Do Patti Review | Ekta Kapoor Serial-Like Sensibilities but on a Bigger Budget

Kanika Dhillon, the writer and co-producer of the new Netflix film Do Patti, is someone who has written some of the interesting female characters in the last decade or so in movies like Manmarziyan and Judgemental Hai Kya. But of late, I have felt that her fascination with making liberated and raw female characters has just reduced the charm of the storytelling, and one of the major examples of that was the Haseen Dilruba franchise. The latest addition to her deteriorating filmography is Do Patti. Where she talks about the issues around domestic violence but with the emotional sophistication of a Balaji Telefilms daily soap.

So, the story here is primarily around two sisters, Saumya and Shailee. They are identical twins who sort of hated each other from their childhood, as Shailee hated the priority Saumya used to get. Shailee stayed away from the family for the longest time, and she returned when the introverted Saumya finally found the love of her life, Dhruv Sood. What we see in the movie is an attempt-to-murder case investigation done by Officer Vidya Jyothi that has a major connection with the unending rift between the two sisters.

SPOILER ALERT! So the movie is around two hours and seven minutes long. At around one hour and thirty minutes, the story sort of achieves justice. And at that point, Kajol’s Vidya Jyothi asks herself, wasn’t this too easy? Have I been tricked into something? And she decides to do a reinvestigation. This is where the Balaji Telefilms reference I made at the beginning comes. Because the kind of backstory we hear about the two sisters is nothing less than a steamy story, like the one Dinesh Pandit from Dhillon’s Haseen Dillruba would write. The strokes of that story are so broad and cheesy that I was sort of hoping to see a valid reason for all that. But to my disappointment, the movie swiftly becomes this anti-domestic violence ad in the last half an hour.

Director Shashank Chaturvedi is not able to stage the film in a compelling way. The lack of nuances in the writing is not getting any salvaging in the making process as the daily soap kind of drama is evident even in the visualization as well. When the final act of the film decides to focus on the deep-rooted impact of domestic abuse, which has a direct link with people choosing not to talk about it, it has relevance for sure. However, the filmmaking tools and craft were totally absent when it came to the execution. As a viewer, you are anticipating a twist in the tale, and the twist Kanika Dhillon managed to give was way too preachy and was kind of obvious.

Kriti Sanon, in her dual role, did a fairly good job, and thanks to the script that deliberately made two characters diametrically opposite, it was kind of easy for her to make them distinctive. Kajol, who has performed the part of the officer/lawyer VJ, gets to be a bit more raw in this film with all those foul-mouthed and witty dialogues. But rather than the delight of seeing someone like her in such a role, there wasn’t anything appealing about that character. Tanvi Azmi’s Maaji act couldn’t really conceal the suspense as one could easily something odd about the stuff she speaks. Shaheer Sheikh, as Dhruv Sood, has performed the character in that daily soap meter, and at no point does he look like an intimidating guy with anger problems.

OTT platforms are nowadays trying new stuff like TV Plus and ambient viewing content. The first one targets the consumers of daily soaps, and the second category is for the audience who doesn’t have much attention span. Contents that need your utmost attention don’t fall under these categories, and hence, nuances and freshness are not at all a concern for these stories. Somewhere, I feel Do Patti is like a good blend of both these platform demands. It’s a thriller designed for casual viewing.