climax and it’s shockingly pathetic. How it
got passed by the makers is astonishing.
The film is shoved in the direction of loads of
mumbo-jumbo about unrequited love, treachery and a wandering spirit determined
to claim what was found and lost in a previous birth.
The white cops in this movie speak fluent Hindi,
however the Indian hijackers still struggle to speak ‘pounds’ (in their ransom
call, they say “usse zinda dekhna chaahte ho toh 1 million ponds leke aao”).
Suneel Darshan, the director of the film, also to be
blamed for the story (confusing and senseless) and script (with additional
screenplay by Akash Deep), had a dignified purpose to relaunch his son in this
movie. However that does not transform into a tale worth enduring or a movie
worth suffering. In spite of its crisp runtime of 105 minutes, the film appears
like a million-hours-long. Suneel Darshan’s direction is at his worst. He was
never the best of directors but still he has given some decent masala films.
The dialogues by Kushal Ved Bakshi and Uddeept Dutt
Gaur are horrible and raise unintentional laughs throughout the film. Cinematography
by Amarjeet Singh is decent. Editing by Archit D Rastogi is okay considering the
material he had to work on. Nadeem’s music is beautiful and melodious in a film
that surely did not deserve it.
Performance wise, Shiv Darshan can’t act and this
was proved with his debut film itself, Karle
Pyar Karle. Even here, he’s unable to perform despite trying very hard. His
expressions are weird in scenes where he’s supposed to cry. Often, when actors
mouth ‘shayaris’, they are lapped up but the exact opposite happens when Shiv
does it and he mouths too many of them. Newcomer Natasha Fernandez is decent.
She has potential but goes overboard in this and fails to infuse any freshness
with her presence. Natasha Fernandez is clearly in need of brushing up her
emoting skills and dialogue delivery before she has another go at a substantial
screen role. Upen Patel does better than the two but even he’s let down by a hackneyed
script. Lalit Mohan Tiwari, Soni Kaur, Krishan Tandon, Sam Mahajan, Dimppy
Ramdayal, Jon Abraham, Alex Macaulay and
Rumi Khan form the unimpressive supporting cast of the film.
On the whole, Ek
Haseena Thi Ek Deewana Tha is
one
of the worst films you will see in your life that does not deserve your time
and money.
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