I was pleasantly surprised to have seen this film; one in which Sharma really shows his Shakespearean writing chops. We're thrown into a small village in India, where word gets around very quickly and everyone knows everyone. I'll leave my summary so far as to say that a relationship develops between the main characters and the character development does the rest.
Coming in at a very snappy 90 minutes, the film does a lot with very little. Character development is pretty solid, although you could guess where each character is going to be at the end of the film. A few small twists don't change the fact that the story feels very very classic. Shakespearean is the right word to describe it; some quotes from Shakespeare even make the final cut of the film. The dramatic sequences are broken up by moments of comic relief - a very theatrical move that I don't see often in such dramatic film. The dialogue is solid, with no major gaffs at all. The plot makes sense and the characters, although driven by their own desires, are largely smart in their decision making. These are all positives.
But I think perhaps the dedication to a kind of tragedy limits the potential of this film. For example, there are numerous scene cuts in which the audience must make the mental leap in plot from the last scene to the current one. The sheer amount and sometimes the size of these leaps can be quite disorienting. Furthermore, it does seem a little lazy. There are some moments in this leap that I'm sure the audience would have loved to witness. Alas. Soundtrack is quite weak although it doesn't hinder the narrative too much. But if I have one major gripe with the film, it is that the final climax of the movie seems to be based on a major plot hole. This is not to say I don't believe it could happen (sure it could), but that I don't quite believe in the motivations behind it.
In any case, the film was extremely solid and did its best with the tools that were laid out in front of it. I would have liked to seem more of the development of the relationship so as to make the audience more invested, and perhaps a more sensical closing to the film. The film falters only because of some core elements of how the story was structured, although everything in between was done quite well.
