Ekk Deewana Tha review

I hope you don't have lice

Cast: Prateik Babbar, Amy Jackson, Sachin Khedekar

Directed by Gautham Menon

Rating: Minus Ek

Pain and pleasure have the same facial expression. This is why you will share the same face with the lead cast of ‘Ekk Deewana Tha’ through the entire runtime. Love stories that curdle, portray societal and familial tribulations. But here, there is a far graver issue beyond the usual jaat-paat, rich-poor etc: The lead duo can’t act to save Tibet. And as dismissive as it may sound in the first paragraph of this review, it is in fact the iceberg that makes this painful love story crash as we endure the burn.

The film is about an aspiring filmmaker and unemployed dreamer Sachin (Prateik Babbar) who gets knocked out of his world when he bumps into a celestial Mallu-Catholic girl Jessie (Amy Jackson). Following a bit of cutesy stalking, he proposes. She rejects on account of avoiding inter-caste hassles and for their age difference (she’s a year older). He refuses to give up and takes stalking to epic heights by landing up in Kerala, her native place. A lot of dancing, a few digs at Kerala-ites and some storming punches later, we’re left with lot of broken noses and few tattered nerves. By now, you get restless for Amy to give in or at least take a firm stand on anything so that we can get on with our lives. But Amy won’t give up before playing runaway bride, leading him on yet not consenting and making it suffocating for Sachin, the audience and everybody involved. But this is just half the agony for we have the second part to go. After you have braved 70% of the movie, Amy finally accepts and admits to Sachin’s lure only to call it off minutes later over something as trivial as Sachin ignoring a couple of her phone calls. And while love can be a painful feeling, this amateurish attempt at heartbreak can be only worse. 

Prateik and Amy are equally challenged in their speech and overall ability to portray joy, suffering, betrayal and most other suitable feelings. So often, an intense dialogue muttered with certain amount of lisp and an air of lazy indifference only reduces cinema to a reality show featuring extras. And while low expectations usually ensure one isn’t disappointed, this one puts you down even when you’re betting on nothing. 

Mr Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, A R Rahman is yet another party pooper who seems to have stopped reinventing and his work here sounds like a remixed version of his earlier tunes with heavier bass notes. ‘Hosanna’ may be an instant hit but the bizarre hip-hopping that the video features as the song breaks in abruptly in the movie makes it difficult to enjoy the composition. 

After remaking Gautham Menon’s Tamil blockbuster ‘Kakha Kakha’ in Hindi as ‘Force’ last year, Fox Star Studios decided to let him re-jig his own ‘Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa’ as this insufferable cinematic blot. Reinstating my stand on remakes, they cannot avoid being compared to the original. And it’s a fail-fail case, since changing the plot means that you’ve lost the fans of the original and if you don’t, then you’re a mere photo-copier. 

In a world where any shooting location is a prospective tourism plug, this one does very little for Kerala. For this, all fingers can be confidently pointed at the DOP and the cinematographer who make the lord’s native country seem a little less inviting than the last music video/ love song picturised there.

Through his struggle and strive to win his lady love, Sachin keeps ranting one line, “Duniya mein itni ladkiyan hain par mujhe Jessie se hi pyaar kyun hua?” Perhaps, because Jessie Jaisi Koi Nahin? But the question you will find yourself pondering over through the film will be, “Multiplex mein itni movies hain, phir maine iss movie ka ticket hi kyun liya?”