Kumar Bahukhandi
Dacoit: Ek Prem Katha keeps promising something exciting, emotional, thrilling, only to rob us off of that experience of masala entertainer it teases, sighs Mayur Sanap.
Key Points
- A twisted love story, revenge drama, money heist, cops chasing criminals, it’s all there in Dacoit: Ek Prem Katha.
- There is a decent story buried somewhere in there, but the execution is so lazy and confused that it never comes together.
- For a masala entertainer, Dacoit lacks excitement, further weighed down by underwhelming performances from both leads.
There’s something oddly impressive about how Dacoit: Ek Prem Katha manages to throw everything at you and still leave you feeling absolutely… nothing.
A twisted love story, revenge drama, money heist, cops chasing criminals, it’s all there. Yet, the overwhelming emotion you are left with by the end is a blank stare.
You can see that the debutant director Shaneil Deo had a solid idea on paper. In fact, the title itself is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
The word ‘Dacoit’ promises thrills, action, chaos. While ‘Ek Prem Katha’ promises a passionate love story. Together, you expect something intense and layered. What you actually get is a film having an identity crisis unsure whether to make your heart race or melt it.
It fails on both accounts.
What Dacoit: Ek Prem Katha Is About?
The film opens during Covid in 2021, with Adivi Sesh’s Hari looking like a man with a tragic backstory. We first meet him in prison, where he is serving a sentence for murder.
Then we jump back to 2005 for the classic meet-cute with Saraswati, played by Mrunal Thakur. They meet at a blood donation camp. He donates blood, falls in love, so typical.
What follows is a string of cutesy moments that feel less like a relationship and more like a badly rehearsed school play.
When they utter dialogue like ‘Main hoon na’, you don’t feel warmth, you just feel second-hand awkwardness. For a film that puts ‘Ek Prem Katha’ right there in the title, the total lack of chemistry is almost a plot twist.
Then comes tragedy. Hari is thrown behind bars for murder, the victim being Saraswati’s brother, and she is the one testifying. So much for ‘Main hoon na’.
Ten years and one clumsily-staged prison break later, he is out. The lover is gone, replaced by a man seeking revenge against the woman he once loved.
Hari finds out that Saraswati is now married, has a child, and her husband is critically ill in a hospital during the Covid crisis. This is where the film introduces a hospital mafia angle, and a whole crime network behind it. Prakash Raj shows up as the powerful man running this hospital, but he is just sleepwalking through the role.
Saraswati is now broke and desperately trying to save her ailing husband. Hari points her towards the ugly reality of what’s going on inside the hospital. In a very strange leap of logic, the two decide the answer is simple: Rob the same hospital!
Now, given the masala syntax of Dacoit, you don’t question the logic as much you care about the impact.
What works and what doesn’t
Shaneil Deo has some interesting ideas with respect to the visual style of the film and from the technical point of the view the film comes across strong.
But for a masala film, where the big moments are so crucial, the film lacks excitement.
Hari and Saraswati meeting after years should have been explosive. Instead, it feels weirdly flat.
The first robbery attempt has zero tension. Oh, then comes the second attempt, and the third attempt. The big plan to rob illegal Covid money from hospitals is executed with the ease of picking up groceries!
At one point, a character disses out, ‘Jab marzi hui chori karne aa jatey ho. Is this an ATM?’
Honestly, valid question. He tries to bring logic into the situation and is immediately killed in the next scene.
The dialogues deserve a special mention because they are unintentionally hilarious. They sound like those in English-to-Hindi dubbed films. There’s a moment during a heist when Mrunal’s character accidentally hits a couple of goons and panics, asking if they are okay. Hari snaps back with, ‘What are your mama’s boys?’
The biggest issue is that while the plotting is actually decent, the screenplay is bland. There’s no thrill, no edge-of-the-seat moments, no solid payoff. It all plays out with dreadfully dull energy.
The film keeps building towards something exciting and then… doesn’t. There’s also a random caste angle that pops up between the leads, which is so carelessly handled that it might just give Pa Ranjith a headache.
Mrunal Thakur, Adivi Sesh Don’t Impress
Performance-wise, the actors are trying, but there’s only so much they can do.
Mrunal Thakur’s character is written with some substance on paper, which is rare for roles like this. But the performance leans heavily into the damsel-in-distress zone, which defeats the purpose. Her emotional outburst scenes look like she is still in the Sita Ramam and Hi Nanna zone.
Also, the film tries to present her as morally grey, but let’s be honest, when your character name is Saraswati, we all know you are not the culprit here.
Adivi Sesh comes across too stiff both in romance and action. He never quite settles into the role, and the intensity the character demands just isn’t there.
Zyan Marie Khan is mostly around to react to things and doesn’t get much to do.
Anurag Kashyap plays an eccentric cop with a spiritual aesthetic going on, as a tikka and maala-wearing Swamy. He’s unpredictable in a fun way, but his character is so oddly written that you are never sure what tone he is going for.
The frustrating part is that Dacoit: Ek Prem Katha isn’t completely terrible. There is a decent story buried somewhere in there but the execution is so lazy and confused that it never comes together.
It keeps promising something exciting, emotional, thrilling, only to rob us off of that experience of masala entertainer it teases.
By the end, you are not angry. You are just tired. And maybe a little amused, but that’s not nearly enough to save it.
