Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya

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.

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.

Well the trailer was really good and was excited to see the movie!

First Half starts decent with story building up they tried their best to not keep it boring but shahid looked faked while dimple was ok with her acting! The comedy starts just before interval which is nicely written and genuine laughter punches are made! Kriti looks fabulous and her acting is the best out off all the actors in the movie! Second half again dives down with very slow screenplay, Sanon character is way less utilized it would be laughter riot if there would be more scene of robots having human experiences which they missed out! The laughter again starts in climax and it's the best part of movie in terms of screenplay and dialogues! The movie was convincing and is a great one time watch.

Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Ulza Jiya is one such movie, which literally depicts an impossible love story in a beautiful effective manner. Truly speaking, the film was a pleasant surprise. One thing I dislike about the movie is that the screenplay in the movie lacks continuity and fails to maintain the momentum established in the first half, the dialogues are well written but not all the jokes land effectively. Still I thoroughly enjoy this movie.

Kriti Sanon impresses with her portrayal of SIFRA, Kriti and Shahid look fresh and cute. The best performance of the work after mm. She is the hero of the film. Shahid Kapoor shines as always. The movie is worth watching once.

Aryan (Shahid Kapoor) is an robotics engineer working for his aunt Urmila (Dimple Kapadia) whose new Innovation is Sifra (Kriti Sanon), a robot. Aryan doesn't want to get married while his entire family wants him to, as expected he falls in love with Sifra. An harmless experiment conducted by Urmila gives Aryan an excuse to continue his own experiment where he introduces Sifra to his family as his lover. What all misfortunes happen when Sifra tries to mingle with the great Indian family, while they prepare for Aryan and Sifra's wedding forms rest of the story.

For a film that tries to look ambitious, it only aims to be a low hanging fruit. Leaving the brain aside, for those 140mins I kept looking for one decently entertaining scene which the film was devoid of. It is not the logic but the emotions that feel forced and largely superficial, leaving the lead actor with an unlikable character, no matter how much he tries to be entertaining. Ofcourse there is a slight glimpse of "fun" in the climax scene and that's about it. The screenplay lacks the fizz to make this rom-com fun and the generic characters get unfunny jokes to mouth as well. Fair warning, the film ends with the note "to be continued" and I wish they had shown the same conviction while scripting this film, so that we could've got a better and watchable film.