Mumbai, Feb 17: Ekk Deewana Tha is a Bollywood Romantic film starring Prateik Babbar and Amy Jackson in the lead roles. Ek Deewana Tha movie is directed by Gautham Menon. Movie Ek Deewana Tha is the remake of Gautham Menon’s own Tamil and Telugu film, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa and Ye Maaya Chesave.
RATINGS:
2/5
CAST AND CREW:
Star Cast – Prateik Babbar, Amy Jackson, Manu Rishi, Sachin Khedekar and Ramesh Sippy
Director – Gautham Menon
Producers – Gautham Menon, Reshma Ghatala, Venkat Somasundaram, Sanjay Routrey and Senthil Veeraasamy
Music Director – A R Rahman
Director – Gautham Menon
Producers – Gautham Menon, Reshma Ghatala, Venkat Somasundaram, Sanjay Routrey and Senthil Veeraasamy
Music Director – A R Rahman
STORY:
The story revolves around a Maharashtrian Brahmin boy, Sachin Kulkarni (Prateik), and a Malayali Christian girl, Jessie (Amy Jackson). They both live in Bombay.
Sachin is a regular guy-22 year old engineering graduate from a middle class family who is in love with the world of cinema. As a struggler in the film industry-where his long days are filled with waiting and then some more waiting, surviving on his father’s pocket money and desperately trying to make an entry into any of the main film camps-there is nothing that makes each day worth looking forward to.
Jessie’s family is very orthodox Malayali Christian. She is a year older than him, living in a conservative home, with a dad who wouldn’t allow her to talk to any guy (any guy, ever). Or watch movies, because it’s against their religion (she’s only seen four films!). The brother follows her around like a personal security guard. She’s a working girl.
When Sachin sees Jessie, and it is love at first sight for him. Jessie is beautiful, elegant, smart and classy. But Jessie is not that simple.
Sachin tries to woo her but Jessie, aware of her strict father and brother’s stand on matters of love and romance, does not really respond. However, slowly but surely, Sachin succeeds in striking up friendship with Jessie. Soon, he expresses his love to her and even proposes marriage.
Jessie, for her part, tries to forge a friendship between them-believing that cloaking their feelings under the umbrella of friendship would save them heartache, tears and a full blown family drama.
Sachin gets the shock of his life when one day, Jessie tells him that she is going to Kerala with her family to get married to the boy her father had selected for her. Unable to control his feelings for her, Sachin reaches Kerala along with his cameraman-friend, Anay (Manu Rishi), who is also his confidant. To his utter surprise, Jessie refuses to get married to the boy and says as much to the priest in the church.
Jessi confesses to Sachin that it is also because of him (Sachin) that she had cancelled her marriage. When Sachin asks her to marry him, she pleads with him to run away from there as otherwise, her brother would beat him up again.
Sachin leaves Kerala and gets an assistant director’s job with filmmaker Ramesh Sippy. Time flies by. Sachin is given to understand that Jessie has gotten married. He busies himself in writing his own script based on his own love story. Meanwhile, a girl working in Ramesh Sippy’s unit falls in love with Sachin. He casts her as the heroine of his film. The film is applauded when released.
What happens to Sachin and Jessie’s love story? Do Sachin and Jessie meet? Is Jessie already married? Or did she not marry? What about Sachin’s film heroine? Does he marry her? The last part of the film answers these questions.
PERFORMANCE:
Prateik Babbar doesn’t look like a fresh twenty-two year old love-stricken graduate. He does well in some scenes but falls short of the demands of other scenes. He is suitably shy in the initial reels but he fails to deliver in the more dramatic ones.
Amy Jackson looks fairly nice and makes an average debut. She is fair in some scenes and very ordinary in others. She has her skin with a digitally altered skin tone, lacks the sizzling sensuality most South Indian gals are blessed with. As a whole, Amy Jackson looks fairly nice and makes an average debut.
Manu Rishi is alright. More than his acting, it is the scenes which he has that are somewhat entertaining.
Sachin Khedekar, Ramesh Sippy (as himself) and Samantha Ruth Prabhu lend ordinary support.
Babu Anthony and Vikas Menon are okay.
A.R. Rahman’s music is good but the hit or super-hit status is missing. The Hosanna song is already very popular and its picturisation (by Brinda) is quite eye-filling. The other songs are nice but that’s not enough for a youthful love story. Other song picturisations are commonplace.
Javed Akhtar’s lyrics are appealing.
Silva’s action scenes are functional.
Cinematography, by M.S. Prabhu, is good. It is fabulous and classy.
Anthony’s editing passes muster and are splendid.
Gautham Menon’s direction is too ordinary to make an impact. His script is lacklustre and his narrative style fails to lift the drama to a level which can involve the viewer. Gautam fails to generate the magic.
COMMENTS:
On the whole, Ekk Deewana Tha is a poor show.