Gehraiyaan movie review: Deepika Padukone, the driving force in Shakun Batra's love drama

Director Shakun Batra's storytelling magic lies in the frames he creates with his characters in the film. Alisha (Deepika Padukone), a yoga instructor, is in a live-in relationship with Karan (Dhairya Karwa) who is trying to write a book. While Tia (Ananya Panday), Alisha's rich cousin from the USA is planning her dreamy wedding with Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi) from LA who works in real estate. From the trailer, we already knew that Gehraiyaan is a modern-day love story where it's natural to fall out of love and find it again elsewhere. 

Story: Just 17 mins into the movie, we can see that Alisha and Zain are instantly drawn towards each other with some words and sweet glances here and there. Like the oceans are deep, Gehraiyaan's characters also have layers in-depth and some shortcomings. While most of the film's plot was given out in the trailer, I am satisfied that the makers kept an equal share of curiosity, anticipation, and twists to unearth as the story evolves.

ALSO READ: Before watching Deepika Padukone's Gehraiyaan, watch these 5 Bollywood films on infidelity

The film is around two and a half hours. Throughout, the film never loses grip on the audience as its screenplay flows organically; all thanks to Shakun Batra's story, which he has co-written with Sumit Roy, Ayesha Devitre and Yash Sahai. While watching the movie, you will often be left wondering many things are happening, but the writers have left them unanswered, and some issues are believed to have been sorted.

The whole film rides on Deepika and Siddhant's shoulders, who do a superb job bringing it to the frame and keeping it real with their heavier emotions. On the other hand, the other two, Ananya Panday, who had a privileged life with a nagging mother, sometimes feels like the character was just made for her and Dhairya Karwa makes his existence felt enough while sharing screen space with Deepika.

ALSO READ: Deepika Padukone's Gehraiyaan all set to release; here are 7 reasons to watch it

What Worked: Deepika Padukone is the ship's captain and has given one of the best performances of her career. Deepika's relationship with Naseeruddin Shah (who played her father) was also one of the film's highlights. Her sharing screen space with Naseeruddin brings out the best. Deepika also gives the younger actors their space to blaze. After every intense scene, the director showed the ocean and huge waves to feel how deep the characters are in-depth emotions; you can say just like a metaphor.  

Gehraiyaan music successfully captured the spirit of the deep sea. The music is slow and therapeutic—the lyrics essay complexity of love and relationships. The soulful music has been rendered by Kabeer Kathpalia and Savera Mehta. Ankur Tewari wonderfully pens the lyrics. Each song was placed carefully as the story evolved at the right time.

What didn’t work: The makers created hype about having an ‘intimacy director’ on board for the first time in India to direct intimate scenes between Deepika and Siddhant's characters. However, there was no spark between them. Siddhant's dialogue delivery was not at par with Deepika's. His hard-hitting exchanges were not impressive. We expected more from Siddhant after Gully Boy. Dhairya's role and performance didn't impress me, and I think this character needed more time and space. Ananya's character comes out after the second half.

ALSO READ: Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi intimate scenes: Here's what Ranveer Singh has to say; actress reveals

Ratings: Two and a half stars out of five from Asianet Newsable. One for Deepika Padukone, another one for Shakun Batra's storytelling, direction and cinematographer by Kaushal Shah. And rest, how the movie has given an empathetic therapy of PTSD, depression, suicide, anxiety, panic attacks blending it into the character's past, present and choices.

Director: Shakun Batra 
Cast: Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday, Dhairya Karwa, Naseeruddin Shah, Rajat Kapoor 
Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime Video
Rating: 2.5/5 stars

• Gehraiyaan Review
• Gehraiyaan
• Deepika Padukone
• Siddanth Chaturvedi
• Ananya Pandey
• Dhairya Karwa
• Shakun Batra