Diwali’s Bitter Love Story Goes Phut: Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat
To therefore have a story of stalking and a tale of love laced there and thereabouts, is timed out hopelessly.
Starring: Harshvardhan Rane, Sonam Bajwa, Shaad Randhawa, Sachin Khedekar
Direction: Milap Zaveri
Long years ago, Milap Zaveri was inspired by Yash Chopra’s film ‘Darr’. For the latter it was a bit away from his comfort zone. This salutation to the memory of the 1993 hit is outside the comfort zone of the contemporaneous cineaste. Yes, the ’50s and the ’60s approved of an aggressive male teasing a girl into romance. I guess the likes of Rafi, O.P. Nayyar and Shankar-Jaikishan got the better of what we now construe arguably as politically incorrect. To therefore have a story of stalking and a tale of love laced there and thereabouts, is timed out hopelessly.
Sometimes art has the liberty to overcome social acceptance. Then craft gets the better of the content. Here, even more, the film falls flat. Milap continues to write reasonably well. He seems to also have the resources to launch a film and market it commercially. All this and more is wasted with ‘Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat’. There’s also the underlying drama of theatre availability in view of the competing film as a Diwali release. At the theatres, it has been a noisy choice less festival.
Vikram Aditya (Harshvardhan Rane) is a young, tyrannical hot-headed nepo kid aiming to inherit from dad Ganpatrao Bhosle (Sachin Khedekar) the office of the chief minister. Arrogance is his middle name, hooliganism his lingua franca. Abetted and encouraged by his soulmate Sanjay (Shaad Randhawa) they run amuck in the world they inhabit. When Vikram Aditya runs into popular film star Aadha Randhawa (Sonam Bajwa) he is smitten by high-voltage passion. He cannot take no for an answer. When she rejects his proposal, he decides to lay bare his fangs. She too is made of sterner stuff. An ensuing election; the stakes at the hustings; the safety of the family; and atrocious open challenge by Aadha are the many jerks to a jerky finale.
Immediately after halftime, you mistakenly walk into a Sanjay Leela Bhansali set of song, dance and exaggeration. The strained drama of defiance by Aadha, the undying passion of the hot-headed politician who is willing to go down on his knee in the name of love, is so theatrical and over the top that it often invites a guffaw or a collective scorn from the audience. This resultantly bizarre love-hate drama is a Tom and Jerry show in a huge mess of crass one-upmanship. More than the victim, it is tiring for the viewer. Yet you do not have empathy for the victim.
Sonam Bajwa is a terrible decision. It is curious how the filmmaker could have thought of her. Obviously it was the script he betted on. She pulls down the film with one of the most visible non-performances of this calendar year. She needs a lot of coaching. Her emotive skill sets play hide and seek with the camera. With the saga of suffering and challenge thrown at her, her attempts ricochet unproductively, nay, counter-productively. You are left wondering what the desperate lover sees in this near AI-driven heroine!
Harshvardhan Rana has therefore to take up the pickled script and sell it as a fresh Diwali snack. As the hot-headed politician, his attempt is half-hearted. As the lover, he is very lost, nuanced, sincere and praiseworthy. This film somehow fails to work primarily because the characteristic male is simply out of fashion. Sonam Bajwa is simply and logically not worth the passion. The weakest link in the chain. Finally, there is more chaos than passion in this bitter love story.
