New Delhi: The initial box office reports of Kunal Kohli's 'Teri Meri Kahaani' suggest that the film is not going to mint money. The Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra starrer was made at an approximate budget of Rs 30 crore, and despite good overseas collection, it's probably not going to set the cash register ringing for more than a week. For common movie enthusiasts, the film doesn't work at certain levels, and it's been reflected in the critics' opinions too.
'Mausam' demonstrated that Shahid Kapoor tries but he needs help from rest of the star cast. 'Teri Meri Kahaani' seems to operate at two different levels, when it comes to the chemistry between the lead couple. Priyanka might have poured her heart and soul while shooting for the film, but her celluloid expressions are not exactly as feminine as she wanted to showcase. First story where she plays a renowned Hindi film actress Rukhsar appears fake, mostly because of her reluctance to achieve the correct understanding of the 1960s society. Kunal Kohli captures the essence of 'Bombay' in Charlie Chaplin style chapter-wise presentation, but his heroine fails to bring up the gritty-yet-vulnerable female alive on the screen. Her way of wrapping 'dupatta' around her finger materialises as a caricature gesture.
Though the lead pair had very few scenes together in 'Kaminey', still the chemistry was effervescent. 'TMK' in spite of them being together in almost every scene, couldn't live up to the expectations.
Leave aside the similarities with the Taiwanese film 'Three Times', 'TMK' doesn't reciprocate to the audience's demand of imaginative plots. Apart from the culture specific background score, it couldn't boast of many sparkling ingredients. A tale of love and passion reduces to the parade of flashy clothes and mindless dance sequences. A sequence where Javed Quadri (played by Shahid) steals keys from a guard and starts to sing and dance inside a jail, is not only forced but also a mockery of the spectator's intelligence. Equal number of women assist men in overtly colourful dresses in this song where guards re-enter the jail exactly when the song starts to fade. 'Sholay' is difficult to forget after all.
The conflict in the screenplay is not concrete. The temporal sense gets a hammer when you find the same mannerism in different space and time zones. Three stories in 120 minutes, basically forty minutes per story, the film could have shown how the life has complicated over the years, but Kunal Kohli kept it short and glossy.
A love story with oodles of charm and corny dialogue couldn't be expected to become a visual poetry. The premise of the film looks ignorant towards Shakespeare's philosophies, to whom the director has dedicated at least 5 minutes. There is no harm in making a 'destiny and love' kind of story, but innovation only can make it sustain for more than 24 hours in the audience's memory.
Other than Shahid, Neha Sharma fits in the character of an over caring girlfriend. Her vigour adds a little colour, but the idea of naming characters as Krish, Meera and Radha doesn't go down well, simply because of the historical references these names bring along.
One can overlook clean shaven chest and steps cut hairdo in 1910, but confused screenplay makes small mistakes look like glaring blunders. Simplistic and predictable resolution leaves the film wandering in a no man's land.
The depth in the love stories is missing, so is the importance of love in the characters' lives. Everything from the characters to the costumes gets mixed up to from a shallow candyfloss romance. Not that romance means highly fantasised day dreaming, but it should move the audience at least. 'Teri Meri Kahaani' keeps the viewer at a distance and that's probably its biggest fault.####
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