Sanchita
Dono Movie Review; Read FULL –
Rating: 3/5
Director: Avnish Barjatya
Cast: Rajveer Deol, Paloma Dhillon
Runtime: 2h 36 mins
Storyline:
Dev (Rajveer Deol) has been in love with his childhood best friend Alina since forever. On one hand, his career is still frustratingly stuck in the struggling phase, on the other he’s shattered to find out Alina is getting married.
At Alina’s lavish destination wedding in Thailand, Dev runs into the enigmatic Meghna (Paloma Dhillon), the best friend of the groom. While she seems carefree on the outside, the presence of her ex – who’s also the groom’s best man, seems to be secretly troubling her immensely.
Will the two hurt souls – Dev and Meghna – get the closure that they desperately seek and find solace in each other at this eventful wedding?
Dono Movie Review:
For the unversed, Dono marks the directorial debut of Filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya’s son Avnish Barjatya. It has also introduced the debutantes and star kids – Rajveer Deol (Sunny Deol’s son) and Paloma Dhillon (Poonam Dhillon’s daughter).
It is a family-friendly, feel-good drama with soothing music and visually pleasing aesthetics. It has that quintessential Rajshri old-school charm.
Dono Movie Review:
But while it looks picturesque, it feels emotionally hollow, cliched and superficial at moments. The runtime feels a tad bit stretched. The 1st half is very slow-burn with odd pacing and struggles to build any emotional investment. The humour lacks the punch.
But having said that, the 2nd half picks up substantially – and is quite emotional with relatable content about finding closure after a break-up, moving on from unrequited love and finding oneself. While the themes may be about modern love, the film never steps into any sort of debauchery but stays sanitized as one would expect from a Rajshri film.
Dono Movie Review:
Talking about the two young stars – Rajveer Deol is handsome, charming and likeable. But he seems quite stiff when required to show emotion and is not totally convincing in showing the extent of his character’s pining and jaded cynicism.
Paloma Dhillon looks enchanting in her debut and has wonderfully expressive eyes which help her emote better. While it seems that she hasn’t much to do in the 1st half apart from smile prettily, her character arc in the 2nd half proves that she does have the acting chops.
Chemistry flickers from Paloma’s side but is a bit of hit and miss from Rajveer. Talking about the soundtrack – the Dono title track, Raangla, Khatt Mithiyaan sound heavenly but the dance tracks sound generic and fail to leave any impact.
Hit Or Miss:
It’s a family-friendly, feel-good film that you can watch on the big screen if you’re in the mood for something old-school.
(Also Read: Khufiya Movie Review)
