Love's labour lost

Love's labour lost

Hamari Adhuri Kahani
Hindi (U), Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan, Rajkummar Rao
Director: Mohit Suri

Emraan Hashmi is a hotelier. Vidya Balan is a florist. Love blossoms after a few glances and a fire alarm. Hashmi is rather alarmed that only a woman staffer came to his rescue when the siren went off.

Hashmi keeps scribbling Vidya’s name on papers and later, develops a habit of missing flights. How else could he wah-wah at the lilies in the lounge? After all, he is in love with a woman who loves flowers.

The thorn comes in the form of Rajkummar Rao, Vidya’s missing husband with Maoist links.

Mohit Suri had an efficient cast at his disposal. But Hamari Adhuri Kahani is stuck in a time warp and its earnest actors are forced to talk in a moth-eaten tongue. Hashmi impresses even with his you-are-my-sunshine lines.

Vidya Balan holds her own in her pati-bhagwan part, but is made to shudder and roll her eyes at the prospect of removing her mangalsutra.

Hashmi has a progressive mom in Amala Akkineni who gives Vidya some shun-Sita-turn-Radha lessons. Vidya isn’t interested. She just wants Hashmi to teach her pyar.

When the lovers are done singing and sighing in the deserts of Dubai, they are taken to the minefields of Chhattisgarh for a climax that leaves much to be desired. Just like the “incomplete” love story.