Film: Yeh Saali Aashiqui

Cast: Vardhan Puri, Shivaleeka Oberoi, Ruslaan Mumtaz

Director: Cherag Ruparel

Rating: 2.5 Moons

Yeh Saali Aashiqui is a psycho-thriller revenge drama that illustrates the fact that when love meets betrayal, things can turn extremely ugly for everyone concerned. The film revolves around two young hospitality students, Sahil Mehra (Vardhan Puri) and Mittee Deora (Shivaleeka Oberoi) who meet in college in Shimla and promptly fall in love. But is everything as hunky-dory as it seems and the love that the two shares is as innocent and real as it seems? There is definitely more to the relationship than what meets the eye.

Sahil played by Vardhan is the quintessential Mr-goody-two-shoes, the boy your mother hopes you will eventually get married to and Mittee is the urban girl who is ambitious, charming and a smooth talker. They meet in college, fall in love but the relationship does not cumulate in a bed of roses, instead a series of dark, twisted and gripping events take place that will give you a jolt from you reverie.

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The film has a warped, convoluted love story at the crux that needs to be told for its menace and spite. Vardhan in his debut outing as an actor exhibits poise and calculative deameanour. He is also the co-writer of the film and in Yeh Saali Aashiqui its Vardhan the writer who come up trumps against Vardhan the actor! It works in film's favour or not, audience will decide. However, Vardhan just cannot hold a candle to his enigmatic and talented grandfather late Amrish Puri.

Shivaleeka, on the other hand, seems a little clueless in the initial part of the film but is able to hold the fort in the latter part. She should opt for a better stylist though. Don’t take the film’s name on its face value as it is a misnomer and is based on the dark side of love - the one that is obsessive, repulsive, unforgiving, vengeful and nasty. Cherag Ruparel’s direction is decent but it is the writing that garners the limelight. The witty writing keeps the red flags in place and eventually a long-buried secret is revealed. However, the dialogues are the weakest plot of the film.

There are only three songs in Yeh Saali Aashiqui and they are all situational. The music of the film by Hitesh Modak with lyrics penned by Tanveer Ghazi is worth a mention. But all that looks is not so good, there are a few minus points the film. A misogynistic dialogue that seems completely out of place and should have been avoided, shoestring budget constraints shows up.

PeepingMoon.com gives Yeh Saali Aashiqui 2.5 Moons

(Source: PeepingMoon)