Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
From the very beginning, ‘Do Deewane Seher Mein’ makes a bizarre attempt to make nobody believe that Mrunal Thakur is not attractive enough, that she is an average looking nerd men wouldn’t be interested in, just because she wears over-sized glasses. What is this, the 1990s? The ridiculous ‘glasses makes you look average’ trope should’ve died when it didn’t work with Preity Zinta’s character Naina in the 2003 hit ‘Kal Ho Na Ho.’ Anyway…
Directed by Ravi Udyawar, ‘Do Deewane Seher Mein’ stars Mrunal Thakur as Roshni Shrivastav, a Mumbai girl who works in a fashion magazine, while Siddhant Chaturvedi plays Shashank Sharma, a marketing executive with a minor speech impediment. Shashank can’t spell words with ‘sh’, so he pronounces words like ‘she’ as ‘see’, or his own name as ‘Sasank,’ which makes him wary of speaking in public or doing speeches.
Shashank’s family lives in Uttar Pradesh, and his parents fly down to meet Roshni’s family as part of an arrange-marriage set-up in Mumbai. While Shashank instantly likes Roshni, she is quick to reject him, which is largely because she isn’t keen on marriage and has had a terrible experience with men in the past. However, Shashank keeps trying to contact her, eventually leading to the two of them meeting and forming a genuine connection.
The rest of ‘Do Deewane Seher Mein’ follows Shashank and Roshni navigating their blooming romance, while dealing with their own insecurities. Shashank’s problems are both comical and believable, as he constantly finds excuses to escape meetings and presentations at work due to his speech issues. He also has an overbearing dad, who is constantly pressuring him to do better in life. But when not under the spotlight, he is a charming, smart, optimistic, working-class guy who loves to cook, and appreciates the smaller things in life.
Roshni, however, comes across as a grumpy, unlikable character, who unfairly lashes out at others and that’s largely the script’s fault. Most of her problems stem from insecurity about her looks. We’re expected to believe that someone as stunning as Mrunal Thakur is an average-looking woman, with her mother constantly worrying about how she’ll find a good match and lamenting that she doesn’t have her sister’s good looks.
Sandeepa Dhar plays the sister, Naina Shrivastav, and while she is certainly beautiful in her own right, let’s be honest: if the two were entered into a superficial beauty contest judged by men, Mrunal would probably win it even with those fake nerdy glasses. Bad try, ‘Do Deewane Seher Mein’, but we’re not blind. Also, some dialogues try to imply that she’s a poor dresser, even though her wardrobe looks perfectly smart. Clearly, even the costume department didn’t seem interested in making her look dowdy. Sure, she doesn’t look like she is in ‘Devil Wears Prada‘, but neither does she look like she’d put off potential suitors over her fashion sense.
Fortunately, ‘Do Deewane Seher Mein’ works best when it focuses on the romance. Siddhant Chaturvedi and Mrunal Thakur look cute together and have convincing chemistry, with some of the film’s sweetest scenes involving nothing more than coffee, conversation, and quiet companionship. As they slowly open up to each other, the two begin to see strengths in one another that they struggle to recognize in themselves.
The film would’ve bee so much more entertaining if only Roshni’s central conflict were half as convincing. Yes, we’re told her low self-esteem stems from hurtful comments made by relatives during her childhood, but the film is also asking us to believe that Mrunal Thakur would grow up struggling because people don’t find her attractive. That’s a tough sell.
Anyway, if you don’t let that detail bother you, you might find ‘Do Deewane Seher Mein’ to be a lot more entertaining than I did. It’s got pleasing cinematography, a cute couple, and a slightly cliched climax that gives the couple a much deserved happy ending. It the end, it manages to be a feel-good romance about love, self-acceptance, and learning to see yourself through kinder eyes.
Watch ‘Do Deewane Seher Mein’ on Netflix.
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