Director: Devika Bhagat
Cast: Abhay Deol, Preeti Desai, Rati Agnihotri and Darshan Zariwala
They used to serve a bowl of soup, one by two. Now they serve a bowl of cinematic goulash in the same portion. It’s inedible but nonetheless it’s being served at a multiplex near you. It comes in two parts as you would guess. First comes a slow, coma-inducing half which is then followed by a rather brisk but convenient second half. Put together this film is like an episode of a contemporary Doordarshan soap opera. Effectively it’s best flushed down.
Essentially this movie is about a typical young Indian guy caught in a quarter-life crisis. He’s clinging onto a girl who’s dumped him. And he’s also stuck in a cubicle wala job even though he can compose edgy songs like Amit Trivedi. The point worth noting is that the first sign of a dramatic skirmish comes a few minutes after the interval. So for a good one hour of the film, you’re left dealing with pedestrian dialogue between Amit Sharma (he’s the protagonist played by Abhay Deol) and his sidekick friends. It’s basically a whole half of a film spent in character development, telling the audience that the hero of the film is living in denial and is suffering from borderline depression. Interspersed with that is the story of Samara (fitting name for an exotic Indian beauty with an English accent) played by Preeti Desai. She’s a budding dancer with an alcoholic mother and a rich industrialist Dad who doesn’t publically acknowledge their relationship, but is cordial nonetheless. Their lives (Amit’s and Samara’s) are about to be intertwined by serendipity. While clichéd love happens over toilet paper, smelly farts and bloody noses you can mull over the puzzle of how it all adds up to being called One By Two. There must be a higher meaning.
Devika Bhagat, the first-time director of One By Two is an established film writer having worked on the screenplays of movies like Manorama Six Feet Under, Aisha, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Ladies V/S Ricky Bahl and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Despite all her experience, she looks like she has a few things to learn about putting a feature film together. Her under-baked film has a few flashes in the pan. But the final dish is just passé.
The leads, Abhay and Preeti do give it their best shot. But neither one looks convincing in their part. Abhay’s done much better work in movies Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Dev.D and Aisha. Here he just looks like he’s under delivering. In part thanks to a role that just doesn’t move in any direction. There’s just one scene, where he spontaneously breaks into an indie rock rendition of a number called I’m pakaoed and does the actor come to life. Preeti too had a much better performance in Shor In The City (2011). She dances like a dream in this film. But when it comes down to sharing scenes with Lillete Dubey the young actress looks a tad flat as well.
There are a few saving graces like Sameer Arya’s camera work and Shankar Ehsan Loy’s compositions in numbers like Khushfehmiyan and Kaboom. But there’s no way the story or its dismal execution is going to impress anyone. Forget one by two; you wouldn’t digest a sip of this amateur concoction.
Essentially this movie is about a typical young Indian guy caught in a quarter-life crisis. He’s clinging onto a girl who’s dumped him. And he’s also stuck in a cubicle wala job even though he can compose edgy songs like Amit Trivedi. The point worth noting is that the first sign of a dramatic skirmish comes a few minutes after the interval. So for a good one hour of the film, you’re left dealing with pedestrian dialogue between Amit Sharma (he’s the protagonist played by Abhay Deol) and his sidekick friends. It’s basically a whole half of a film spent in character development, telling the audience that the hero of the film is living in denial and is suffering from borderline depression. Interspersed with that is the story of Samara (fitting name for an exotic Indian beauty with an English accent) played by Preeti Desai. She’s a budding dancer with an alcoholic mother and a rich industrialist Dad who doesn’t publically acknowledge their relationship, but is cordial nonetheless. Their lives (Amit’s and Samara’s) are about to be intertwined by serendipity. While clichéd love happens over toilet paper, smelly farts and bloody noses you can mull over the puzzle of how it all adds up to being called One By Two. There must be a higher meaning.
Devika Bhagat, the first-time director of One By Two is an established film writer having worked on the screenplays of movies like Manorama Six Feet Under, Aisha, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Ladies V/S Ricky Bahl and Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Despite all her experience, she looks like she has a few things to learn about putting a feature film together. Her under-baked film has a few flashes in the pan. But the final dish is just passé.
The leads, Abhay and Preeti do give it their best shot. But neither one looks convincing in their part. Abhay’s done much better work in movies Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Dev.D and Aisha. Here he just looks like he’s under delivering. In part thanks to a role that just doesn’t move in any direction. There’s just one scene, where he spontaneously breaks into an indie rock rendition of a number called I’m pakaoed and does the actor come to life. Preeti too had a much better performance in Shor In The City (2011). She dances like a dream in this film. But when it comes down to sharing scenes with Lillete Dubey the young actress looks a tad flat as well.
There are a few saving graces like Sameer Arya’s camera work and Shankar Ehsan Loy’s compositions in numbers like Khushfehmiyan and Kaboom. But there’s no way the story or its dismal execution is going to impress anyone. Forget one by two; you wouldn’t digest a sip of this amateur concoction.
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire