‘Dono’ Review: Rajveer Deol & Paloma-Starrer Is Modern Only in Its Own Setting

It would be both fair and unfair to call Avnish Barjatya’s Dono a chip out of the Rajshri Productions block. It’s like Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! joining hands with a shinier My Best Friend’s Wedding package. 

At a destination wedding in Thailand, the actual couple will have their conflict when it’s their time, but the actual leads are part of the wedding party. Dev Saraf (Rajveer Deol), a start-up founder struggling to keep his business afloat, meets Meghna Doshi (Paloma Dhillon) aaaand cue the boy-meets-girl template. 

Kidding. This love story is slightly more refined (and sensible) than the love at first sight plot we might expect – both Dev and Meghna are carrying emotional baggage on this international trip. Dev is in love with the bride (Kanikka Kapur as Alina Jaisingh) and Meghna is getting over a 6-year relationship with the groom Nikhil Kothari’s (Rohan Khurana) friend. 

There is a good story there – of finding comfort in a chance encounter while in the search for closure and maybe something more. I also can’t fault Avnish Barjatya’s decision to use the typical saccharine happy family Barjatya setting to make more updated points about ‘family’. When a couple is caught kissing on camera, how do the two generations react? Do they react the Dono way or the Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! way?

That is perhaps also the confusion the film is stuck in – it’s trying to be updated, find its footing with the new generation but it can’t shake off old habits. 

The film feels like my uncle asking me what “slay” means – the effort is great but it’s still a little jarring. 

The setting is as extravagant and ‘90s Bollywood musical’ as it gets – there are literal colour cannons at one point. Multiple lehengas populate the screen (used as an interesting tool to explore double standards for women), and exes attempt to reconcile as people line up to get their turbans fitted. 

Both Rajveer Deol and Paloma Dhillon seem to be putting the work in to bring their characters to life but there is still some way to go for them to put up a convincing, seasoned performance. The sparks are there – Paloma, especially, excels in conveying complicated emotions in the absence of dialogue. That being said, the couple at the altar has more chemistry than our romantic leads. 

I couldn’t help but think about the sheer amount of chemistry Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! imbibed into fake coughs on a phone call. Maybe that’s the Rajshri legacy this film should’ve held on to. 

The screenplay is too superficial to actually attempt to understand how real people would deal with this emotional baggage. The one time a character has an outburst, it clearly looks structured to give the film its interval (and also to go back to the Bollywood hero’s entitled roots). The apology that follows feels hollow: Why isn’t the woman more upset about being yelled at? Why does the man think a sorry and puppy eyes is enough? 

What’s funny is that both those actions could make sense with the right amount of understanding of the characters’ beings but we don’t get that. Because the film doesn’t afford its lead characters the space to be grey. 

Credit where credit is due though, the decision to interrupt what feels like a romantic song with the first signs of an abusive relationship is an effective tool. This is a clear swerve from the “family-friendly” mould – Dono explores how damaging abusive relationships can be and how nuanced our conversations surrounding abuse need to be.

It’s also refreshing to watch a dulhan stand up for herself (for the most part) and ask herself if “love” is enough to survive in a household she is already starting to feel suffocated in. 

But again, it isn’t a big leap for Indian cinema now in 2023 but it is one if we’re looking at legacy. Dono is a modern film in its own setting but out in the real world, it’d have to do a lot of heavy lifting to get noticed.