Film: Ekk Deewana ThaStarring: Prateik, Amy JacksonDirector: Gautham Vasudev MenonRating: 
If God lies within the details then “Ek Deewana Tha”, Tamil-Telugu director Gautham Menon’s first Hindi film in 11 years, makes all of it find out how to the church.
But hang on with those bells.
Indeed courtship is treated as a faith on this intense tackle that thing called love. The romantic situations though weather-beaten and seen in scores of films, exudes a sincerity and a freshness, way to the locations. And we don’t mean just the mesmeric backwaters of Kerala and the leafy bylanes of suburban Mumbai.
A master storyteller, Gautham Menon locates his story right in his leading man Prateik’s heart. The gentle actor carries off the role of the love-struck adamant Romeo with a greater than an excellent amount of earnest passion, bringing to his character a landscape of longing desire bitterness and eventually satisfaction in love.
The initial scenes where the modern-day Romeo Sachin (Prateik) tails his landlord’s daughter (stilted newcomer Amy Jackson) radiate an ambrosial amour. The mo’bike, the furtive glances, the movie sneaked together…it’s all done with a warm splendour that covers a variety from the sly to the tender.
A.R. Rahman’s music is used for plenty of dance pieces where Prateik uses his newly-enhanced body language to turn us what love can do to a typical regular guy desiring to be a filmmaker under the tutelage of, ahem, Ramesh Sippy who someday spews this wisdom at the lovelorn Sachin: “First solve your heart problem then come back to work.”
The trouble with this elegantly-packaged but somewhat selfidulgently-edited love story is that it takes an overly long to get to the purpose. Like many notable love stories directed by South Indian directors the aaj ka Romeo must prove his love by traveling through various cities and emotional levels before…well, getting there.
The journey in “Ek Deewana Tha” isn't as bracing as in K. Balachander’s “Ek Duuje Ke Liye” or Mani Ratnam’s “Saathiya”. But there are lots of nerve-points within the storytelling that pinches the heart beat of the core emotion.
It’s the detailing that both nourishes and diminishes the film’s impact. Menon takes us throughout the various levels within the love relationship in excruciating detail leaving nothing and everything to chance. While delineating every step within the courtship, the screenplay also makes room for many those quirky coincidences that make for a star-crossed love affair.
Interestingly like last week’s “Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu”, the couple’s love reaches some degree of no denouement. After which Menon pulls back. In a lengthy monologue (well written and enacted by Prateik, but far too long and self-indulgent specially because it comes on the fag-end of the tale) all of the relationship unravels and is derived undone in a twirl and torrent of emotions.
And there you know, Gautham Menon has got a hang of the romance. Like Prateik’s courtship this film is labour of affection. Problem is, the going gets laborious after some degree. But for the diehard romantic “Ek Deewana Tha” lets us right into a world where love is not just a way to salvation, additionally it is a helluva pain in a spot where it hurts probably the most. – IANS
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