Movie Review | Do Patti

 Cast: Kajol, Kriti Sanon, Tanvi Azmi, Shaheer Sheikh, Prachi Shah

Award-winning actress Kriti Sanon puts her money where her talent is. The gradually-growing-in-repute actress works with commercial accuracy in telling a story that is partly engaging and partly cliched. If anything, the film’s length is clipped for the purposes of the OTT platform, perhaps.

It endeavours to deal with the legal conundrum, namely the word of the law vs the spirit of the law. It also focuses on domestic violence. Unfortunately, it is a tad thematically too similar to ‘Darlings’ with writer Kanika Dhillon as the least common multiple. With a storyline that is prominently women-based, enacted by actors of calibre and written by a writing star on the horizon, the film flatters to falter. Resultingly, even during its two hours on the OTT, ‘Do Patti' turns cringey and often tiresome.

Cop on the move Vidya Jyothi (Kajol) moves to Devipur from Delhi but is a Delhi cop all over. Stereotypically, she and other characters keep mouthing abusive language just as indices of being normal and natural. VJ is given patrolling duty but is itching to solve a case. Around the picturesque area is Soumya Sood (Kriti Sanon) who lives with Maaji (Tanvi Azmi) and her husband Dhruv Sood (Shaheer Sheik).

Dhruv is a spoilt brat of a minister who’s packed to Devipur because of his law-breaking past in the capital. He is big-time into paragliding. Soumya has a look-alike twin sister Shailee Pundir. Even as kids, Shailee and Soumya suffer sibling rivalry and exaggerated intolerance. They lose their mother Shobana Pundir (Prachi Shah) early in life and are brought up by their aunt Maaji and live with their uncle Deepak Pundir (Vivek Mushrani). Dhruv has temper issues and while he can be loving he can also turn violent.

Just when Soumya is cuddling up towards matrimony with Dhruv, Shailee returns to muck up the domestic front. Part ‘Darlings’, part ‘Aaina’ and some ‘Sharmili’ thrown in, writer Kanika Dhillon gives it the Punjabi flavour – the prod, push and stroke. Sibling rivalry to sibling hatred in the backdrop of domestic violence. Intruding VJ pushes the envelope to register a case of attempt to murder and domestic violence. Predictable twists and turns yearn their way out through a support system of clichés, songs and some decent performances.

Kajol’s talent is wasted. Fortunately, she doesn’t shriek. To be fair, her character suffers on paper itself. She’s half done-in at the script level. Actors like Tanvi Azmi, Bijendra Kala and Sohaila Kapur as the judge do inject a certain degree of credibility with their sincerity. But not enough to salvage the product.

The film truly belongs to Kriti Sanon. As producer, she has film-maker Shashanka Chaturvedi working hard to project her talent. She may not be top-notch, but that is a failure in the character-sketching than in character interpretation.

There is a lot more that the director could have done while dealing with a problem, namely, women being victims of domestic violence. Statistically 33+ per cent of Indian women are victims of domestic violence. Yet, the filmmaker does not address the issue substantially or sufficiently. Webbed in templates and clichés, hurried to a fault and poorly-etched characters spoil Kriti Sanon’s party.