It purports to be an unusual triangle, and perhaps on paper, it may have come off as one. But this is a shockingly empty film, with the entire cast desperately ‘acting away’, and not one sentiment that feels real.

Given his early track-record of creating engaging drama, Mohit Suri should have made a full meal of the film, but his material defeats him: it is not only half done, it’s also not well begun.

…a film where three fine actors all play idiots. The film is a dreadful drag, with godawful dialogue.

…is mostly dependent on its lead actors and they’ve done a satisfactory job. It’s one of those films which reveals its latent potential and then fails to capitalise on it. Hamari Adhuri Kahani is watchable, but it is not likely to ignite a passionate fire in your heart.

The film is largely a run-down version of the other films that have drawn from the lives of the Bhatts, but it in the last five minutes, director Mohit Suri surprises you with a coherent and dramatic conclusion that strings together stray pieces of the story to form a clear, pretty picture. Too bad the only good part lasts for not more than three minutes, but for its worth, it does give a fitting closure to what seems unfinished business, as the title suggests.

Director Mohit Suri’s Hamari Adhuri Kahani is an anachronistic, tragic romance that touches an emotional chord, yet, makes you dismiss it as a regressive piece of art. The direction appears confused, with a present-day setting, while the treatment of the plot and characters belong to a bygone era.

HAK’s moments come from its lead cast who pitch in their best for the most part. The music is a soothing balm. Suri should know that even cinema Goliaths cannot rise above the written word.

The message to Suri is simple. Lose the metaphors. Kill the background score. Go easy on the explanations. Cut your script by half. And most importantly, trust your audience’s intelligence and their ability to digest modern notions of emancipation and gender equality without building a ridiculously elaborate case for it.

What was Vidya Balan thinking when she agreed to play a distressed, self-sacrificial, traditional wife making the most foolish choices for herself? How is it possible to waste Rajkummar Rao’s talents? Why does Emraan Hashmi, who here is a rich hotelier and ahem India’s most eligible bachelor, look so jaded and blank? Where is this gorgeous lily field in Bastar, Chattisgarh?

…is un-settlingly boring and far from anything that can be termed as timeless romance.

…is definitely very ‘adhuri’ on entertainment value and can be skipped.

…supposedly based on the lives of Mahesh Bhatt’s parents, offers the most harrowing times at the cinema. We don’t know for sure what exactly happened to the people in real life, whether they actually suffered so much, but with this film, the audience certainly has. It is the kind of cinema that might prompt a teetotaler to go out and have a peg – a Patiala preferably.

Love triangles are not terribly original. And bad dialogue never helped any film. HAK is guilty on both counts. The only reason one would get through the two hours of this film is on the efforts of the actors or by praising the idea of themes dealing with love and the fallible nature of people. Not too much on offer for a big ticket movie.

At the heart of the plot is a good story, but in presenting it on celluloid Mohit Suri bungles. The plot is forgotten and all the flaws take the cake. There are instances which leave you wondering how a director can take an actor of Vidya Balan’s stature and make her do the things he did. I mean, there are some really silly situations and weak emotional moments which fall flat. Vidya tries real hard, but even she cannot resurrect the situation which is so poorly written.

‘Hamari…’ is a ham-fest that wallows in the kind of melodrama that Hindi cinema left behind a while ago, only shot with such lens flare much wow. It is difficult to see actors of Balan and Rao’s stature plod through a script that’s this clichéd and take it seriously, resulting in career-worst performances from both of them.

With a protagonist so out of sync with the time and age she lives in, dialogues (Shagufta Rafiq), which seemed to belong to some other bygone era and somehow strayed into 2015, forced intensity and a story defying logic, this film is a disappointment.

There are bad films. Then there are bad films masquerading as works of art. Hamari Adhuri Kahani exposes Mohit Suri to be a shallow and superficial director who scratches the glossy surface of living-room relationships to reveal more of the creator’s own spiritual emptiness rather than the angst of his troubled characters.

The 150-minute story shifts from being modern, to being regressive. To being pointless.

