Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha Review

Only in the final scenes between Krishna and Vasudha, two lovers reuniting after two decades, does Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha hint at what it could have been. By then it is too little, too late. Over the previous two hours, Krishna's imprisonment is revealed through a slow, flashback-heavy narrative. Now as Krishna (Ajay Devgn) and Vasudha (Tabu) meet to say their peace, Vasundha's husband, Abhijeet (Jimmy Shiergill), watches from the balcony of their seaside penthouse, feeling the sting of insecurity. It is like a scene missing from Sapta Saagara Dhaache Ello, a Kannada film about lovers who are separated when one is incarcerated. And it has faint echoes of the critically acclaimed film Past Lives. But the resemblances are passing at best. Tonally and emotionally, Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha falls far short of both, and fails even to measure up to writer-director Neeraj Pandey's previous work.

Pandey, known for his crafty thrillers with complicated screenplays, seems at sea in the realm of romance. And he often reaches back to familiar thriller tricks to string together the film's flimsy story beats. Krishna's first day as a free man is a trip down memory lane wherein he revisits his old haunts, but really it is an excuse to cut back to frequent flashbacks of Krishna and Vasudha's love story. It is the usual romantic fare: a boy falls for a beautiful neighbour (Shantanu Maheshwari and Saiee Manjrekar play the younger versions) and serenades her along the Mumbai coastline. Together they dream big dreams and promise to never be part until a fateful night blows up their lives. What may have been said in five minutes takes fifty, and gets told piecemeal across several flashbacks including one with a beautifully rendered but artlessly choreographed love song.

When the premise runs out of steam - after the romance has been explored and the inciting incident has been expounded - it then jarringly shifts into a semi-action thriller set inside the prison. This flashback supposedly clarifies why Krishna is shown as a fearsome and well-respected prisoner. And why a rich businessman in Dubai owes him a favour and is helping him set up a new life. But by then you've already made your own guesses and moved on to other questions. Auron...'s insistence on answering the wrong questions or answering them at the wrong time is why it often feels out-of-step with your expectations.

In another nod to Pandey's background in making thrillers, the film revisits the night of the Big Incident over and over again, each time revealing new details as if it were a complex puzzle. Any discerning moviegoer may have guessed the "twist" that the film is building up - the twist that is neither all-too-shocking or even necessary. What we are curious about is not what happened that night, but what will happen now - between Abhijeet, Krishna and Vasudha. But Pandey's script is stuck retelling a stale incident, the consequences of which have already played out in such obvious terms.

Most punishing of the film's flaws, though, is Sudheer Palsane's cinematography style of relentless zoom-in or pans. God forbid there be a moment of stillness; the camera flits around the young lovers like a mosquito. In another crucial scene between Abhijeet and Krishna, the camera creates an ill-suited confrontational atmosphere by nauseatingly flipping back and forth between the two men.

M M Kreem's achingly beautiful melodies are among the few elements of the film that tether it to its romantic roots. Because between the frantic camera angles and the unfocused screenplay the film often feels unmoored from its premise.

There is a sense that there is a richer, more poignant story underneath the one that Pandey chooses to tell. And that is never more obvious than when Tabu is on screen. You want to know much more about the interiority of her character - not just because Tabu brings such nuance and depth to her portrayal of someone whose career as a successful businesswoman was built on the sacrifice of another person. But her that side of the story is never told.

It should have been Ajay Devgn's film, but Tabu steals it from under him, her gravitational pull so consuming that it is easy to see why Krishna loves Vasundha - no explanations needed. Devgn's all-purpose steely-eyed look gives the film some gravitas, but isn't this the usual stuff we've seen in every film of his? Instead, Shantanu Maheshwari, who plays young Krishna, gives a breakout performance as a charming love-struck young man.

Puzzlement is a key emotion you feel when watching Auron... The film's midway tonal shifts and excessive explanations only muddy its themes. Pandey repeatedly attempts to blend his dramatic sensibilities with the charm of a mature romance, but his attempts end up weighing the film down and ultimately sinking it.