Dobaaraa Movie Review: Taapsee Pannu’s Film is Good, But Not Good Enough For Theatres

Dobaaraa Movie Review: This Taapsee Pannu film is unpredictable, thrilling, engaging and rivetting but at the end of the day, it's an Anurag Kashyap film and you expect more from his brand of cinema.

Published: August 18, 2022 5:42 PM IST

By Vineeta Kumar

Dobaaraa Movie Review: Taapsee Pannu's Film is Good, But Not Good Enough For Theatres
Dobaaraa Movie Review: Taapsee Pannu's Film is Good, But Not Good Enough For Theatres

Dobaaraa Movie Review: Dobaaraa can be called anything but predictable. Even if you have watched the 2018 Spanish film Mirage, on which Anurag Kashyap’s film is based, you will find Dobaaraa engaging in a different manner. The Taapsee Pannu starrer is a thriller worth watching and engrossing yourself in but it’s not everything you want it to be while the story is unfolding in front of your eyes. Kashyap’s work as a filmmaker who attempts to make a remake for the first time was to set the story in an Indian scene and maintain an equal amount of mystery and unpredictability. He does that. But, while he makes a riveting drama, he makes it more suitable for the OTT-watching audience.

Dobaaraa, with all its edge-of-the-seat thunder and a story that constantly asks the audience to keep thinking, looks more of a Netflix drama than a theatrical experience. Kashyap is one of those few directors who probably infused the culture of the OTT watching experience among the Indian audience by showing them the power of storytelling in a different medium on a new platform. So, when he makes a film like Dobaaraa, a true intense drama with nail-biting twists, he seems to be catering to the audience he has lovingly nurtured on OTT, not the one who awaits the big screen experience.

Dobaaraa Movie Review: Taapsee Pannu presents an engaging thriller but…

There’s nothing magical about Dobaaraa but it’s an intelligently made film by any director in a long time. The story talks about time travel, a portal to the parallel world, and the characters who constantly keep reminding each other of something which has happened to them… something that they can’t really explain. In the middle of all this is a murder, one witness, his death, and how a slight alteration at the scene brings the world upside down. Taapsee plays Antara, a working mother who is married to Vikas (Rahul Bhat), a cheating husband. They have a daughter named Avanti. When the couple moves into their new house, they discover an old TV and a video camera from the ’90s that belongs to Anay (Pankaj Rajput), a kid who would live in that house years back.

Anay is the witness to the murder that takes place in the adjacent Raja Ghosh’s (Saswata Chatterjee) house. On the night of a dreadful storm, the kind of which that occurs once in 10 years, Antara from the future gets connected to Anay (in the past) on the very day he witnesses the murder at Ghosh’s residence. As they connect, so do their stories. Writer Nihit Bhave does a fine job of not confusing the audience with the stories running in the parallel world. Even when the story goes back and forth from past to present, you can differentiate and concentrate well. There’s a sense of excitement everytime you see Inspector Anand (Pavail Gulati) in the story. The film has no irrelevant characters. Everyone has a job to play in the story that is connecting the two worlds together, or rather three, as it appears sometimes.

Dobaaraa Movie Review: Unpredictable and riveting but…

The biggest win for Dobaaraa is that it rejects everything you believe, predict and think about. Even its title is not what you think it is (a little spoiler). When Anurag and Taapsee come together, you know you are in for some real performances and a piece of cinema which would be a tribute to art. Dobaaraa has impressive performances by Taapsee and Saswata. Rahul provides the perfect amount of laughter required just at the right time in dramatically curated scenes. But, Pavail steals the show. He’s rigid, charming, mysterious and at the same time totally vulnerable in his performance delivery on screen.

One of the major reasons why Dobaaraa hits the right notes is its solid editing and dramatic background music. It does not have the anxiety of horror movies but it is daunting and definitely curdles your blood in a few scenes.

However, while it’s one of those rarely seen engrossing mystery-thriller in Bollywood, it is not Kashyap’s best. Only because you have seen, acknowledged and lived with his work for years, you don’t expect logic-defying twists in his stories. Why would a kid, on a stormy-scary night, go to the house where he has already seen something dreadful happening? How are the gates always unlocked? Why would a murderer leave his house open for anyone to barge in his absence when he has committed a serious crime inside? The brand of Anurag Kashyap never leaves such loopholes behind and that disappoints.

To simply put it, Dobaaraa is good but not good enough for theatres and certainly not the best from Kashyap’s resume of work.

Stars: 2.5

Also Read:

For breaking news and live news updates, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Read more on Latest Entertainment News on India.com.

By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts Cookies Policy.