In Neeraj Pandey’s new, old-fashioned film, time takes its own sweet time. Rather than Indian spies battling terrorists or cops hunting down criminals, Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha is about one man’s personal war for love. Pandey, who has written the story and screenplay, is waging a parallel war: on attention spans.
The 145-minute saga of mutual passion undone by misfortune moves v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha explains why Krishna (Ajay Devgn) and Vasudha (Tabu) are not a couple despite having swapped together-forever vows.
Flashbacks reveal the younger Krishna (Shantanu Maheshwari) wooing his neighbour Vasudha (Saiee Manjrekar). In the present, Krishna is in prison, while Vasudha is married to Abhijeet (Jimmy Sheirgill).
The experience of watching an overstretched Doordarshan-era telefilm is leavened by restrained performances and occasionally sharp dialogue. Pandey didn’t need to take so long to explore his bare-bones plot, but he manages to keep the concentration from wavering by hinting that he has something more up his sleeve.
The camera swirls intensely around characters who often remain rooted to the spot, perhaps waiting for a cue. The violin-heavy background score suggests that a surprise or two is around the corner.
The gotcha moment never arrives. The expectation builds up to almost nothing.
The actors fare well, under the circumstances. Ajay Devgn and Tabu have a richly seasoned rapport, just as Shantanu Maheshwari and Saiee Manjrekar are nicely paired as their younger counterparts.
The film’s restrained approach sometimes works against it. Krishna tells Vasudha that he is willing to go up in flames just so that she may warm her hands. But their coy relationship is anything but combustible. The warmth is supplied almost single-handedly by Jimmy Sheirgill, who has a cameo that threatens to turn into something interesting but never does.
