Ekk Deewana Tha – Movie Review

– Vinay

Pleasant. Sweet. Bearable.

My first sentiment after watching Ekk Deewana Tha (EDT) was a deep sense of disappointment at missing out on the original 2010 tam movie Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (translates to ‘Will you cross the Skies and Come?’, WOW! Can there be a better name for a romantic movie?!). In that sense, I carried a clean slate to watch Director Gautham Menon’s third version of same story, except the criticism it had received from leading newspaper reviewers, in whom quite frankly, I have no faith left after their high ratings to the ridiculously boring, Ek Main Aur Ek Tu.

Coming back to EDT, recently I read an article stating that instead of criticizing and judging movies, reviewers should rather identify the audience segment who would like the movie the most.  Fair enough, considering every movie may be liked by a certain section of the viewing public. With this in mind, I recommend EDT to all those looking for romantic-mushy movies, not a semi-romantic more comedy rom-com, but a full blown romantic affair with its share of will-make-you-smile moments. I like this genre of movies in particular and hence I enjoyed watching EDT. It even has some lovely music by the great A.R. Rahman and a fresh good looking new lead pair to further increase the likeability factor.

The story is the age old staple romantic one, boy (Prateik Babbar, Sachin) sees girl (Amy Jackson, Jessie – lovely screen name, no?), boy falls in love, girl agrees after some pursuing but her father does not approve and hence the happy ending will have to wait. Though simple, EDT has just about enough crests and troughs in the story to keep you engaged.

Prateik Babbar in his natural nervous, unsure, guy next door act, actually manages to pull it off, getting the audience right behind him in the empathy factor. You smile at his small successes and feel for him when he experiences the frustrations of young love.  Make no mistake, he still cannot act but you end up liking him.

Regarding Amy Jackson, well, let us just say, the former Miss Liverpool looks cute enough to not criticize her acting skills or rather the lack of it. (She reminded me of a certain Miss Fakhri in the recent Rockstar).

Amy does play her part though, in the crackling chemistry that exists between the lead pair, contributing big time in keeping the interest levels high. The couple manages to look good together and communicate well with each other without dialogues, sweet enough!

The problem with the movie begins when the onscreen mid-twenties couple’s relationship starts resembling a teenage one with lady love going back and forth in her decision. The story tends to drag in these parts and thus makes one notice the length of the movie.

Small glitches though in an otherwise decent fare aided big time by the brilliantly romantic music score by A.R. Rahman, albeit with surprisingly poor lyrics by Javed Akhtar (listen to the Tam version of Aaromale to know what I mean!). Although it does not touch the dizzying heights of Rockstar, the music definitely adds to the joy factor of watching the movie. Also must mention, the cameo by Ramesh Sippy was a nice addition, with the ‘Rahman’ line making me go “Ah, awesome!”

Eventually, I would reiterate my point about liking the romantic genre of movies to like this one (and having a bit of extra patience also!). Go for EDT, it is a cute romantic movie which will probably end up reminding you of your own teenage love affair, those days when love seemed eternal and a break up- patch up within a day was a norm!

Rating: 3/5

Dessert Note:

Had heard the tam Aaromale for the first time on a cab journey, a couple of years ago-courtesy the man behind MusicAloud. Did not understand a word of the lyrics then but the song has been on my cell phone ever since. Understood that music has no language barrier that day through ARR!

Also, can someone please send the online link of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, with subtitles ofcourse, unlike music, movies have a language barrier!