Review: Dobaara
An official remake of the Spanish film Mirage, Dobaara is a mind-boggling adventure that keeps you gripped right from the first frame.
It is the second adaptation of an Orial Paulo film, starring Taapsee Pannu. His film The Invisible Guest was made by Sujoy Ghosh into Badla.
For Pannu, this is also the second time-travel film this year. Her first is an adaptation of the German hit Run Lola Run into Looop Lapetta. However, this time travel film is less eccentric in terms of visual flavor and color, but keeps you hooked more than Looop Lapetta did.
Dobaara, a pun on the title, follows the story of a woman who is murdered on a stormy night in 1994. 25 years later, on a similar storm night, Antara's (Pannu’s) daughter goes missing. She moves into a new house that was once occupied by the witness to the woman’s murder in ’94. Through an old tv set, she gets connected with the witness, a boy by the name of Anay, who was run down by a car 25 years ago. Antara ends up in an alternate reality she created: one in which her life is completely different.
It’s a jig-saw puzzle of a film, in which the parts are meant to be found and fixed only by the end. Kashyap, along with his writer Nihit Bhave, does not waste time in character building but dives deep head-first into the storyline. With references to various films such as Transformers, Back to the Future, and filmmaker Christopher Nolan, Dobaara needs you to focus and remain alert throughout most of the part. Distractions can ruin the experience as you won’t be able to join the dots as to how what happened.
Antara’s 2021 life and Anany’s ’94 life are pretty similar. Antara is a partner in a dead marriage, and a mother to a father who is largely absent. Anay also lives alone with his mother; his father has gone. The murder he witnesses that night also involves partners in dead marriages. This similarity suggests how relationships are a product of completing – as opposed to just saving – one another.
The performances by Taapsee Pannu and Pavail Gulati are what keep you invested. Both the characters are layered and nuanced. Pannu’s dilemma and helplessness is beautifully portrayed on screen.
Overall, this riveting, matter-of-fact interplay of past and present, as complicated and complex as it gets, does work, only if you’re invested. Even though it’s a scene-by-scene remake of a Spanish film, it has its own hold and the story makes it an interesting and entertaining watch.
