Tere Ishk Mein movie review: Tere risk mein...

UA Drama romanceDir Aanand L RaiCast Dhanush Kriti SanonRating 25Tere Ishk Mein is a TamilHindi bilingual And I donrsquot mean this just in terms of its simultaneous release in the two languages But also the idiomgrammar of it attempting to merge sensibilities of a Kollywood and Bollywood commercial cinemaStarting with the Tamil superstar Dhanush opposite Kriti Sanon from up North over a mainstream romance with the hero originally from Chennai whorsquos settledin DelhiYou can sense the math behind this movie hence Now simply the chemistry must match its geographyTo that extent you might find Dhanush in the early scenes as very much a younger Rajinikanth mdash with his sly smile hairdo subtle swag with every mannerism even flicking his matchsticks to light up cigarettes from his boot if not the heroinersquos sweaterThe heroine on the other hand is an independent thinker still PhD student in psychology with a modern outlook towards lovesex while I suspect shersquos been wasting her ciggies pretending to smokeThe cinematographer Tushar Kanti Ray lights her up well between the fivesix finely stocked expressionsThe leading man is the ruffian mdash the guy of the streets deliberately unkempt prone to scuffle but with a band of boys behind him in collegeClearly the heroheroine are a class apart In the sense that they evidently belong to different socioeconomic strata firstThus begins the classic workingclass herorsquos journey Something that mainstream cinema down South thoroughly thrives on And one barely gets to see much of or any of it in contemporary Hindi picturesIs this a retelling of the ancient trope lsquorich girl meets poor boyrsquo In a way yes And with an eye also on the frontbenches of Tamil Nadu and Hindi heartland Consider the lsquoladki ka khadoos baaprsquo heroinersquos badass dad for a Bollywood baddieThis bloke lives in a Lutyensrsquo bungalow the size and security reserved for a top cabinet minister in New Delhimdash selfadmittedly commanding ldquo700 IPS officersrdquo plusgod knows and I forget how many district magistrates across IndiaAs per his nameplate hersquos an IAS officer of the rank of joint secretary for heavenrsquos sakeAnybody with rudimentary knowledge of bureaucracy will know the filmmakers are clueless about how it works Am I seriously factchecking a dardbhari popish potboiler FFSWell yes but perhaps only because the filmmakers go on to send the hero off to study for the UPSC exam and aim for the IAS himselfHe might be wildly disappointed by the reality of whatrsquos ahead even if he clears that tough test just letting him know Hersquos a Delhi University student president ofthe union no less He recalls the UPSC as CBSE to his dadThis boyrsquos notarylawyer father Prakash Raj mdashgroveling before the girlrsquos IAS papa who only speaks in terms of ldquotum jaise log hum jaise logrdquo poor and rich people mdash begs on his knees to the privileged patriarchHersquos forced to touch the feet of all househelps apologising for his downtrodden son having fallen for the daughter of the bungalow Natively I understand thisbigscreen sentiment from the rsquo80srsquo90sWhich is true for much of the film itself with a touch of other hits Kabir Singh 2019 12th Fail 2023 why even a nod to Manmarziyaan 2018 if you may that was produced by Aanand L Rai himselfRai Raksha BandhanZero has directed this film written by longtime associate Himanshu Sharma The picturersquos opening argument could well be that male violence is basically an outcome of incel culture mdash lack of female attentionlovecareI kinda agree with that thought although how itrsquos made is probably besides the pointThe heroine decides to reform the juvenile delinquent hero who becomes an Indian Air Force IAF fighter pilot eventually filmrsquos solid opening sequence mdash while this guy should have access to no sharp objects whether inside or outside of a plane for the rest of his lifeThe IAF setting shot here like a dream somehow reminded me of Mani Ratnamrsquos Kaatru Veliyidai 2017 similarly about a fighter pilot Karthi with severe anger management issues But that was one heck of a pointless misogynist movieEssentially this is an oldworld operatic melodrama about unrequited love Because no matter what and however hard the slightly deranged Dhanush tries he simply canrsquot get the slim fairskinned Sonam Raanjhanaa or Kriti Sanon onscreen now can heHe can get the Tamil audiences alright mdash although I prefer him more in gritty equally grand setups with greater realism Vetrimaaranrsquos Vada Chennai Sure a movie is a mirror to society mdash must the image be so cornyAs it is most melodramas scripted well until interval flip so badly after that setup that the second half is usually hard to sit through Well I did sit through this oneYou go in for Dhanush ideally but stay for the music This is an AR Rahman musical after all On the first hearing frankly none of the songs stick Their picturisations do besides Rairsquos sense of scale of courseTake that scene where the film reveals the shanty where the hero and his family live followed by a fullon fun Tamil track in a Hindi film Or the other song juxtaposed between a wedding and a funeralThere are a few such gems I actually wish this film well in theatres Itrsquod be such a waste of timemoney to watch it alone