Movielogr
Ekk Deewana Tha (2012)
Directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon
Twitter Facebook Google+Overview
Sachin is an engineering graduate from a middle class Mumbai family, but his passion is for the world of cinema. He is dreaming and planning for a future as a director, when he sees Jessie. It is love at first sight for Sachin. However, Jessie is from a strict Malayali Christian family, and her parents would never approve of their romance. The other problem is Jessie insists that she doesn’t want a romantic relationship, but wants only to be friends. Of all the girls in the world why did Sachin have to fall for Jessie?
Length 160 minutes
Actors
Prateik Babbar | Amy Jackson | Tony Kattukaran | Manu Rishi | Sachin Khedekar | Samantha Akkineni | Ashwin Kakumanu | Ramesh Sippy | Babu Antony | Sriranjini | Shruti Bapna | Pradeep Kottayam | Lakshmi Ramakrishnan | Subbalakshmi
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01/19/2020 | TV | DVD | Library | 5.5 stars |
| (Average) 5.5 stars |
Viewing Notes
So I didn’t know going into this that this movie is a remake of a remake… all three films by the same director! Gautham Menon originally directed & released this screenplay, which he also wrote, in 2010 as Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, a Tamil film. Then later that year he released a remake, Ye Maaya Chesave, in Telugu. Two years later he’d make (remake) the same movie in Hindi. Not sure if this is the first instance of this but this has to be a rare occurrence even in India but I’m definitely curious if it’s happened before!
Apparently this is also the worst or lesser of the three films due to changes made towards the end. Of course now I want to see the original film at least to compare (it has favorable ratings, too). Another thing I’m not sure about is the runtime b/c the cut I saw was 136 minutes but it’s listed here as 160. I wonder if that’s bc the original film is 160 since I cannot imagine what would be cut from this movie since it’s already bloated as these tend to be. It’s a bit unfortunate b/c I’ve seen similar stories told (dramedy/rom-com) that usually fall in the 100 minute range. The additional 36 minutes do nothing for this story. Sure, some of that could be the song/dance numbers but a tighter film may have at least improved the through line instead of drawing it out.
This is Amy Jackson’s second Indian film and she has to do a lot of work here. She’s mostly successful in being a convincing bride to be against her will (arranged marriage) even tho her grief emoting needs work. Not once do I buy her as Indian even tho that’s the story here. Also she doesn’t dance during any of the dance/song sequences. I also suspect her dialogue was completely voiced over by another actor (I think a lot of the dialogue in general was recorded in studio after the principle filming). I could be wrong but she’s a British actor that doesn’t have a British accent yet fully has an Indian accent. It’s interesting to hear. Anyways, she is a beauty and quite striking (guessing she was around 21 when she made this). I’m fascinated by her career in Indian cinema not being Indian yet portraying one in these films.
As for the story… it’s problematic. I’m not a fan of the stalker guy forcing his way into making the girl fall for him. Just gives me the creeps watching that then to have the girl suddenly be like “oh yeah now I like you.” Also a shocking amount of kissing in this movie! I wonder if it’s because Jackson is not Indian b/c it’s just been a big on screen taboo for so long. I’ve seen short kisses in modern Indian films but nothing to this degree. Anyways, she falls for the guy, an aspiring filmmaker despite the wishes of her father who forbids it b/c of her religion (she’s Christian). This is the main conflict of the narrative is they want to be together but cannot and eventually she has to get married to someone else arranged by her father.
Despite the stalker behavior there are things I appreciate even if these are common tropes. However, there is one scene that was like nails on a chalkboard; they go on a date to a movie (she hasn’t seen many movies b/c of her religion/strict father and the dude is way into cinema) and she proceeds to talk during the movie while he’s watching it. Like I was waiting for him to tell her to shut up and watch the movie. It goes on for a bit and I was ready to lose it. I hate when that behavior is shown in movies like it makes it acceptable. Reminded of when Yumi and I went to see an Indian movie at her local theater and some guy took a phone during the movie and just had a conversation for 15 minutes or so. I was gonna blow and Yumi could sense it so she kept patting my arm like “calm down it’s okay.”
So overall I’m mixed on this film but can give it positive marks for a likable cast and Amy Jackson and being a story about filmmaking in addition to the love story. The songs were fine. I do have to mention that this is one the worst commercial DVDs I’ve ever experienced. The dumbass distribution company placed a large watermark of their name in the upper left of the visible image then every ten minutes or so there would be a huge banner across the bottom w/their website URL. WTF! Also the subtitles were a mix of burning in plus removable which I did not understand. The transfer wasn’t good, either and I turned on my TruMotion to help clean it up. Just awful.
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