Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya

Passey Reviews

'Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya' attempts to blend science fiction with romantic comedy, starring Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon. However, the film falls short of expectations, leaving much more to be desired.

The major drawback lies in the narrative predictability. A large portion of the storyline, the first half and bits from the second, is seen in the trailer itself. The central theme of a human falling in love with a robot, feels underexplored and lacks the depth needed to engage the audience.

While Dimple Kapadia and Kriti Sanon shine with their performances, stealing the spotlight with charm, grace, and beauty, the same can't be said for the film as a whole.

Dimple Kapadia, in particular, is a treat to watch due to her charismatic personality. Kriti Sanon takes on the challenging role of a humanoid character, and her portrayal is praiseworthy. The seamless blend of robotic and human elements in her performance is impressive, and she adds a stunning presence to every scene. However, these bright spots are not enough to salvage the film.

Director Amit Joshi's attempt at situational comedy is decent, but falls short, failing to entertain all age groups. Shahid Kapoor, despite his capability to shoulder brilliant rom-coms, is underutilized, leaving fans wanting more from his character.

The screenplay, music, background score, while not outstanding, serve their purpose sufficiently. However, they lack the unique and catchy elements.

The film lands in the realm of average cinema. The predictable plot, underutilization of talent, and the film's overall suitability for the OTT platform make it a miss in theaters. Consider saving this one for a cozy night, on your favourite streaming device.

This film had a feel of a tv series instead of a movie. Besides that, I feel the movie could have done better if Ayushmann Khurrana was in the lead instead, as he has more range of emotions and expressions which was required for the role. Shahid's acting was kind of forced, immature and he did not come across as a software engineer. The plot though unique was limited by its writing. There could have been more comedic twists and turns to make the movie more entertaining. Kirti Sanon was good as a robot and stole the limelight away from Shahid Kapoor who inadvertently took a back seat in the movie. The most painful aspect of the movie was watching my favorite He-man Dharamendra being reduced to a frail old man, all for a nondescript role which any Tom, Dick or Harry could have done. I hope he doesn't torture our memories with such roles in the future. Dimple Kapadia was adequate as the CEO of a Robotics company. On the technical side however you would have to question the viability of a robot 18 years in the making, which still has rudimentary issues such as inadequate battery life and inability to withstand simple power outages. All in all I would say inspite of it's inherent flaws the movie is Ok for a one time watch.

Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya attempts to blend romance, science fiction, and family drama into one package, but unfortunately, it falls short of delivering an engaging narrative. The screenplay lacks consistency and fails to maintain the momentum established in the first half. The dialogues are well-worded, but not all jokes land effectively, leaving the audience occasionally chuckling but often checking their watches.

The film's first half shines with the blossoming romance between Aryan and SIFRA, portrayed with charm by Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon. Their chemistry is palpable, and viewers are drawn into their love story. The film takes a nosedive in the second half as it veers into predictable family drama. While there are moments of humor sprinkled throughout, much of the second half feels tedious. The climax feels abrupt and lacks the emotional payoff that viewers might expect. The promise of a sequel falls flat as the film struggles to rectify its shortcomings.

Kriti Sanon impresses with her portrayal of SIFRA, capturing the nuances of a robot with admirable skill. From the tender moments of romance to the emotional beats of the family drama, Shahid Kapoor delivers a commendable performance throughout the film. Dharmendra, though with limited screen time, adds a touch of charm, while Dimple Kapadia leaves a mark as expected. Ashish Verma and other supporting actors provide able support to the lead actors.

The music, particularly Laal Peeli Akhiyaan and the Title Track injects energy into the film with their foot-tapping beats and well-choreographed sequences. Akhiyaan Gulaab and Tum Se add a lovely touch to the soundtrack, enhancing the film's romantic elements.

Direction 2.5/5 Acting 3/5 Music 3/5 Story 2/5 Screenplay 2/5.

I remember seeing a Hindi movie sometime back where the salesman of a clothing department store falls in love with an attractive mannequin of a lady. This over emotional guy has a tough time conveying his sentiments to the mannequin and maintaining his mental balance. In this movie a handsome young man Shahid Kapoor, a robotics engineer, falls desperately in love with an extremely beautiful female robot ( Kriti Sannon) created by his aunt Dimple Kapadia, owner of a robotics company. This situation of their meeting and falling in love was stage managed by the aunt as an experiment to check the reactions of the robot to such emotional issues. However complications develop when Shahid starts planning to marry the female robot to the shock and surprise of his family members.

The plot is fairly new to Hindi films and has been developed well into an interesting narrative. The entertainment aspect has been looked into with a few glamorous dance situations and peppy numbers performed very well both by Shahid and Kriti. One however feels that with a human-robot romance a number of additional romcom situations could have been created. Luckily there are no boring situations, the movie does not drag anywhere and the comedy scenes do entertain.

Shahid's last big screen outing was "Jersey," which was released in the year 2022, almost two years back. Since then, there has been this painful drought for me as a Shahid fan, who wished dearly to see him grace the theatre screen yet again, and only this weekend handed me the opportunity, and I couldn't help myself but give in.

So was it worth the wait? Did my wishes get fulfilled? Let's find out.

Starting with...

Positives:

Relatively New Concept: While Hollywood, or many other foreign industries for that matter, had already ventured and reached certain heights in this "artificial intelligence" space, the Indian film industry, let alone Bollywood, maintained its distance from the subject due to a lack of funding and a lack of vision, among a dozen other reasons. Thus, I am delighted to see them finally taking that leap of faith and divulging into a territory unexplored and comparatively unfamiliar to the Indian audience. A love story between a human and an AI-driven robot is definitely a promising starting point.

Fresh Pairing: Bollywood has had this tendency of repeating the lead hero-heroine pair for ages; it's something of a tradition here, so it's nice to see a fresh pairing for a change. Shahid and Kriti look fantastic together, and their organic chemistry is what propelled the otherwise bland script (more on this later) forward.

Kriti Sanon: A special mention must go to Kriti, for she has done an impressive job on her part. Playing a humanoid robot, who shares traits of humans in flesh and blood, is easier said than done. I was impressed by her dialogue throwing, their 'timing' to be exact, especially towards the end, where she had given her best.

Now with the...

Negatives:

Lack of Emotions: Two crucial elements of an "ideal" love story are a natural chemistry between the actors and proper depth in their characters. While the first requirement is pretty much taken care of, all thanks to Shahid and Kriti's palpable chemistry, the latter aspect suffers quite drastically, mainly due to a rather lazy write-up that prioritised only the portions of comedy but not the emotional titbits.

Half-Baked Family Dynamics: When you are giving so much time and screen space to the family members of our protagonist, why on earth would you not provide the characters the required depth? I'm infuriated because there were a lot of opportunities the story could have easily grabbed and further solidified its foundation, but it didn't, or, should I say, it couldn't!

Now, ending with...

Mixed:

Middling Humour: There were three or four instances in total where I genuinely laughed, but the rest of the jokes failed to land. For a film that promises to be a laughter-filled, fun ride through and through, it sure is disappointing. Suffice it to say, I expected more. Much, much more.

Irrelevant Music Numbers: Now, do not get me wrong, I have been grooving to the tracks since they got released, especially "Akhiyaan Gulaab" by MItraz, but they do not aid the script in any way. They are merely used as commercial cinema tools, show-pieces that serve no greater purpose.

So to summarise my overall thoughts, it's a decent attempt, keeping in mind the freshness of the concept, but everything felt so half-hearted, almost like they put a leash on their creative thinking, deliberately restricting themselves from exploring deeper depths.