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A mushy tale that’s complex and relatable at the same time
It’s okay to fall in love, to want out if your marriage has reached a dead end, and it’s okay if you want to give it a second chance. Do Aur
Do Pyaar touches upon all these relationship dynamics, giving us a mushy and messy cocktail that’s high on love, sex, infidelity, betrayal and conflict.
Debut director Shirsha Guha Thakurta never explicitly underlines or tries to preach how to make a marriage work, or break it. Instead, the film explores the complexities of modern-day relationships and manages to remain relatable. Unlike films that present largerthan-life characters that look made-up, Do Aur Do Pyaar keeps everything, and everyone, genuine.
In the film, Kavya Ganeshan (Vidya Balan) and Anirudh Bannerjee (Pratik Gandhi) have been married for 12 years. In a heated argument, we see Kavya yelling that she hates Anirudh’s favourite dish ‘begun posto’ (spiced eggplant). He gives it back by throwing utensils and expressing his dislike for “stainless steel bartan”. But how did their marriage get to this point? In an earlier sequence at a resto-bar, we see Kavya telling Anirudh that it’s important to fight in order to keep a relationship alive. By that logic, they should be pretty sorted.
But it seems that both of them have extra-marital affairs and are looking for the perfect moment to come clean. While Kavya is building dreams with a hot photographer named Vikram (Sendhil Ramamurthy), Anirudh has found love in Nora aka Rosie (Ileana D’Cruz), a theatre actor who, at one point, gets pregnant with his child.
Despite their marriage no longer working, the couple somehow ends up reigniting romance in an unexpected turn of events — at a funeral. Do they regret it? Or does it help them get closer once again? And what happens to their cheating shenanigans?
Spanning 2 hours and 12 minutes, the beauty of Do Aur Do Pyaar is that it tells us the reality of relationships struggling to survive in urban landscapes. The film also briefly mentions the issue of intercaste marriage, and the portion when Kavya and Pratik visit Ooty to attend her grandfather’s funeral, we see a lot of light-hearted humour. That’s when you realise the power of nuanced writing, so full credit to Amrita Bagchi for dialogues that never sound too over-the-top, yet leave an impact.
Balan delivers a top-notch performance, and while her laughter is infectious, she is equally impressive in emotionallycharged scenes. Gandhi is a delight portraying a character that’s intense yet carefree. There’s an ease with which he brings comedy to his dialogues, and he holds his ground flawlessly in scenes with Balan. Ramamurthy brings a sense of calm to the fast-paced narrative, and his expressions do a lot more talking. D’Cruz is decent but her character arch, I felt, needed better depth and writing.
Written by Suprotim Sengupta and Eisha Chopra, the film also beautifully weaves a fatherdaughter relationship and how it goes through its own complex journey. All in all, isn’t just a satirical take on couples. It’s a bold tale that explores the rawness of relationships. Watch it for endearing performances and storytelling that’s simple yet impactful.