Director Mohit Suri likes to play with the idea of unachievable love. Be it Woh Lamhe or Aashiqui 2, he highlights the hesitation that lovers suffer before turning soulmates. Written by Mahesh Bhatt, Hamari Adhuri Kahani provides him the perfect canvas to construct a bridge between love that calls for a celebration and love that seeks approval from the society. This time, he has used Rajkummar Rao’s character to drive home his point, but talkative characters and some really clichéd plot points have ruined his noble wishes. Yes, the film’s biggest weakness is its writing. Soulful music is Hamari Adhuri Kahani’s other valuable asset and it helps the audience in sustaining this 129-minute-long preachy film. Hamari Adhuri Kahani is mostly dependent on its lead actors and they’ve done a satisfactory job. It’s one of those films which reveals its latent potential and then fails to capitalise on it. Hamari Adhuri Kahani is watchable, but it is not likely to ignite a passionate fire in your heart.

"What's going on?" "Yeh kya ho raha hai?" "I don't get you man." You hear characters voicing more or less the same thing at regular intervals in Hamari Adhuri Kahani. This is a 2 hours and 12 minute-long romantic tragedy but really it may as well be a mawkish soap opera targeted for saas-bahu show lovers with its old-fashioned notion of love as eternal sacrifice.  With a foreboding title like Hamari Adhuri Kahani, the real tragedy of this romance is that the tears never come. Instead audiences find themselves whinging at the events on screen. With a foreboding title like Hamari Adhuri Kahani, the real tragedy of this romance is that the tears never come. Instead audiences find themselves whinging at the events on screen. By the time Vasudha's woman-power monologue with a ridiculous plea arrives, this tiring kahani has us wanting to revisit Balan in the other, far better Kahaani (2012).

Director Mohit Suri's Hamari Adhuri Kahani is an anachronistic, tragic romance that touches an emotional chord, yet, makes you dismiss it as a regressive piece of art. The direction appears confused, with a present-day setting, while the treatment of the plot and characters belong to a bygone era. The story, with its verbose, melodramatic and regressive dialogues, along with outdated metaphors and symbolism, fits into the 1970's mould perfectly. Sadly, the audience today will not relate to it. Emraan Hashmi delivers a sensitive performance, quite contrary to his usual image. Vidya Balan as the protagonist brings out the pathos of a distraught mother and abandoned wife seeking true love, through an emotionally intense portrayal and Rajkummar Rao wows you with his power-packed and nuanced performance as Hari. Technically, with excellent production values and decent music, the visuals by cinematographer Vishnu Rao are vibrantly brought to life by his meticulous framing. Watch this one if you are moved by sad love stories. The good performances are an added bonus.

Mohit Suri has been an efficient director of plot-heavy cinema (with plots often filched from other places), a man who trades almost exclusively in weatherbeaten movie cliches but has always done so with some speed and slickness. This time, working from a script written by Mahesh Bhatt, his focus appears to be not story but, simply, sadness. Everyone in this film, in virtually every frame, looks pained. The relentless background score swells to a crescendo, and then swells up again, to another crescendo. The characters are all pathetic folk with twisted childhoods. Hamari Adhuri Kahani is a pathetic attempt at tragedy. It is a film where three fine actors all play idiots. Now let’s talk about what’s good in Hamari Adhuri Kahani. The thing is…........

When the trio of Vidya Balan, Rajkummar Rao and Emraan Hashmi — competent actors all, Rao even better — comes together, you expect something. At the very least, a tug at the heartstrings. Because a ‘prem kahani’ is nothing if it doesn’t touch you deep inside, and make you yearn. What ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ does is the exact opposite. It purports to be an unusual triangle, and perhaps on paper, it may have come off as one. But this is a shockingly empty film, with the entire cast desperately ‘acting away’, and not one sentiment that feels real. Given his early track-record of creating engaging drama, Mohit Suri should have made a full meal of the film, but his material defeats him: it is not only half done, it’s also not well begun. If this was ‘adhuri’, I shudder to think what would have happened if it was ‘poori’.