Neeraj Pandey is the creative mastermind and director of some of the finest nail biting crime thrillers of recent times like A Wednesday, Special 26 and Spy thrillers like Baby, Special Ops so the automatic expectation from a movie directed by him is a edge of the seat thriller that will keep us guessing till the final scene. His movies are fast paced, larger than life and focused on the "thrill" like a modern age Hitchcock. Just like it would be very difficult to imagine Hitchcock dish out a slow burn character study, dealing with complex emotions and relations, expecting a movie like "Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha" from Neeraj Pandey is equally difficult and unexpected. With this movie Neeraj Pandey shows that he can do so much more than thrillers, unfortunately he lost most of his audience at the box office that expected to watch another Neeraj Pandey styled thriller.
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha which was mislabeled as a Romantic thriller maybe a box office debacle but it is a masterful examination of a real bond of adoration and a true connection of the heart and soul between two humans. Pandey does a good job of gradually peeling the onion to show the internal strength of Ajay's character with a great use of flashbacks and new character integration as the story moves forward. Ajay and Tabu deliver brilliant performances in their respective roles and are the heart and soul of the movie. Shantanu and Saiee are good and believable as the younger version of the movie's protagonists even though they dont look anything their senior counterparts who completely overshadow them with their talent.
The movie falls below expectations of a quick paced Neeraj Pandey thriller, firstly by setting the wrong expectations of a thriller for the audience, secondly by its slow burn approach and finally by the almost expected twist at the end which renders the climactic jolt of emotions at the end of the movie a bit impotent. Ajay Devgn and Tabu excel in their roles as two people who share an unbreakable bond as Neeraj Pandey explores complex themes of love, friendship, relationships that many wont have the courage to try making the title of the movie not only fitting for the movie's characters but also for its creator.
Howeever the slow pace of the movie with a run time of 2 hours focused on a study of characters and their relationships is a bit counterintuitive to the introduction of its protagonist as a deadly and violent individual feared in prison. This augments the incorrect expectations already set up by Neeraj Pandey helming another so called thriller. The result is disappointing to fans of action flicks and thrillers and somewhat of a deterrent for fans of serious romantic and emotional dramas. Perhaps this is the reason the movie has not been able to find its audience.
This is not the movie for fans of a loud Devgn in Singham, Golmaal, Shaitaan etc but is a movie for fans of an introspective and reserved Devgn of HDDCS, Raincoat and Zakhm. I liked the movie but my wife dozed off pretty early on in the movie. It would have benefited from shorter run time, a lower budget (Why did it need Rs 150+ crore), better and more honest marketing as a romantic drama. The movie along with Ajay and Tabu's performances definitely deserve an audience. This movie is not about an outward display of power AKA dum but an introspection of the dum inside us. A slow and emotionally rewarding drama. 7.5/10.
