Kunal Kohli is credited with two of the most memorable films of the last decade which had catapulted his status from no one to a celebrated director. The two films in discussion are Hum Tum and Fanaa. Although a hard core movie buff would know how Kunal Kohli borrows plot points and often a lot of the story from international cinema yet most of his films have been entertaining.
With Teri Meri Kahaani, Kunal Kohli makes an attempt to go back to square one and he plans to take Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra along with him. With a boring, predictable story and absolutely no depth of emotions, intellectuality or even some worthwhile storytelling, Teri Meri Kahaani is an astonishingly average affair.
The film starts with the love story of Govind (Shahid Kapoor) falling for a Bollywood actress (Priyanka Chopra) back in the 1960s. The duo falls in love and for a minor issue part ways. 1960s and Bollywood give Kohli the liberty to go for Raj Kapoor styled costumes for the hero and saris for the heroine. When Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor have met Wahida Rehman, Asha Parekh, love blossoms in Bollywood style but does not liven up the screen with anything. The story jumps to 2012 in present day London where social networking is the dating hotspot and Krrish and Radha fall in love again. If the names were tacky enough, wait for the scuffle that separates the couple. Then you are taken to 1910s undivided and pre-independent India where Javed falls for a bubbly Punjabi girl Aradhana and keep singing and dancing as if India was already liberated.
Kunal gets a lot of his envisioning wrong. 1960s Bombay looks toy-ish and speaks of poorly done SFX. 2012 London is shown to be equally tacky and lacks merit and emotions. 1910s Lahore surely did not have the ambience that has been depicted in the film and nor were men and women like the ones that are portrayed in the film. Teri Meri Kahaani is not only a predictable story but also a massive failure in terms of scripting.
The cinematography is good, courtesy Sunil Patel and so are some of the songs. The unending song and dance routine may not be too appealing to many. The shayeri does not work and the gadget friendly 2012 is too one dimensional to create any impact. Shahid is acceptable and Priyanka is okay. Their chemistry makes for some decent sequences but the actors are helpless in the hands of a mindless, emotionless and baseless story. The supporting cast has barely got anything to do and despite being only 2 hours 15 minutes, Teri Meri Kahaani does not keep you engrossed. Clichés ensure that you are not surprised and too much of gloss and colorful treatment dilutes everything.
Watch Teri Meri Kahaani is you are a Shahid, Priyanka or a Kohli fan but brace for a simple tale and no epic love story. The love stories in Teri Meri Kahaani even did not demand even one telling, forget being told three times.
Source: Bollywood Hungama
