Ekk Deewana Tha

Gautham Menon, who directed one of Hindi cinemas most memorable rom com the delightful Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein, vanished for a considerable span t... read more

Gautham Menon, who directed one of Hindi cinemas most memorable rom com the delightful Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein, vanished for a considerable span to make films in South and saw reasonable success. With Ek Deewana Tha he returns to Hindi cinema with his new film advertised as a musical by maestros AR Rahman and Javed Akhtar. Quite contrary to the musical approach, this film is an extremely haphazard version of what ideally would be anyway a sloppy love story. Pratiek (Dhobi Ghat, Aarakshan) plays an overtly passionate lover who falls for his wealthy landlords pretty daughter living upstairs. Definitely not in the league of admirably chivalrous men, the lad eventually ends up just better than a roadside romeo trying awkwardly to woo this lass he cannot take his eyes away from. His sister is the ice-breaker and for their cute-meet, she is typically used and then forgotten. The coveted girl is Jesse a name you probably wouldnt want to hear for one full year after the film gets done. She narrates a number of obstacles in the unrealised romance like the caste barrier and the age difference. Above all of these is her not liking him either. After 11 hours, a few randomly placed songs, and inconsistently handled camera, you see shes irrevocably fallen for him for reasons quite irrational. Then three days later she thinks, Oh dude, this aint love. Momma-papaa are in distress. So poor Prateik is abandoned again. He jeopardized his career as an assistant filmmaker with Sholay director Ramesh Sippy to come all the way from the shoot to cover up to his girl. Shes hesitant and in a perpetual state of annoying indecisiveness. He has to let go.

Ekk Deewana Tha is one such annoyingly schmaltzy musical which has characters that remain in a consistently indecisive state and their feelings deep within fluctuate as promptly as their colour co-ordinated costumes see a change. Probably the director is trying to convey the confused mindset of the current generation, but the way he chooses his narrative, and further goes for an absurd twist ending for the lack of an appropriate closure leaves you heavily exhausted and infuriated by the end of it.

Equally distressing is the camera work of the movie which looks as if the director of photography had a brief spasm of Parkinsons. The archetypal trace of a South Indian film where the focus of the lens pans in abruptly, momentarily decking up the pace is again present and in a manner makes the Bombay backdrop difficult to process. This, I mention, because in Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein, Menon made fantastic use of Bombay in his story.

After a point, the exaggerated sentimentalism gets on your nerves with the outdated dialogue on love and life gloriously philosophized. The random mood swings of Jesse and Sachins unaffected dedication, at one point, quite illogically dumb is too much a lesson on the zaniness of eternal love to really appreciate. This probably is a genre best mastered by Imtiaz Ali who catches the pulse and spontaneity of his characters and rounds them as delightfully lovable if somewhat conflicted souls.

Ekk Deewana Tha has conflicts on an escalated high and resolution, nowhere in sight. The conversation between the central pair is a perfect recipe to induce boredom and none of the actors have capabilities enough to hold your attention for three full hours.

Amy Jacksons Jesse sleepwalks through the movie with a permanent curious-confused gaze of a troubled damsel stuck on her face. Shes neither too attractive nor is she brilliant in emoting. The sheer irresistible screen-presence of Nargis Fakhri pardoned her failing acting skills but Jackson has none of that charm.

Prateik is reasonably well in portraying the passionate lover and a struggling filmmaker, though the latter is lazily ignored for most part, incorporated funnily at one stage in film where the makers couldnt think of going anywhere else.

Overall, Ekk Deewana Tha is best forgotten. I cannot find a single reason enough to recommend this claustrophobic dilemma of a film posing as a romantic musical. Avoid.
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I did not know that Ek diwanaa tha is a remake of the directors original film in Tamil which was also remade in Telegu, but while watching the film... read more

I did not know that Ek diwanaa tha is a remake of the directors original film in Tamil which was also remade in Telegu, but while watching the film I kept getting the feeling that it was a Tamil film dubbed in Hindi except that Prateik is not a Tamil actor. Wikipedia gave me this fact and it proved my suspicions right.

The main characters of Sachin and Jenny are supposed to have been born Mumbaikars but do not act like Mumbaikars at all. Instead they mumble and fumble and behave like they are straight out of some village. They are neighbours but share none of the easy camaraderie that you would see of people living next to each other. Even the language they speak seems stilted and archaic. Anyway, they fall in love and then all sorts of things go wrong like parental opposition and misunderstandings between the two etc etc. The movie takes such a long time to arrive at its conclusion that you are really past caring what happens to thes tar crossed lovers in the end.

Prateik is really weird in this role. Half the time he looks like a young boy clinging to his mama when he is embracing his girlfriend and the other times he wears strange white jackets and does Broadway type dances or rap numbers. Anywhich way you look at him, he looks too young and immature to be playing the role of a guy madly in love. Amy Jackson, in contrast, has a mature beauty about her and looks really good in saris.

The songs by A. R Rahman are also a huge disappointment. Javed Akhtars lyrics also fail to inspire any romantic feelings within me. The songs again give you the feeling of being dubbed like the songs of Bombay or Roja were. The original Tamil soundtrack was a huge hit but I was not shaken or stirred by the Hindi version. Thankfully it does not have lyrics of the Telephone dhun me hasne waali kind of rubbish but still the words feel jammed in unnaturally. Using the original tune but changing the language is a huge risk to take and here it fails to succeed.

The movie felt very alien to me. If it was set in another city then maybe the characters would have looked real. But here they all look like caricatures of their original characters. The only saving grace is the scenic shots of Kerala.

