Director: Ravi Udyawar
Actors: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Mrunal Thakur
Rating: 3 stars
The ‘seher’ is a deliberate typo in this film’s title, Do Deewane Seher Mein (DDSM). It’s how the lead character would say that word.
He’s a Bihari in Mumbai, with his father, a reputed builder, back in Patna. Biharis, as you’d know, share a sa-sha issue with pronunciations.
This introverted man, with terrible stage-fright, thinks of it as an embarrassing speech-defect, instead. Which, on occasion, threatens to blown up as the whole purpose of this picture. And that seems a stretch, yes. Doesn’t help the guy’s named Shashank Sharma!
But then again, this film itself is a soft, simple, sweet romcom, chiefly seeking delight in the mundane.
You take it in the mould of, say, a Basu Chatterjee movie from the’70s/’80s, when working couples, à la Amol Palekar, Vidya Sinha, romancing over chicken a’ la pousse at Café Samovar, became a thing of mainstream cool (Chhoti Si Baat, 1976).
Bombay song referenced is the monsoon ditty, ‘Rhim jhim gire sawan’, from Basu-da’s Manzil (1979).
The young adults here, similarly, have a job, that they simultaneously juggle with finding themselves a life-partner. There’s, of course, no question of literally slipping into the Basu/Hrishi-da era. Nostalgia belongs to cinema alone.
Dating apps have sufficiently corporatised romance. Hero swipes away, on way to work, in the metro. Heroine’s mom wants her to download the apps as well. The parents of both send them off to meet prospective partners.
This Indian, upper-class, arranged-marriage mart plays out quite differently from the traditional/conservative one, still.
In the sense that the choice is the boy’s/girl’s alone. Mummy-papa are already raazi. No other condition applies — down to the girl’s mom (adorable Ayesha Raza Mishra) being okay with a honeymoon of sorts, before wedding; or dating, before marriage.
Is this reflective of metropolitan realities? I think so.
It’s also the kinda socially-audited update that Sooraj Barjatya (Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!) did while dealing with modern, desi romance in his recent Rajshri series, Bada Naam Karenge (Sony LIV).
DDSM is produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, charmingly scripted by Abhiruchi Chand, whose writing credits (in various capacities) include films like Gangubai Kathiawadi, Sanju, October, Kapoor & Sons, etc.
The director Ravi Udyawar (Mom) last filmed a mind-numbing actioner, Yudhra (2024), with this picture’s male lead, that could drill a hole in your head! This is an appreciably gentle U-turn for both. That lead being Siddhant Chaturvedi.
It’s been fun following Chaturvedi’s career since MC Sher in Gully Boy to a cool cad netting Deepika Padukone, Ananya Panday, at the same time, in Gehraiyaan.
There’s a suitably bi-cultural quality within him to pull off both the city slicker, and the seedha-saadha small-town dude. It’s when he plays a role more measured to his age/stage (Kho Gaye Hum Kahan) that he scores best.
DDSM is one such. Although the IIT-JEE level test for a romcom is whether you enjoy the hero’s presence, with the heroine, onscreen, first; and always — and if you want them to get together, eventually?
You do, whenever he’s around Mrunal Thakur as the uptown girl, with her own insecurities, supposedly hiding her nose behind broad, thick, fake glasses.
Thakur’s already delivered a rare hit in the tragically dying, theatrical genre, with Sita Raman (2022), alongside Dulquer Salmaan.
The conflict in this romance centres on basic boundary and trust issues. They could equally test your patience, overstaying their welcome, sometimes. And that’s the timbre of a low-key, low-stakes, innocent, realistic, romantic drama, isn’t it?
The banter between them feels worth it. It’s great to know that the worst that could happen is a bloody break-up!
I understand mass-appeal lies with humans tearing humans apart on the big screen; for whatever happened to love!
Is that why I’m at the first day, first show of this film so private that there’s only one other person in the hall — we could’ve split the samosas.
Where do young people go on dates, yo? Or do they wait to Netflix and chill; as they will with this one? Sucks.
