Hum Do Hamare Do, not-so-serious family drama
Hyderabad: This is a star cast to die for: Rajkummar Rao, Paresh Rawal, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aparshakti Khuranna and Kriti Sanon. However, not all the king’s men can put Humpty Dumpty together again. Even the story is an interesting take of an orphan falling in love with a girl entrenched in a happy family. With the yearning for a strong family, he searches for a make-believe parent couple.
Director Abhishek Jain, who makes his debut in Hindi cinema, had a great choice of making a light-hearted tale or a serious social comment by contrasting values of a family with that of the unrooted. He ends up without doing either and presents a drab comedy.
A dhaba owner guides an orphan child labour to keep away from needless emotions and reject tips given by a loving customer. The orphan leaves the working space in search of his dreams. Dhruv Shikar (Rajkummar Rao) is out to launch ‘Jadugar’, a new 3D device in the market. He runs into Anya Mehra (Kriti Sanon), a family girl living with mom (Prachee Shah Paandya) dad Dr Sanjeev Mehra (Manu Rishi) her sister and a brat for a kid brother. The family eats together and thus lives together.
She values a family and love for dogs as important criteria for a life partner. To satisfy the suitor Dhruv and his friend Shunty (Aprashakti Khurana) go to a marriage broker Shaadiram (Saanand Verma) and look out for make-believe parents. Running out of alternatives, Dhruv goes back to his childhood master Purushottam Mishra (Paresh Rawal), and the customer the dhaba owner loved and lost, Dipti Kashyap (Ratna Pathak Shah).
After the initial summary rejection of the atrocious plan, the two play along. The problem is that Purushottam is a Lord Elmsworth and Dipti is no-nonsense partner.
As the families meet, the guffaws fall out of the cupboard with regularity to the intrigue and curiosity of the Mehra household. How things get sorted out is also what ‘HDHD’ is all about. This script could have worked anywhere in the cinematic space of Sooraj Barjatya to Mahesh Bhatt to Priyadarshan, but seems like a reject from all the camps.
Ratna is capable of much more than what we end up seeing. So too with Paresh Rawal! Kriti and Aparshakti are spirited. Your heart goes out for them for being called upon to deal with such poorly-scripted characters. Rajkummar Rao is an actor who, once again, defies the script with his superior talent. The four-some somehow fail to have a cinematic chemistry – say like Paresh with Akshay or Ratna with Sumeet Raghavan.
The entire blame for the drab end product working around a plot so full of opportunity lies at the doorstep of debutant filmmaker Abhishek Jain. Watch it for the cast who never fail to engage you even at an indifferent outing. Of course, there is Rajkummar Rao, which is a good enough reason to watch a movie.
LRC
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