DOBAARAA is the story of a woman trapped in an extraordinary situation. The year is 1996. A young kid, Anay, stays with his mother in a large house in Hinjewadi, Pune. His parents are divorced, and he misses his father a lot. One day, he’s home when it starts to rain heavily outside. According to the news channels, a geomagnetic storm is about to strike the city. Anay is unable to sleep at night and he begins watching a video recording of him and his father. He also decides to record a video message for his father.
Suddenly, he hears noises coming from the neighboring house, where a married couple, Raja Ghosh (Saswata Chatterjee) and his wife Rujuta, reside. Anay sees that the couple and an unknown lady are indulging in a physical fight. He tries to wake his mother up but she’s fast asleep. He runs towards Raja’s house only to find that Rujuta is murdered. Raja sees that Anay has spotted the corpse. He runs behind Anay. Anay escapes the house and gets accidentally hit by a fire engine. Anay dies on the spot.
25 years pass. In 2021, Antara (Taapsee Pannu) moves into the same house where Anay resided. She is married to Vikas (Rahul Bhat) and they have a daughter, Avanti. Antara is a nurse, and she is unhappy with her married life. One night, they call their mutual friend Abhishek and his maasi, Sheela. Abhishek is the one who helped them buy the house. He tells them about Anay and his demise. He also adds that Raja Ghosh was arrested, and he confessed that he had planned to hide Rujuta’s body in his sugar factory.
Antara then unearths Anay’s TV and camcorder in the storeroom. To her surprise, it plays perfectly. The same night, the city faces yet another round of geomagnetic storm. Antara is unable to sleep, and she plays Anay’s videos. To her shock, she sees Anay on TV and realizes that he can see her. She also learns that she’s interacting with him and that he’s in the year 1996. This is when Anay tells her that he can hear noises from Raja’s house. Antara realizes that this is the night when he dies. She tells him not to go to the neighboring house and that if he does, he’ll be killed by a fire engine.
Anay doesn’t believe her at first but later he does when he sees a fire engine passing by. The next day, Antara wakes up. She realizes that she strangely has a different look and hairstyle. She finds out that she’s not a nurse but a doctor and that she’s not married to Vikas! She also realizes that she has no daughter. She refuses to believe it and calls up the cops, complaining about her missing daughter. Inspector Anand (Pavail Gulati) is put in charge of her case. Slowly, Antara finds out that by changing Anay’s past, she has ended up forming an alternate reality and it has changed her past and present as well. What happens next forms the rest of the film.
DOBAARAA is the official remake of the 2018 Spanish film, MIRAGE. The plot is promising and unique for Bollywood. Nihit Bhave’s adapted screenplay is gripping, in the first half. However, the writing is weak in the second half. Nihit Bhave’s dialogues are conversational, and a few funny one-liners are witty.
Anurag Kashyap’s direction is decent. Despite the complex narrative, he ensures that the audiences don’t get confused about where the film is heading. A few scenes are well executed like Anay and Antara talking to each other, Antara realizing that she’s an established surgeon and Antara barging into Vikas’ house and causing problems between him and his wife Bhavna (Nidhi Singh) in an alternate reality.
The twist in the tale regarding Anay’s whereabouts is unexpected. On the flipside, the trailer promised a thrilling ride from start to finish. However, in the second half, the thrill factor disappears. One would have expected some action in the Raja Ghosh track, but it didn’t happen. The ending is not impactful, and one wishes the film would have gone on a high in the climax. A few developments are bewildering, and the makers fail to answer some unanswered questions. Ideally, the makers should have educated viewers about certain aspects as the film is for an Indian audience. Lastly and most importantly, it’s a niche fare and won’t appeal to everyone.
Speaking of performances, Taapsee Pannu is in fine form. She’s too good in scenes where she wakes up in an alternate reality and is confused. Pavail Gulati looks dashing and gives a confident performance. Rahul Bhat is dependable and raises laughs in the second half. Saswata Chatterjee is decent. Sukant Goel leaves a huge mark. Aarrian Sawant is fine while Vidushi Mehra, Medini Kelamane, Myra Rajpal and Himanshi Choudhary are okay. Nasser (Dr. Sethupathi) is wasted.
Shor Police and Gaurav Chatterji’s music is forgettable. However, Shor Police’s background score is quite captivating.
Sylvester Fonseca’s cinematography is appropriate. Urvi Ashar and Shipra Rawal’s production design is rich. Prashant Sawant’s costumes are realistic. Philm CGI’s VFX is fine. Aarti Bajaj’s editing is fair.
On the whole, DOBAARAA rests on a great plot, superb performances, and captivating first half. However, the weak second half, lack of buzz and niche appeal will take a huge toll on its box office prospects.
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