For as long as love stories have existed in Bollywood, Hindi-language films have always depended on the famed status of its recurring onscreen romantic pairs.
If you looked for a list of them, you'd find the globally recognised and commercially viable pairing of Raj Kapoor and Nargis between the 1940s and 60s, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol across the 90s, and more recently, Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone across the 2010s.
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha, written and directed by Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday!), features one such recurring, albeit highly underrated, onscreen pair.
Starring Ajay Devgn (Shaitaan) and Tabu (Crew) in their 10th film together since they were first cast 30 years ago in the Mahabharata-inspired action drama Vijaypath, the film traces the tumultuous lives of star-crossed lovers Krishna and Vasudha.
Having finally been released for good behaviour after serving 22 of his 25-year sentence in prison, Krishna (Devgn), who is set to leave Mumbai forever, decides to spend the evening with Vasudha (Tabu) as we uncover the events that led to, and aftermath of, him serving time.
Pandey has tackled a heist movie, three action thrillers and a sports biopic throughout his 16-year career.
With Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha, the writer-director takes a stab at a love story that brings a lot of his trademark writing flourishes, key among which is a non-linear narrative where he keeps the cards close to his chest until the right time comes.
Compared to their presence in his more action-focused work, they're not entirely adequate here, but they still help to engage viewers enough throughout its 144-minute running time.
And a lot of why it works is because of its leading pair, who bring a lot of understatement and gut-wrenching sincerity to Pandey's melancholia-tinged story.
Playing the protagonists' younger versions are Shantanu Maheshwari (Gangubai Kathiawadi) and Saiee Manjrekar (Dabangg 3), both of whom are excellent in their lighter, more lovestruck moments.
But their admittedly fantastic emotional range cannot make up for a very long, drawn-out moment set to MM Kreem's Ae Dil Zara that feels excruciatingly slow and threatens to completely derail the narrative flow.
The silent devastation that both Devgn and Tabu express in the film's present-day sequences, however, makes up for many heavy-handed attempts by its makers to signal its viewers to be very sad or scared, including, but not limited to, Kreem's background score.
The same for Kathikuloth Praveen's editing, which, while competent throughout, does tend to overplay its hand a lot and could have helped to subvert its erratic flow.
Thankfully, the film has a lot of heart and plays its cards mostly well.
Carefully lacing the narrative with some much-needed melancholia, Pandey manages to take a lot of advantage of his writing – especially in the many quiet exchanges between its older leads towards the end, which could turn its viewers into emotional wrecks.
The writing feels poetic, almost like a classical Hindi-language novel, and is more often than not able to deliver on its style with a firm conviction.
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha isn't the slam-dunk it needed to be.
The film is Pandey's return to feature-length filmmaking six years after his last critically and commercially underperformed effort, 2018's Aiyaary.
In spite of its drawbacks, though, it contains more good than bad throughout its running time, remaining eminently watchable for its bleeding-heart sincerity, if nothing else.
