Review of Yeh Faasley

Writer/director Yogesh Mittal has twisted and stretched it into a tale of mind-numbing foolishness and boredom. Indian movie Yeh Faasley is the torturously long and convoluted story of a young girl unravelling her mother’s mysterious death. He was unable to decide what he was making – a thriller, murder mystery or family drama – and so bunged in a bit of everything.

Arunima (Tena Desai) played by Tena Desae, returns home after a long stint in boarding school. Her father Devinder (Anupam Kher) is generous and loving but slowly Arunima discovers that his version of how her mother died isn’t the whole truth.

She puts her love to test when she begins to suspect her dad and holds him responsible for her mother’s death. Will the daughter avenge her mother’s death even if it means standing up against her father who may or may not be guilty, then newcomer Tena Desai is suitably restrained as the troubled daughter, torn between love and truth. Then, there is also Pawan Malhotra to watch out for as the mysterious third angle in this whodunit. All okay, on the acting front at least.

But when it comes to the plot, the pulp begins to flow….The film takes so long to build up to a not-so-predictable climax, it almost enervates you with its sluggishness. The repeated flashbacks of Devinder and his wife’s troubled marriage .The two met in college and she, a Rajasthani princess fell in love with a “Jath-mazdoor,” as he describes himself.

None of this is very interesting to begin with and the amateurish acting and direction only makes it worse.

Fine actors like Malhotra and Seema Biswas are wasted.

Anupam Kher tries hard to portray the complexities of a man who is passionately in love with his wife and yet deeply insecure but he is also mostly reduced to screaming and curling back his lips.

And what can I say about the dialogue?

The tragedy is that Yeh Faasley isn’t even unintentionally funny so it doesn’t make the grade of so-bad-that-it’s-good. It’s just pure tedium. I’m going with one and a half stars.