An Epic Love Story That Goes Tragically Wrong

For now, the problems with the film seem glaring and insurmountable. The pacing is uneven and awkward, sometimes bordering on self-destruction. Editor Praveen Kathikuloth needed to exercise a lot more discipline and austerity. Who signed Devgan and Tabu to play inseparable lovers and then wasted precious time on a prison drama where Devgan gets a chance to do what he loves: beat up bad guys and not care that the script suffers severely.

What made director Neeraj Pandey tarnish his beautiful portrait of selfless love by straying so far from the subject? It’s like investing in one movie experience and then being told that you have to move on to another for technical reasons. Auron Mein… will be remembered as one of the most self-destructive love stories ever told in a film format. At times, I felt like I had watched two movies in one. Then Pandey’s direction and screenplay (both in dire need of fumigation) got him back on track and it felt like something special from the director of Special Chabbis.

Then Neeraj Pandey would return to his irritating incompetence, dragging the Tabu-Devgan epic romance into a horribly compromised, corrupted and confusing quagmire. The biggest blow to the film’s moronic resonance was the casting of Shantanu Maheshwari and Saee Manjrekar as the younger versions of Devgan and Tabu. First of all, they look nothing like these two veteran actors. And even if they did, why cast different actors for the two separate spheres of the lovers’ lives? Surely a little photo editing would have reduced these two seasoned stalwarts to their younger selves? I know Neeraj Pandey has watched Past Lives. Hasn’t he watched The Irish Man, where Robert di Nero and Al Pacino played younger versions of themselves?

Not all the young leads in Auron Mein are bad… Maheshwari suffers commendably in the crucial prison meeting scene. But I found it hard to believe that she and Manjrekar were playing the same characters as Tabu and Devgan. Suspension of disbelief is good. But this is a fatal blunder.

The final blow to the potential brilliance of a story that has gone stubbornly off the rails is M. M Keeravani’s background score and songs. To say that Keeravani’s compositions are a disappointment would not suffice. Keeravani ruins Manoj Muntashir’s exquisite lyrics with meaningless melodies. The background score is even worse. He over-emphasises every sequence to the point of sapping the emotional impact. This is especially true of a violent flashback sequence involving young Vasudha. The sequence occurs three times in 150 minutes. Each time, Keeravani hammers home the drama with exaggerated volumes.

The theme of immortal love needed a song like Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa toh nahin. It doesn’t get anywhere close. The interlude, which features the intersectional conversation between Krishna (Devgan), Basudha (Tabu) and her husband Abhijeet (Jimmy Sheirgil), borrows liberally from the brilliant Korean film Past Lives. It’s the best part of the story with minimal extraneous interference, except for one Meenal, who repeatedly interrupts the three-way conversation between the man who ruined his life for love, the woman who let him and the man who married her.

In a film full of inconsistencies, Devgan keeps getting into character. Tabu’s face is a map of the human heart and the only time she gets a chance to showcase her talents is by poor Meenal. Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha could have been so much better without the rude cuts. I waited patiently for Tabu and Devgan to get back together after every long and difficult separation. I doubt the audience will be so tolerant.

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