Dono Review - This Crossover Of Two Modern Love Stories Has A Finite Amount Of Conviction

Dono Review: Avnish Barjatya makes his debut with Rajshri Productions' "Dono," starring Rajveer Deol and Paloma Dhillon. Today's romantic dramas are far different from what Rajshri used to make way back in time. From misunderstandings, breakups, and reconciliations, we have come to the 'move on' term in the romantic drama genre. That's relevant to today's generation, but is everyone concerned about it like everyone was with Rajshri's family dramas? The answer should be no, because move-on and live-in terms are still not fully socially accepted. Yet, we have filmmakers trying to tackle the subject, which is somewhat relatable to youth and far from family audiences. Isn't that a sigh of worry? It could have been a good, modern take on the dual love stories, trying to cross each other over, but fails short in conviction.Dono is about a young man, Dev (Rajveer Deol), who has to attend the wedding of Alina, whom he has loved since childhood. Having no excuse to skip the wedding, he is forced to go to the wedding to find himself nothing but torment. There he meets Meghna (Paloma Dhillon), a happy-go-lucky girl (at least that's what she pretends to be from the outside), who learns about his love for Alina by mistake. They become friends and spend good time during the pre-wedding festivities. Meghna has a past; the one who is present with her at the wedding, and she is disturbed by his presence. Dev can see it and feel it, and that's what brings them closer, unknowingly or knowingly. Will they accept this unspoken feeling? Will Dev be able to get over Alina, and will Meghna forget her possessive ex-boyfriend?Dono is set in Thailand—I mean, the wedding portion—without foreign culture. It shouts about modern love theories and weddings but is stuck with decades-old theories of society. The soon-to-be coulple cannot kiss each other, as if they never kissed while dating. The girl has to receive all the looks because she is a girl. Is that what you call a modern love story? The main protagonist is more outdated than Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Devdas, who cannot speak a word about love to his girl, cannot propose, and yet expresses his loneliness to his best friend. If he couldn't speak to the girl, how can he speak about the same with his best friend when he was the one at fault? Dono's writing defeats its main purpose, which is to be modern. Rajshri is known for traditional dramas, so Dono defeats that purpose as well. Moreover, the screenplay is too long and tedious. It's impossible for one to hold their seat for two and a half hours. Avnish's writing should have been more complete, and the screenwriting is too below the mark.Rajveer Deol looks handsome in his debut and is pretty promising in some scenes. But he needs to work on his dialogue delivery, as the accent isn't flawless. Paloma literally looks breathtaking in many scenes whenever she is all dolled up with all that traditional makeup kit. Traditional beauty is always ahead of glamour and skin show, and Paloma follows the same rulebook here. Alina's character had to be glamorous and extra modern, which is portrayed well by Kanikka Kapur, who brings her own scenic beauty to it. Aditya Nanda is nothing but a chubby boy, while Rohan Khurana, Manik Papneja, Poojan Chhabra, and others are decent in their roles.Dono is shot overseas, so it's definitely a lavish film to watch. The cinematography is good, especially with nature's shots and the wedding shoot. All you see is beautiful girls wearing traditionally gorgeous clothes and boys in classic fashion—well, that's a fine job done by a costume designer. Dono lacks tight editing, though. With one or two songs trimmed, they could have made it with a standard runtime of 130-135 minutes. Those extra 15-20 minutes aren't worth it. I still think Avnish's writing was more problematic than his direction. In the first half, you don't feel bored because it never looked like a film directed by a debutant. It's engaging and pretty handsome. The second half takes it down because the writing goes too low with its graph. There was nothing that could have saved it anyway, but Avnish did try. After all, there is a happy ending and before that, one or two suspenseful moments, but everything is predictable, including the characters' behaviour (that non-smiling man, though). Overall, Dono comes with a finite amount of conviction that's brought down by half-baked theories.