Gehraiyaan review: Deepika Padukone sails through the complexities of Shakun Batra's deep, twisted storytelling

3.5/5

Alisha Khanna (Deepika Padukone), a 30-year-old ambitious woman, is at a crossroads in her life. Her six-year relationship has become monotonous, and her career appears to be hitting a lot of roadblocks. Just as she had begun to accept this reality as unchangeable, her life is upended by the arrival of her cousin, Tia (Ananya Panday), and her fiancé, Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi), with whom she bonds over a troubled past and a shared desire to escape its confines. The plot follows Alisha and Zain as they confront the ghost of their past on their journey to avoid it.

We often see actors surprising everyone with the choice of films they make during the different phases of their career. The same can be said about Deepika Padukone, who is hands down the best of everyone in Gehraiyaan. Over the years, the intensity of the actor's characters in films has increased, and so have her performances in them. But the level that Gehraiyaan touches upon will come as an initial shock and is a much-needed film for people who have always admired the actor as a performer.

In the Shakun Batra directorial, the actor plays Alisha, who struggles with anxiety, troubled past and leads a very dry life in a relationship (with Karan, played by Dhairya Karwa) that has reached its expiry date. She eventually meets up with a man, Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi), who is her cousin Tia's (Ananya Panday) fiancé, and who changes her life in just a couple of days.

However, the ghosts of her past affect her present so badly that the first half is filled with several Easter Eggs, which get a conclusion by the time the film reaches its fate.

Gehraiyaan's best moments are found in the beginning and toward the end. The middle part of the film goes haywire with scenes that are very important to the plot, but the execution becomes a slow-burner. It just goes into a very fraudulent mode, making sure that whatever happens is not romanticised. Even though you watch Alisha and Zain cheating on their partners, the way it's shot doesn't glorify infidelity in any sense. No spoilers here...

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The film drops life lessons, giving one the choice of sinking deep into the ocean or staying afloat and living a normal life. Although imperfect relationships are portrayed beautifully in the film, it also shows how imperfect people can be in life. Batra works heavily on the complexities of human relationships in every form, and it blends perfectly with the theme of infidelity.

Earlier, as said by the team, the film rightly serves the genre of domestic noir. For the uninitiated, in this genre, the film is set mostly in homes and workplaces and focuses on the female experience (here, around Deepika's character), which revolves around relationships. It's usually based on a generally feminist understanding of the domestic realm as a hard and sometimes, dangerous possibility for its occupants. There's also a darker mode with neo-noir, along with a lot of unconventional camera movements that work well for the film.

The sync sound of the film makes the dialogues have a very subtle punch, not making them loud enough to disturb the whole vibe. Going by Batra's way of filmmaking, Gehraiyaan stays true to the theme of the depths with coastal locales as its backdrop. The film personifies the sea waves so perfectly that it justifies the central theme.

Batra co-wrote the film with Sumit Roy, Ayesha Devitre, and Yash Sahai. The team has worked well enough to create complex characters filled with inescapable situations. Their teamwork has created more impact, and it might take one to process the whole film even after the end credits start rolling.

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However, going by his former work as a director with Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (2012) and Kapoor & Sons (2016), I expected something certain from the film, which turned out to be true. No, I won't say there's something predictable about the film. It will leave you surprised, genre-wise, for sure.

As for performances, like mentioned earlier, Deepika gave a performance that will be remembered down the line. The actor has the cake and eats it too. I won't call it a bold choice by the actor to take up the film, and it's not even unconventional. But Gehraiyaan perfectly fits the bill of her makeover as a performer, based on the backdrop of the story.

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Then comes Siddhant Chaturvedi, whose grey shades are well-written for him and he delivers them well too. The actor has more to show than the most discussed intimate scenes with Deepika.

Ananya maintains her subtlety but comes off slightly as a misfit, going by her real-life age. The actor doesn't look her age, being a woman who is newly engaged and already planning her wedding. There are also certain sequences wherein she is supposed to be all mature about life-making decisions, but it doesn't work well for me. But in comparison to her previous works, this is the best until now.

Out of the four of them, Dhairya has fewer sequences and equally creates less impact on the story. Veteran actors Naseeruddin Shah and Rajat Kapoor are just pitch-perfect in their brief and important roles.

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Kaushal Shah's cinematography is hauntingly beautiful and captures the essence of Gehraiyaan just as it should. While Nitesh Bhatia's editing could have been crispier during the mid-sequences.

Kabeer Kathpalia (OAFF) and Savera Mehta have composed one of the best soundtracks of the year and also in the past few years. Every song, Doobey, Gehraiyaan-Title Track, and Beqaaboo, is mostly picturised on Deepika and Siddhant. It captures their relationship, filled with love and a pang of slight guilt.

If we are talking about Gehraiyaan, there's no way that intimate sequences can be discussed. Dar Gai, the intimacy director, brought out those sequences in the most organic way. There's no scope for getting it raunchy or causing discomfort to the eyes, and it doesn't even go over the top.

Gehraiyaan is an important film with prolonged sequences that clock two hours and 28 minutes of runtime. It also shines because of its theme, getting into the genre that is rarely explored in Hindi movies and also bringing out beautiful performances by a few actors that will be talked about.

Gehraiyaan might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's a genre-defining film in Bollywood. Kudos to Shakun Batra for taking a chance with this and taking out the best from Deepika Padukone in a very long time.