Movie Name -Gehraiyaan
Starring- Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa, Naseeruddin Shah, Rajat Kapoor
Directed -Shakun Batra
Story – Ayesha Devitre Dhillon & Shakun Batra
Release Date – 11 February 2022
The Bollywood movie Gehraiyaan is released on February 11, 2022, on the OTT streaming platform, Amazon Prime Video. The film is directed by Shakun Batra and stars Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Pandey, Dhairya Karwa, and Naseeruddin Shah.
As the title suggests, Gehraiyaan means depth, which is why many viewers expect a deep and meaningful film after watching the trailer. But is the movie worth watching?
Table of Contents
Story
By the way, the story of the film is between two couples – Alisha and Karan (played by Deepika Padukone and Dhiriya Karwa) and Tia and Zain (played by Anya Pandey and Siddhant Chaturvedi). Alisha and Tia go on a trip together as cousins.
Something comes to mind when they are planning a trip. One, they learn that Tia and Karan are best childhood friends and second, Elisha and Zane start a secret relationship because they are attracted to each other. The story begins here …
Moving ahead we see how complications arise and how the complexity of these relationships works. While on one hand we see how these couples move forward in their relationships, on the other we see each character’s individual past. And somehow all four characters have one or another traumatic event that happened to them during their childhoods.
So among these four, the film is mostly based around Alisha aka Deepika Padukone. If we talk about her specifically, Alisha’s past is the most traumatic due to which she is carrying it with her to date. Moreover, she makes a conscious effort every step of the way to move away from her past experiences. Hence all these people are carrying their past baggage which in one way or the other affect their life decisions and relationships.
Now as we move forward the story keeps on unfolding but let us tell you that the story which was showcased as a romantic and intimate film during its promotions definitely takes a twist and the whole ‘it is a romantic film’ idea shifts.
If we review the story, it is well written and shot but it also feels like at certain points the viewer might feel that there is no clarity. The sub-plots and secondary characters are left without explanation. For example, Karan aka Dhairya’s character is treated as a side character and his story is not delved into which feels like a missed opportunity
Also, Naseeruddin Shah, who plays Alisha’s father, is rarely used and given that Shah is a great actor, his character could have been quite powerful, greatly influencing the story.
Direction
The director of the story is Shakun Batra. She gained a huge fan following after making ‘Kapur & Sons (2016)’, which in our opinion is an unparalleled film. In that too, the focus of the film was on family relationships and its ups and downs.
Not to be outdone, but no one expected the story to be anything but romance in the ’roundabouts’ but the twists given by Batra astonish the audience. So the film is not only a romance, but also a corporate game and even a crime-thriller piece.
Undoubtedly, Shakun Batra has won as usual as a director who wants to show realism and complexity in his projects, but there are also issues of clarity in the story, especially during the last half hour of the film. Also, the ending of the film seems a bit abrupt with some aspects missing throughout the film.
Actors:
The film is a multi-starrer with Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Pandey, Dheria Karwa and Naseeruddin Shah. As mentioned earlier, Naseeruddin Shah’s character needed a lot of screen time, depth and spotlight to show how he feels as a father whose daughter does not talk to him!
Coming in the role of Deepika Padukone, she actually stole the whole show, thanks to her ability to express emotions and make herself appear on screen. Her performance throughout the film reflects her experience as an actor, noting that she takes each of her scenes to make her feel more effective and powerful.
After this, Siddhant Chaturvedi, who proved his mettle as an actor in ‘Gali Buaye (2019)’, surpassed Deepika Padukone somewhat. There is no doubt that Chaturvedi portrayed her character well, but the fact that Deepika was the opposite made all the difference!
Then there is Ananya Pandey; In the ‘deep’, Pandey manages his emotions subtly and does not overdo it. Due to his poor performance in ‘Student of the Year 2 (2019)’, Pandey has often been the victim of nepotism. Therefore, many people expected him to show his ability in the ‘circle’ in a good way. But sadly, he was also portrayed as a side character and was not given as much limelight as expected.
In the end, Dheria Karwa’s character is not very focused either, she has only one role as Alisha’s boyfriend. Thus, the caravan fulfilled what he had been given.
Conclusion
In short, the sound and shots are used very well in the film but there is a lack of clarity on many points in the story. The direction of the story turned out to be confusing and accidental but at the same time, it was not as predictable as movies usually are. The casting was done correctly, however, the age representation is not appropriate as we do not think that Deepika Padukone and Ananya Pandey are of the same age as shown in the film!
