So a seeped-in-tradition, middle-class florist Vasudha is married off to a boorish tourist taxi-driver, Hari by her priest father. The father is a two-faced man; a pujari outside and a 'wife-beater' at home. Despite a word of caution from her mother, Vasudha, who is brain-washed to believe that pati is indeed parmeshwar(husband is God); continues putting up a world of make-believe for her young son Saanjh. An arrangement of white Lilys in Aarav's suite plays cupid between the Vasudha and Richie Rich. He literally follows the fragrance and finds that besides the scent, even the florist has a heady effect!

A successful businessman who has had a tough life immediately senses the trouble a beautiful lady is in. She has a young son and her husband has been missing since the last five years. She has known her husband for just one year after her arranged marriage. The businessman knows what it is to grow up without the security of a father and his heart immediately reaches out to Vasudha Prasad (Vidya Balan) and her young son. Just when things seem to fall in place for the businessman Aarav (Emraan Hashmi) and Vasudha, her husband emerges. Her world is torn apart, yet again.

"What's going on?" "Yeh kya ho raha hai?" "I don't get you man." You hear characters voicing more or less the same thing at regular intervals in Hamari Adhuri Kahani. It's one of the few rare occasions when you empathise with them. We had a few questions of our own. What's indeed happening in this poorly conceived, dated story of star-crossed lovers with utterly cringe-worthy dialogues? What was Vidya Balan thinking when she agreed to play a distressed, self-sacrificial, traditional wife making the most foolish choices for herself? How is it possible to waste Rajkummar Rao's talents?

What happens when you go with sky high expectations from a promising star cast including Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi and Rajkummar Rao and given that it is a Mohit Suri film? You at least anticipate some good drama to unfold on-screen because of their potential. Sadly all hopes of watching a good romance went down the drain with this film. Before I start narrating, I might need a full bottle of Disprin to ebb away the constant throbbing in my temple that the Vishesh films production has successfully managed to inflict on me.

Director Mohit Suri's Hamari Adhuri Kahani is an anachronistic, tragic romance that touches an emotional chord, yet, makes you dismiss it as a regressive piece of art. The direction appears confused, with a present-day setting, while the treatment of the plot and characters belong to a bygone era. The story, with its verbose, melodramatic and regressive dialogues, along with outdated metaphors and symbolism, fits into the 1970's mould perfectly. Sadly, the audience today will not relate to it. An intriguing tale, nevertheless, it is all about love. It is an engaging story of a married lady bound by the shackles of society, yearning for true love.

Life in Bollywood is all about ironies. A classic example of the same is that, while on one hand, showing an 'extra-marital affair' was never the in-thing here; on the other hand, it was never even outdated! There have been many films that have been made on the sensitive yet bold topic of extra-marital affair. Examples to this are in the form of classics like ARTH, SILSILA to the recent ones like MURDER, KABHI ALVIDA NAA KEHNA, etc. This week's release HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI also treads on the similar lines (if not the same).

The last time Mohit Suri and the Bhatts had teamed up, they had come up with the blockbuster Aashiqui 2 and so, it was expected that the magical combination might come up with something equally, if not more, impressive fare with Hamari Adhuri Kahani. However, the only thing Suri and the Bhatts accomplish in coming up with is a cheesy, corny story that tries too hard to tug at your heart-strings and falls flat on its face. Rumoured to be based on the love story of Mahesh Bhatt's parents and his step-mother, the film revolves around Vasudha (Vidya Balan), a florist married to a chauvinist Hari (Rajkummar Rao).

The opening scene of Hamari Adhuri Kahaani has a weary Vidya Balan clutching on to a map, getting off a bus in the middle of nowhere, walking a few steps and then collapsing. Mohit Suri manages to create enough drama in the first frame of his latest love saga that tells the story of an unfinished romance between a married woman and a single man. While the setting has the perfect fodder for what can be a high stung emotional roller coaster ride, the result is quite the opposite. Vasudha (Vidya) is a single mom, full time florist, part time self help guru who quotes lines off Chicken Soup for the oppressed single woman.

The greatest injustice in cinema is to see good actors shackled by a trite script. A bad movie does no favours except offering martyrdom to genuine talents. That's the unfortunate story of Hamari Adhuri Kahani (HAK). In an attempt to be a philosophical argument on love, it goes overboard with sentimentality and clichs. The storytelling is so regressive that you feel you're stuck in a '70s potboiler. That surreal place where the wind blows diyas when someone dies. Where words like kainaat (universe) are overused and abused. Where mangalsutra is the literally the end all of a woman's existence. Where you can foresee the next plot development from millions of miles away. Where women talk to each other in Sita and Radha allegories.

Mahesh Bhatt penned and directed 'Arth', a sensitive cult film telling us the story of a fiercely independent woman dealing with an extramarital relationship that threatens to wreck her home. More than three decades later, irony unblinkingly stares at your face as you watch a confused and regressive film on the same subject, backed and co-written by the same Bhatt. 'Hamari Adhuri Kahani' is about a single mother Vasudha (Vidya Balan), whose husband Hari (Rajkummar Rao) had gone missing five years back.

Vasudha (Vidya Balan) is a single mother but not by choice. After being forced into an arrange marriage with Hari (Rajkummar Rao), Vasudha's life takes a spin. Hari turns out to be a chauvinistic husband who wants his wife get his name tattooed on her hand to make sure she belongs to him for the next 7 janam. In a brief amount of time after the duo have a child together, Hari takes off to Orrissa and has been missing since then. But we are later told that he works for a terrorist group in Bastar.

Vidya Balan cries a lot throughout Hamari Adhuri Kahani. Her character, Vasudha, is a timid and relatively mousy woman, one who has let herself be cowed down by patriarchy even when no patriarch is present in her life, and she frequently flies into panicked hysterics. But the character and her motivations are not why I think Balan -- one of our finest actresses -- is crying. I think she's weeping her eyes out because, with every take, she realises how unforgivably atrocious this film is.

What could go wrong in a film that boasts of stars such as Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan, and has the backing of one of the most innovative producers of the Hindi film industry? Well, a lot, if the film in question is Hamari Adhuri Kahani. Hotel magnate Aarav Ruparel (Emraan Hashmi) is constantly on flights as he has to manage a conglomerate of more than 100 luxury hotels around the world. An ardent Arum Lily lover, Aarav doesn't have a permanent address as he keeps hopping from one presidential suite to another in search of more business, but he's got a nose for workers who are excellent for the hospitality industry.

Such is the undying faith expressed in the good Indian wife by Mahesh Bhatt, writer and producer of Hamari Adhuri Kahani(HAK) and self-professed woman's lib advocate turned regressive preacher. In HAK, he has for company the Aashiqui 2 and Ek Villain director, Mohit Suri, and their regular dialogue writer, Shagufta Rafique. The trio's conviction in a bygone century's sacrificial feminine lambs and grateful tearjerkers results in in a ridiculous love story that attempts to be a tragedy, but ends up being an unintentional comedy.

Meet Vasudha, young mom of little boy, making a hard living in the hospitality business; Hari, her husband, burdened with a dark past; and Arav, handsome tycoon, thirsting for romance. You are promised a touching love story; you get zilch. When the trio of Vidya Balan, Rajkummar Rao and Emraan Hashmi - competent actors all, Rao even better - comes together, you expect something. At the very least, a tug at the heartstrings. Because a 'prem kahani' is nothing if it doesn't touch you deep inside, and make you yearn.