Daayen Ya Baayen - Review

The first thing that catches your attention in Daayen Ya Baayen is the breath-taking locales of Uttarakhand. In fact, you carry the stunning visuals in your heart as you exit from the auditorium. And that, in my opinion, is not good news for its makers. If you recall the scenic beauty, not the content, it means something is seriously wrong with that film. Daayen Ya Baayen, to me, is akin to a beautiful painting on celluloid, minus soul.

Daayen Ya Baayen may have been made with the right intentions, but the problem is that director Bela Negi has shot too much - some good, some pointless - and when you to try to encompass it all, it tells on the final product.

Ramesh [Deepak Dobriyal] returns from the city to his small remote village in the Himalayas. Armed with irrepressible enthusiasm, he hopes to be the breath of fresh air the village has been waiting for. But, instead, his quirky traits make him the joke of the village.

In a dramatic turn of events, a chance entry into a television contest wins him a swank luxury car, elevating Ramesh to heroic status overnight. Adored by children and admired by the locals, he becomes the focal point of the village. It forces him to live up to the status of a car owner and unwittingly, he turns into a borrower and, before long, he is unfathomably deep in liability.

Bela reserves the best for the first hour: the story moves rapidly, the humour is enjoyable and manages a smile on your face and the sundry characters come across so real. But the film loses focus in the post-interval portions. It lacks the meat to carry the story forward, the sub-plots aren't convincing at all and the pacing is lethargic, which makes you restless after a point. In fact, you fervently hope that the film would end soon.

Director Bela Negi's story and execution have a strictly narrow scope. The real star of the show is cinematographer Amlan Datta, whose cinematography captures the mountainous topography with flamboyance. The background score is appropriate, while the dialogues should be well received by the viewers.

Deepak Dobriyal does decently well as the typical clueless dreamer. Bharti Bhatt performs well as Deepak Dobriyal's wife. Badrul Islam is quite good. Manav Kaul is wasted. Pratyush leaves a mark in the role of Deepak's son.

On the whole, Daayen Ya Baayen caters to a miniscule segment of moviegoers and even that segment of audience won't feel completely elated at the conclusion of the screening. The film has had an unsung release - there's no hype or awareness - and combined with the negligible appeal, will undeniably prove to be a disaster at the box-office.

Director: Bela Negi
Producer: Sunil Doshi
Cast: Deepak Dobriyal, Manav Kaul