Teri Meri Kahaani

Director: Kunal Kohli
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Prachi Desai, Neha Sharma.
Music: Sajid-Wajid
Genre: Romance, Drama.

                                                               

2004 was the year when Hum Tum ended up being a roaring success regenerating the way rom coms were written in Bollywood. It is Kunal Kohli again who sits on the director chair and attempts to spin another ‘Hum-Tum’, or seeing the magnanimous shaayaris spilled across the screen, a flavor of ‘Fanaa’, in his new outing Teri Meri Kahaani. Well, things clearly don’t go according to the so-called-plan, as Teri Meri Kahaani runs cold and ultimately falls flat on its foot.


Teri Meri Kahaani yearns to be an epic tale of lovers meeting and parting over a span of 100 years. Protagonists meet thrice under different circumstances being different individuals separated due to the complications of wicked fate. The narrative begins in 1960, goes to 2012 and strangely comes back to 1910. Yawn!

Teri Meri Kahaani has an interesting premise, but the pointless direction and the mediocre writing makes it look lame and pretentious. It limps across three eras, but fails to tug a single heartstring. The concept of three time zones seems under-utilized as the set pieces lacks originality and come across as terribly uninspiring.

It is the chemistry between the leads, Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra that saves the day for this debacle piece of writing. The mere presence of them on screen accentuates the appeal of the movie. Nevertheless, they too suffer adversely as there is eventually no character development. The individuals seemed restricted inside their own cages for the length of the time they share screen. Shahid Kapoor as Javed, from the era of 1910, comes as the only respite with his Casanova attitude vowing to love every girl he comes across.

The present time story is the flimsiest of the lot being governed by the familiar twitter world and awkwardly lame chats sprayed on the silver screen. Positive points should be awarded for some new approaches in the way first hour of the movie is told, but after a while, the setting looks fake and narration feels disjointed.

It has some share of joyous moments and is mildly entertaining. ‘Mukhtasar’, sung by Wajid, comes as a sigh of relief and makes us nostalgic over the good old times when love stories were actually written by heart. The foot tapping music raises the vibe of the movie and the climax lifts the movie from the depths of its own silliness. It is charming in parts but ultimately feels too light to have a serious affair with.

Teri Meri Kahaani is yet another run-of-the-mill romantic tale which promises a twist, but ends up being clichéd. Only for the die-hard fans of this genre!


Rating: 2/5

(first published in Udaipur Times)