PremiumTeri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya review - Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon's attempt at clumsy AI romance gets tangled in its own wires
Although Kriti Sanon is the shining star of the film, Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya's sparks fizzle out in no time.
Last Updated: 01.27 PM, Feb 09, 2024
Aryan (Shahid Kapoor) has a hard time finding a compatible life partner. While on official business in the United States, he meets the ideal girl, Sifra (Kriti Sanon), and falls madly in love with her—a love story that turns out to be impossible. Why? Because Sifra is 'Super Intelligent Female Robot Automation'.
The announcement of the film brought hope that romantic comedies were making a comeback and were much needed! With all the action-packed drama releasing in Bollywood, Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya seemed like a breath of fresh air. Although the film is based on a love story between a human and a robot, it gave hat-tips to several films in many instances. Even the very first scene reminded me of Stree, and I felt like it's going to be a scary start and probably an end too. Well, I was right!
The film starts with a breezy love story, and even the build takes on its own pace. Well, the film is 143 minutes long, and the makers decided to space out everything in it but forgot to add one thing: an interesting screenplay to make it entertaining for nearly two and a half hours. Well, many of them in the theatre sighed, looking at the runtime, thinking, Why would this film be so long? And the answer is—unnecessarily dragging it in the name of entertainment and poor jokes.
Well, I won't deny the fact that many jokes made me laugh so hard that I had to hold my stomach. However, having just "haha" moments can't make the soul of the film good if the story doesn't bring out the purpose in the right way. To start with, was Shahid Kapoor, as Aryan, only in love with Sifra (Kriti Sanon) for her "pretty" face or just because she was a "yes" person? And how did he not think through it? Despite his expertise as a robotics engineer, he failed to thoroughly consider the implications of his actions when he embarked on a journey to fall in love with a humanoid robot.
Moreover, the film gets too quick in establishing how Sifra is an advanced robot because, yes, you have seen S. Shankar's Enthiran, where Rajinikanth becomes the robot, right? You know the drill! Well, we even see a robot falling in love with a human being, and that felt more believable than what Amit Joshi and Aradhana Sah did in their directorial debuts.
Even in the movie Her (2013), a lonely man develops feelings for Scarlett Johansson's voice-activated virtual assistant, Samantha. In the Malayalam film Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25, a son brings an android home in India to take care of his father. After rejecting the idea, the bond becomes unshakeable and too attached. Hands-down, it's one of the most beautiful films.
Meanwhile, Aryan considers his dysfunctional Delhi family the perfect setting to experiment with Sifra, given the challenges of surviving in a big, fat Indian family. Well, the experiment is quite interesting only if it is just a part of the whole film and not the whole story per se. Dealing with Sifra's challenges, as she remains disconnected from human emotions and solely responds to face scanning and analysis, results in quick resolutions. It felt like the makers were running out of time to keep the conflict going and make it a larger part of the story, and they rather believed in investing in the family drama, which was so forced in the name of humour.
Like I mentioned about the hat-tips to several Bollywood films, most of them even came from Shahid's outings, such as Kabir Singh and Jab We Met, and his performance will definitely remind you of his days from Vaah! Life Ho Toh Aisi! era. As much as I love Shahid as a performer, probably romantic comedies have become less of a forte for an actor of his calibre. However, in some emotional and intense sequences, he does make up for it.
In other news, well, probably we can get away with "wife" jokes already. Those are not even jokes anymore, just zeroing down the partner to nother. In one instance, the robot gets more respect than the wife. Um, what logic?
Well, if I had to praise anything about the film, it would be Kriti Sanon for her impeccable robot act. The actor definitely got the assignment right and shines throughout, from the first frame until the last one. Kriti effortlessly captivates the audience and delivers a visually delightful performance that surpasses all others in the film, despite her intentionally limited range of expressions. Especially in the third act of nearly half an hour, the actor demands attention downright, and we wish that twist could have been more explored and "experimented." Despite a flawed climax in every possible way, Kriti does bring the right balance of charm and incredible performance to keep one hooked.
Most of the actors brought stubbornness in the name of the character arc, while the family members were merely there for laugh value, even with their appearances. But I do appreciate the fact that Dharmendra has more dialogue in this film than in his previous outing in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.
Amit Joshi and Aradhana Sah, who also wrote the film, brought in great potential with the concept blended into the romantic comedy genre. However, they couldn't pick up the film once it dropped, and most of the screenplay just became fillers for a thrilling climax. Well, the redemption couldn't save the film in any way. But one thing I would say is that the placement of the songs amid all this seemed quite right, as it didn't crowd the film by adding songs to every scene.
But did the background score in the third act sound like Adipurush's Jai Shri Ram? You tell me.
With more glitches than sparks, Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya is disjointed and will leave you spinning in circles.