Just as one gets comfy in the past, Kohli rudely yanks you back to the present. Quaint trams to steam engines, vintage cars to pebbled sidewalks, Marine Drive to Victoria Terminus and Metro Cinema to Maratha Mandir. Kohli and his team have a blast recreating the Bombay of the 1960s. It’s the age of tightly draped saris, gravity-defying buoffants, Elvis-inspired ducktails and drainpipe pants. The romance is cute, the drama delightfully over-the-top. Though a little abrupt, TMK is its most fun and fresh in this segment. However, the romance hits a roadblock in the form of her best friend and his neighbour Maahi (Prachi Desai). Studio floor to glitzy parties, they meet and re-meet, gradually falling in love. They come from two different worlds, but that doesn’t stop them from striking up a friendship. Rukhsar (Priyanka 1), a Lucknow girl who ran away from home with stars in her eyes and is now a Raj Khosla heroine, meets Govind (Shahid 1), a struggling musician in Raj Kapoor pants and Charlie Chaplin walk, trying to make it big in Bombay. Much like Three Times, TMK starts off with the segment set in the ’60s. If the Bhatts raid the Korean rack in the DVD library for their films (and sequels), Kohli’s clear inspiration for TMK lies in the Taiwanese shelf: the 2005 film Three Times that explored love and heartbreak across 1911, 19.
In fact, the Hum Tum maker, who had been gloating about his narrative technique in pre-release interviews, can’t even take credit for it. None of the three love stories is strong enough to tug at the tear ducts and the central conflict is too weak to make you root for the lovers. For Kohli is so taken up by this time-travel technique that he sacrifices soul, substance and storytelling.
Which brings us to the worst thing about Teri Meri Kahaani - the fact that it tries to be different. Before you roll your eyes and go “Oh, reincarnation!”, director Kunal Kohli makes it a point to tell you that this is a tale of unrequited passion that straddles three different eras, with the lovers surviving the cycle of life and death to meet in a different time and space. Unlike the Bolly romances of today that start on a New York college campus, travel through the mustard fields of Punjab and end up in a big, fat Indian wedding, the star-crossed lovers here hop, skip and jump from the 1960s to the present and go further back to 1910. The best thing about Teri Meri Kahaani is that it tries to be different. THIS 3-IN-1 LOVE STORY IS INNOVATIVE IN TECHNIQUE BUT LACKS SOUL AND SUBSTANCEĭid You Like/not Like Teri Meri Kahaani? Tell 23.06.12, 12:00 AM