Baar Baar Dekho

It is an amazing ability to be able to live the same day again and again. To know the mistakes you have made, and to try and fix them. And if you can’t, well, you can try again. I’ve no doubt that debutant director Nitya Mehra would have loved to have this gift.

There is a fundamental flaw that defeats Baar Baar Dekho. The story is about a gifted mathematician who thinks getting married will distract him from his professional goals. Somehow, he travels in time to his future where he sees how his life has panned out. He’s apparently turned into someone who is obsessed with his life, with little thought or care for his family – wife, son, daughter. He gets a chance to live one day over and over, so that he can fix what is broken.

The problem is that we only ever get to hear about the most of the mistakes he has made, and see their consequences. It means that the actual redemption loses maximum impact – you cannot feel for a person who is trying to make up for his mistakes without really seeing him make those mistakes in the first place.

It also bothers a little to not understand how and why the time travel happens. There’s a vaguely explained theory of the mechanism being tied to a thread on his wrist, which is really kaboosh.

The setup is good, with the film weaving a typical picture of exuberance and happiness of a large Punjabi wedding, that of Sidharth and Katrina. I think this is such a comfort area for filmmakers now (and it is a Dharma Production after all), that you almost expect this to be effortless, and it is. Certain scenes in the future bring some poignancy, because it is something to be able to go to the future and see how your life has turned out with your consciousness still in the present. There is strong emotional impact when we are with Sidharth’s character when he is 46 years or when he is 60 years old. We feel the emptiness in his life. Some of the set pieces are very impressive, in particular a funeral set in the distant future.

Unfortunately, these moments are also let down by Sidharth’s inability to rise to the moment. He knows that he is in the future by now, and it’s confusing to see him bumble about wondering “what happened, what happened”. This is down to silly writing and silly acting.

Katrina tries hard. She is good as the frustrated wife and she is good as the happy go lucky wife-to-be. She is an actress who will be as good as her script, her director, and her actors. Her performance then, is also a reflection of how well the film has been made, which in this case is patchy.

It is an amazing ability to be able to live the same day again and again. To know the mistakes you have made, and to try and fix them. And if you can’t, well, you can try again. I’ve no doubt that debutant director Nitya Mehra would have loved to have this gift. She had a solid idea and an opportunity to make it into a memorable film. It falls short of the mark, and audiences are unlikely to follow the title of the film even once.

Hindi, Drama, Romance, Color

https://youtu.be/Wiuj_GHlb64