Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Messy drama about messy love lives; language, violence.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
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Where to Watch
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Gehraiyaan
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In GEHRAIYAAN, Alisha (Deepika Padukone) runs her own yoga studio while seeking investors to back her yoga phone app. Flashbacks reveal a wealthy and idyllic childhood with extended family. For reasons she can't understand, her father dragged her and her mother away from that happiness into a life of isolation and need, which somehow led to her mother's suicide. All of that is the backdrop to an affair Alisa begins with her cousin Tia's (Ananya Pandey) fiancé Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi), a go-getter real estate whiz kid who seems to have money to burn. In the throes of that passion, Alisha leaves Karan (Dhairya Karwa), her longtime boyfriend, a sad-sack wannabe writer. Much more happens, soap opera-style, involving illegal real estate loans, fraud, and embezzlement, problems that undermine the budding romance. Illegal acts, subterfuge, dishonesty, and violence ensue.
Is It Any Good?
Gehraiyaan, which translates to "depth" in Hindi, keeps losing itself as it switches gears from one genre to another. It allows itself to tangle in the weeds of a failing business's confusing details, an eye-rollingly dull distraction from the romance at the story's center. Further, the filmmakers woefully fail in the management of the film's tone. At a less overwhelming running time, and with a skillful edit, this could be a modern-day noir. Instead, a story about romance and infidelity morphs into a story about business troubles, money-laundering, and fraud, then that scandal morphs again into a sinister plot about murder and survival, most of which is so buried in financial technical terms ("forensic audit," "valuation gap") that it leaves an average viewer hopelessly mired in indecipherable jargon.
From the start, the narrative reeks of impending doom, but when the doom finally arrives, despite solid performances by the lead actors, we don't care much about the compromised characters and their self-created conflicts.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how damaging family secrets can be. How do you think what Alisha learns affects her?
Two people blow up their lives by having an affair and cheating on their partners. Why do you think they don't stop themselves before it's too late?
Can you trust the man who cheats on his partner to then suddenly be loyal to the woman he's cheating with? Or do you think he'll be inherently untrustworthy? Why?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : February 11, 2022
- Cast : Deepika Padukone , Siddhant Chaturvedi , Ananya Pandey , Dhairya Karwa
- Director : Shakun Batra
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Indian/South Asian Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Amazon
- Genre : Drama
- Run time : 148 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : February 16, 2022
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