Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha’: Tabu & Ajay Devgn Shine

Direction: Neeraj Pandey

Even during the days of ‘Rukh Rukh Rukh’, Tabu and Ajay Devgn shared a noticeable “old world” chemistry. The malt is vintage. The audience legitimately expects something out of the ordinary. In fact, even as Tabu has made herself scarce and her choices tough, Ajay D. has carved a space for himself and often made films away from the run-of-the-mill. This is partly true for ‘Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha’. True, not many would venture into a film of this kind. Thematically rooted, grammatically awry, experimental template – a paradox that speaks of a mature love relationship that is derailed but largely occupied by adolescent romance – and substantially clichéd.

Krishna (Ajay Devgn) is serving a two-plus decade life sentence in a double murder case. In jail, he has come to occupy an envious vertical and tremendous popularity. Even jail superintendent Solanki (Jiten Lalwani) is very happy with him. However, when he earns a remission of his sentence, he does not want to go back into the wild large world.

Time to examine how he got there – spectacles and all. Krishna (Shantanu Maheshwari) is in love with a girl from the chawl Vasudha (Saiee Manjrekar). Their love story is built on dreams: his dreams end with her; hers are driven by economic needs, domestic responsibilities and a career in computers. Vasudha aims at being an entrepreneur. One sad evening, everything goes wrong when three local lads attempt to rape Vasudha. In the fight that follows, Krishna kills two guys and the third escapes.

While Krishna is in jail, Vasudha moves on to becoming a successful entrepreneur and is now married to Abhijit (Jimmy Shergill). Out from jail, Krishna decides to leave for Dubai. He is sponsored by Mahesh Desai (Sayaji Shinde). One final meeting of Krishna and Vasudha in their completely changed circumstance is the climax and is indeed subdued but punchy.

Director Neeraj Pandey who has given us films of different types and has escaped the rut has another interesting outing. The film has its highs and unfortunately wearisome spells of lows aplenty. The major problem with the film is the romantic narrative between the young Krishna and Vasudha that robs the film of its punch. Whenever Tabu or Ajay Devgn are on screen, things get edgy and relevant. In fact, there is an amazing maturity in the film in the final half-hour. Methinks that the casting director or casting team failed in identifying proper actors for the younger Krishna. Ishaan Khatter would have been an ideal choice. A strained attempt to recreate the early years of the century and to take two youngsters to portray the roles falls flat.

However, Tabu and Ajay Devgn bring in a great degree of dignity and credibility to the characters. They present a more mature format of parting lovers meeting again than the script permitted the protagonists in ‘Thodisi Bewafai’. Full marks to both and you leave the theatre hoping to see more of them together. Jimmy Shergill never disappoints. With characteristic poise he carries the burden of envy and love with great class. The film is enriched by the three standout performances.