This is a journey of pain: the pain of watching the talented Balan struggling to justify a badly-written role; the pain of seeing the director of Arth stuck in a time warp and refusing to grow out of a poor-me syndrome; the pain of watching Bhatt kill the memorable Kahaani girl of Ooh La La land with the that mighty Indian weapon: the mangalsutra.

Mohit Suri, who has progressively lost control over his craft, is only a step away from fashioning moving pictures out of illustrated music albums.
As gratingly mediocre as Ek Villain was, this is easily Suri’s worst film.

There are weighty issues out here and it’s not just the narrative that I am talking about. Mohit Suri’s workmanlike direction misses the wood for the trees and the ‘thanda’ chemistry between Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi makes this desert bound drama lose it’s grip in the quick sand of forced unflattering togetherness.

…stands true to the filmmaker’s attempt at this film. It’s nothing but a half baked, empty film with gigantic proportions of cheesiness!

Love is painful, everyone has heard that. But `Hamari Adhuri Kahani` is even more painful. Painful to your mind and soul. And if this is the `adhuri` kahaani`, I dread to think what would happen if the makers wanted to show the entire story.

If you’re a sucker for slushy romantic films like Aashiqui 2, Ek Villain etcetera, Hamari Adhuri Kahani might make you weep like a baby. For the rest of us, there are so many better things to do this weekend.

…is disappointing because the promo really pumped me up for some serious dramatics, instead what we get is a wafer thin plot and lead actors hamming it up beyond belief. This Kahaani fails to impress!

The actors are left out to dry, though Rao manages to escape with some of his dignity intact. The same cannot be said of Hashmi (who gets the worst lines) or Balan (who looks like she’s trying too hard). At one point, overcome by gratitude, Vasudha touches Aarav’s feet. I don’t think I’ve laughed more at a movie that wanted me to be crying along with it.

Mohit Suri is a fine director, but has often displayed a misogynistic core in some of his films. That continues here, as the story takes one shockingly regressive turn after the other. It’s difficult to process that Mahesh Bhatt has penned this story.

None of the failures above can be blamed on the actors. They all play sad to the best of their abilities. Their only fault might be that they create zero chemistry – of hatred or of love. But, I’d think the actors saw the film as a lost cause scene after scene and just couldn’t muster the juice out.

…what could’ve been a sensitive debate on whether battered wives can challenge societal norms to seek extramarital comfort, ends up being an eclectic mix of cliches. Did Vidya read the adhuri script before signing this film or did Emraan not get the puri signing amount? We’ll never know.

The director tries to restore the gravitas, the pathos that we associate with romance and takes on the deep-seated patriarchy along the way.

…could still have an audience considering the lady sitting next to me was sobbing during the climax, but given how the three youngsters sitting in front of me were constantly on their phone, it is perhaps a story that would have been best left untold.

What the film could have been, and which it briefly is, is about a woman, who, despite her over-bearing reality, breaks free from tradition, follows her heart and triumphs. Instead, she stupidly walks with her suitcase into the sand dunes.

No, this is not an incomplete story. It’s just a badly told one.

While our expectations were extremely high from Vidya and Rajkummar, we have to admit, our hopes were dashed! Hamari Adhuri Kahani has a series of cheesy dialogues which are sure to draw big yawns. It is clear that this Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan starrer is in for a string of harsh reviews tonight!

…this film fails to match the expectations it created after the release of the trailer and it should be watched by those who like cheesy dialogues and a lot of shedding of tears.

There is a lot of pain in the movie. So much pain that I felt it. In my head. The kind of pain that the entire strip of Panadol won’t be able to fix. My temples are still pounding.
Decent storyline lost in cheesy, very cheesy, no no no, cheesiness-raised-to-the-power-infinity dialogues that I feel I have devoured the entire Cheesecake Factory at MOE.

Passionless and pathos-ridden ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ struggles to show the love…

A single mother strangled between true love and a poignant past, the idea has the capabilities of generating a few goose bumps, but poor story telling makes ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ truly disappointing.