Star Cast: Kriti Sanon, Dhanush, Prakash Raj, Priyanshu Painyuli, Vineet Kumar
Director: Aanand L. Rai
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What’s Good: Dhanush! Dhanush! Dhanush!
What’s Bad: The flawed story
Loo Break: Well, occasionally…
Watch or Not?: For those who target watching this bow (Dhanush) mainly!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 169 minutes
User Rating:
Shankar (Dhanush) is a wayward young student who lives with his affectionate father (Prakash Raj) in a tenement and largely indulges in violence (for perceived social and socialist causes). He cannot forget his mother, who died saving him from burns in a fire. Because he is chasing a man he wants to thrash, he barges into the college auditorium where Mukti (Kriti Sanon) is expounding on her 2200-page (!!!) thesis (she is a Psychology student) that violence within a human being can be completely controlled. Mukti chooses to face him bravely, and from Shankar’s side, it is love at first touch (he grips her hand preventively, probably assuming she is going to slap him!).
Soon, he becomes a case study for her, though she has clearly told him that she is only involved with him in a strictly professional manner. The next half an hour or so has elements of humorous entertainment along with the absurdities (like in the burnt bus incident), and so I expected an entertainer at least.
But things soon escalate to impossible convolutions, involving their respective fathers and her fiancé. There is also a mysterious know-all priest (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) in Benares and some rather dense and ineffective professors who award Mukti her degree/doctorate. She goes abroad for higher studies and is appointed (at her age!!), by one of those ‘filmi’ coincidences, a head counsellor in the Armed Forces! This is because Shankar has now become a pilot in the Indian Air Force, an ace flyer who is still rebellious in his attitude, with his love unfulfilled and a burning fire within.
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Within the first 15 minutes in a film that wonkily slithers between past and present, Mukti, now heavily pregnant, is summoned to Leh Ladakh to issue a mental fitness certificate for Shankar (till that time, she is not aware of his whereabouts ever since her wedding to someone else). She courageously accepts the assignment and, despite her condition, travels to Leh Ladakh. The past and present come together in an emotional tangle.
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Himanshu Sharma and Neeraj Yadav write a dark script that is flawed, if not at the concept level, definitely in the execution, which ranges from the absurd to the needlessly negative. The last half an hour of a mammoth 169-minute narrative is a great exercise in stretching logic too thin as well as testing the viewer’s patience. I know that dark romantic stories have an audience today (Saiyaraa at a high level and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat at mid-levels!), but this ‘spiritual successor’ to Raanjhanaa stopped touching me at the interval point with the growing quantum and (lack of) quality of illogical happenings.
As I see it, the main flaw lies in Mukti, who is a reaction to Shankar’s darkness and somber persona. As a psychologist, her confusion and the methods she employs to ‘control’ Shankar are ludicrous, all told, and Mukti comes across as a rather addlepated human being. Also, in the way her father (Tota Roy Chowdhury) behaves, it was imperative that she should have ‘treated’ her parents’ warped psychology’ before taking on the world and—OMG!—our Armed Forces!
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Kriti Sanon, nevertheless, gives a neat essay of her fuddled character, but at this stage of her career and stature, she needs to have more discernment about the kind of characters she green-lights. After brilliant work in films like Mimi, Bhediya, and Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya and even Crew, she should steer clear of what seem like ‘different’ roles in ‘meaty’ setups (Adipurush, Shehzada) and vet her scripts ruthlessly.
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That said, she does a skilled job of Mukti despite the voluminous flaws in her garbled character.
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It is Dhanush, whose sharp essay portrays a warped character who is good at heart yet violent because of the fire that burns within him at every pore. His expressions are quite remarkable and show a consistency that borders on repetitiveness, but that aspect is in tune with his intense and consistently persistent persona. Even if the film fails to touch, Dhanush as Shankar does move us, and one feels that even if this man was a case study, he deserved a better psychologist to make him normal, sans confusion!
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Prakash Raj as Dhanush’s father and Priyanshu Painyuli are effective, but Tota Roy Chowdhury as Kriti’s father hams it up. I liked Vineet Kumar as Dhanush’s chief in the Air Force.
Aanand L. Rai is in indulgent mode yet again, probably more than a shade disturbed after his decent Raksha Bandhan flopped and the massy but messy Raanjhanaa was a success. He extracts the juice of darkness to the limit, forgetting that his script has major negative messages (that would be spoilers if I mention them here). Suffice to say that I miss the masterly touch of his Tanu Weds Manu franchise here, especially the 2015 sequel.
A.R. Rahman’s music is not memorable, though Jigarthanda is catchy while it lasts. The same is true of Irshad Kamil’s lyrics. The Dhanush-written Tamil song, Chinnaware, sung by Shankar Mahadevan, had astute lyrics, though, as understood from its subtitles.
All in all, the film was an anticlimax, and two good performances alone don’t make for a fruitful watch. After a fan-and-franchise-driven decent opening, the film is unlikely to sustain, other than for Dhanush’s fans.
Two stars!
Tere Ishk Mein released on 28th November, 2025.
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