This love story is too long in the telling, too convoluted in its narration and too weird in its characterization. Highly avoidable.
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Did the director of this film do some kind of hindi film viewing exercise to find out what kind of love stories are being made in hindi these days?... read more

Did the director of this film do some kind of hindi film viewing exercise to find out what kind of love stories are being made in hindi these days? What motivates him to make his own film three times? What is this fascination with directors to cast firang models in indian roles? What does javed akhtar honestly think about his lyrics in this film? Since the film was so boring this and many other questions kept running in mind.

What's it about!- Boy (Prateik Babbar) falls in love at first sight tells the girl(Amy Jackson) quite early in the film. Girl had fallen in love at first sight but waits till interval to confess.now that both have fallen in love there are other Issues like caste,age,etc etc.

How is it?- bakwass

Why?- Too many things go wrong in the film. The screenplay is laboriously boring. The leads are miscast. Prateik has tried hard while dubbing and it shows but hasn't moved an inch in his acting. Amy's dubbing artiste is forever in a husky tone as if she is dubbing for a soft porn film. Amy's hair does more of acting then her and they should be given the best supporting the actress awaard. The gate of amy's house is the underrated subtle actor of the year so far.Even though i love the music of the tamil version here the same music was pain to the ears thanks to Javed Akhtar's lyrics. For a film that calls itself an A.R.Rahman Musical that's a huge disappointment. Manu Rishi and his dialogues try to lighten up the film but there is nothing much he could do.

Final few words- EDT = Ek dimaag tha jiski ab dahi jam chuki hai.

Rating- *

ticket meter- not even worth a home viewing.
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Personally I never understood who and how the two southern versions of Ek Deewana Tha worked in the first place. Perhaps it was the star power, or ... read more

Personally I never understood who and how the two southern versions of Ek Deewana Tha worked in the first place. Perhaps it was the star power, or even the brilliant musical score by Rahman, or the acting per se, that made a connect with the audience.

Ek Deewana Tha sadly has none of it. It is an insipid love story told for an awefull two hours 40 minutes killing you with boredom every second.

Prateik plays an aspiring filmmaker who falls in love with Amy, a Malayali Christian who is an year elder to him and has parents who hate movies. Needless to say, family is against the love, but what also is a twist in the story is that apart form the age, occupation and religious differences, Amy's character Jesse herself is not sure if she loves Prateik.

Director Menon, known for bringing out nuanced human emotions and shades of love in his leads, tried to bring out a simmering fire between the leads while telling the story of doomed love. What kills his chances from the word go are the actors themselves, who cannot act to save their lives.

Prateik Babbar is endearing. His awkward tics are in tune with the character's awkwardness in the initial parts of the film. Then on, once the role demands depth, our hero is paralyzed. His screen presence is warm, now if only he could act too.

Amy, the Brit import is the other miscast in the film. Why would one chose a Britisher to play a conservative Malayali girl is beyond me, especially when something as simple as retaining an even shade of tan on her through the film seemed like a huge challenge. Her voice is dubbed, her acting sorely missing, the only good she has done for the film are the few rare places where she looks pretty.

The other major flaw in EDT is it's music. Rahman obviously should stop remaking his own classics in Hindi. Especially with such sad lyrics as in this film. The songs lack life, are ridiculous to listen to and badly presented.

EDT was billed as a Rahman musical, the big love story this season of love. IT is neither ending up flat on its face. Stay clear. view less

Director Gautham Menon is another one from the south clan like Siddique(remember Bodyguarddont), who likes the highly creative process of remaking ... read more

Director Gautham Menon is another one from the south clan like Siddique(remember Bodyguarddont), who likes the highly creative process of remaking the same film again & again & again. Only difference here is that Siddique had Salman Khan to excite him to do it while Gauthams third attempt at this film is with Prateik Babbar. Is it really that exciting?
Excruciatingly slow & lacking anything that can be identified as soul, this ones a damp squib.

Hindu boy Sachin(Prateik) falls in love with neighbour Jessie(Amy Jackson) the first time he glances at her. Couple of songs later he tells her and she quietly runs away from the city to meet family. He chases her down and apologizes after which she quietly returns to the city. She still doesnt love him & a few more songs later, its certain that her aggressive brother and regressive father dont want it to work as well. So now she finally decides she does love him only think otherwise an hour later. What finally happens? No one needs to know.

Even though the runtime says 139 min I dont believe it. At the end of it all it seems like you have lost a chunk of your day, and probably your sanity. This film is a sparkling example of some of the worst editing in recent times.

The best part of this film is the Akhtar-Rahman combo as the music has some fine gems. Sadly they are disrespected by a bad product and many of the songs are complete misfits.

Of the actors, Prateik Babbar shows us why he is a male Nargis Fakhri in the acting department as he puts on one of the worst acts by a mainstream lead in a while. Amy Jackson looks beautiful and can act as well. Poor dubbing takes away from her bit.

Director Gautham Menon who made his hindi debut with Rehnaa Hai tere Dil Mein fails miserably. No heart, no soul, no feel and complete randomness make this a complete snoozefest.

Whats even more shocking is that the producers have decided to release this film with two different endings. One wonders if the 4 minute longer Directors cut has resulted in any casualties?

To sum it up Ekk Deewana Tha is a brilliant example of the kind of film you never want to spend money on(or watch on TV). An upset viewer seated in front of me shouted out a novel idea. He says, agar sirf itne log theatre mein hain toh apna naam bhi credits mein aana chahiye na?
How about a 3rd cut with our names Mr.Director? view less