Gehraiyaan, Amazon Prime – A Dive Into Insecurities, Flaws And Complexities Of Human Frailty

Ever since the makers have unveiled the teaser of the film featuring the lines of one of it’s songs, ‘Tu marz hai dawa bhi, par aadat hai hume’ it has taken over the social media by a storm. With just the glimpse of its music, visuals and splendid star cast I knew this is one film which I’m going to watch no matter what and after my 2 hour 28 minutes experience of watching ‘Gehraiyaan’ I can gladly say I made the right choice. 

Featuring an exceptional ensemble cast including Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday and Dhairya Karwa the film’s story revolves around two couples whose life gets entangled and messed up not just personally but professionally as well.

Alisha Khanna (played by Deepika Padukone), is a yoga instructor in her 30’s who wants to develop an app of her own. She’s in a six-year long live-in-relationship with Karan (played by Dhairya Karwa) who aspires to be a writer and has just quit his job to write his first book. They are your next door middle class couple working, struggling and trying to make things work. On the other hand there’s Tia (played by Ananya Panday) Alisha’s cousin who’s living a perfect life with all the luxuries of the world. She’s madly in love with her fiancee Zain (played by Siddhant Chaturvedi) who’s an entrepreneur in the real estate sector.

Their life takes a turn like the waves of the ocean when the two couples meet during a get-together at Tia’s farmhouse in Alibaug. They say, opposite attracts but this doesn’t stand true for Alisha and Zain who get attracted towards each other over their similar traumatic pasts. Alisha who wants to escape from her present life as she finds it suffocating, got the peace she was in search of with Zain and the two continue their relationship beyond Alibaug followed with a lot of guilt, regret and chain of lies. 

There are quite a lot of things in the film which really touched me. One of which was how through Alisha’s character Shakun Batra tried to present the importance parents relationship play in a child’s life and how it molds their personality. Everytime we see Alisha struggling with the memories of her mother’s tragic death, we could feel her pain and want to give her a long hug.

If movie making is an art, Shakun Batra has truly mastered it. There’s no one who can explore complexities of relationships and human emotions as deeply and beautifully as he does. I’ve always found some personal connection with his films, be it ‘Kapoor and Sons’ or ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’, and with ‘Gehraiyan’ the connection has just deepened.

Coming to the performances, first things first. Deepika Padukone has outdone herself once again and how. Give Deepika a role and believe it that she will not disappoint you. She puts in her everything and has left no stone unturned to connect with the audience. She approached the role realistically and this is what made her character more relatable and believable. In her Alisha somewhere we could see a glimpse of ourselves – broken, insecure and vulnerable still trying to stand strong against all the odds. And did I mention how glamorous she looked making it quite difficult to take your eyes off her. Siddhant Chaturvedi too delivers a powerful performance as Zain and the two together share a sizzling and intense chemistry. 

Ananya Panday has really put in efforts and this could be clearly seen in her performance. One can’t deny that she is the titular character made for the role of Tia. Dhairya Karwa who has proved his mettle as an actor with films like ‘Uri’ and ’83’ has managed to impress once again. Though he didn’t have much screen time as compared to the other leads. Rajat Kapoor as Jitesh Zain’s business associate and Naseeruddin Shah as Mr. Khanna Alisha’s father also shines out in the supporting but important roles. Cheers to the casting directors because there couldn’t have been a cast better than this!

When talking about ‘Gehraiyaan’ , it is just impossible to not mention about it’s soundtrack. Kabeer Kathpalia (OAFF) and Savera Mehta have done a brilliant job and composed a very soothing music which beautifully compliments the story line. And, with aesthetically eye pleasing cinematography by Kaushal Shah the film shows visual finesse at it’s best.

Shakun Batra’s Cinema can’t please everyone but once you dive into it’s ‘gehraiyaan’ you can’t stop yourselves from loving it.

‘Gehraiyaan’ is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.