ONE BY TWO MOVIE REVIEW

There are some things you have come to associate Abhay Deol with, one of which is his involvement in meaningful movies. Even in movies with an overdose of commercial entertainment, Abhay stands out with his nuanced performance no matter how sloppily his character might have been written. But One By Two seems like a rare exception in his career. This rom-com aspirant has the markings of a small time movie that could work but insipid writing, soulless acting and narrative incoherence mar the plot, making it a laborious slog.

One By Two is the story of two mostly directionless people. His sole purpose in life is to win his girlfriend back, even if it means resorting to twisted, bizarre ways. Her purpose in life – well, if you can read it without frowning – is to win a dance competition. The movie seems as drifting as its lead characters are and in the absence of a terse script, meanders arduously without rhyme or reason. In the end, you lose count on the number of times you stifled a yawn.

Abhay plays the average, boring Joe (even your name, Amit Sharma, is boring, his ex girlfriend tells him) with sweet but nagging parents who insist on him getting married, a ‘mamu’ whose sidetrack of comedy nights just add up to the length of the movie and a bunch of friends who behave like they are still in a college campus. Blame it on the writing for not showing enough restraint and maturity towards its characters.

It is evident that director Devika Bhagat had set out to make a movie on modern relationships but adopting twisted ways to win back a girlfriend and listening to loud music and doing the project-runway-walk right after a breakup do not ring a bell with anything close to real life. They just reflect sloppy writing. As a result, the characters are cardboard like and the movie becomes increasingly purposeless. And the whole ignored-mistress-slumping-into-drinking-problem angle just feels like a first world problem that nobody wants to pay any serious attention to.

And then there is Preeti Desai whose sole existence in the movie seems to reinforce the belief that models can’t act to save their lives. She looks tall, svelte and can carry herself super chic – all the requirements for a model. But acting seems miles away in her portfolio and the only thing that changes in her body during a sad scene is her hair. And her biggest move in the whole dance competition seems to be twitching-head-so-as-to-sway-her-tress-wildly.

To add to the already drag narrative, Devika decides to include some toilet humor – perhaps surmising that there is a dearth of such jokes for the target audience in the multiplexes. If only we knew what was to follow a very naïve, boring ‘paneer’ eating scene. The movie is also replete with product placements. Perhaps the telling scene of this phenomenon is when Abhay does a rendition of the popular washing powder Nirma jingle - such is the stature of product placement in the movie.

Rati Agnihotri, Jayant Kriplani, Lillete Dubey and Darshan Jariwala do their parts and lighten up the narrative now and then. None of the songs linger in Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s music and the movie could have used with some crisper editing.

One By Two has some interesting writing but that comes in flashes and such instances are only few and far between. But for that, is the entire movie worth your time? Hardly.