Do Deewane Seher Mein Review: Love & Dreams in Delhi

Shashank Sharma (Siddhant Chaturvedi) is a data analyst who speaks in spreadsheets and avoids eye contact. Roshni Shrivastav (Mrunal Thakur) is a freelance illustrator whose sketchbook is bolder than her voice. They collide - literally, over a spilled chai at a Bandra café - and what follows is less a whirlwind romance and more a hesitant, two-step shuffle toward connection. Both are drowning in self-doubt: Shashank’s overbearing father (Deepraj Rana) wants him to be a “proper man,” while Roshni’s traditional mother (Ayesha Raza Mishra) and well-meaning father (Joy Sengupta) can’t understand why she won’t just settle. An accidental road trip to the Himalayas, prompted by a cryptic invitation from Roshni’s free-spirited grandmother Ila (the wonderful Ila Arun), forces them out of their comfort zones and into each other’s messy, complicated orbits. Friends like the relentlessly upbeat Anil (Viraj Ghelani) and the pragmatic Naina (Sandeepa Dhar) provide occasional comedy and reality checks, but the journey is always about the two leads learning to accept themselves before they can accept each other.

Director Ravi Udyawar, known for the sleek revenge drama Mom, takes a sharp tonal left turn here, and it mostly pays off. He frames Mumbai not as a city of dreams but as a buzzing, overwhelming sensory assault - noisy trains, cramped flats, constant notifications. The first hour is almost claustrophobically rooted in that chaos, and it works because the characters feel genuinely ill-equipped for it. Chaturvedi, shedding the swagger of his Gully Boy and Gehraiyaan roles, plays Shashank with a hunched posture, stammering pauses, and eyes that dart away whenever a compliment comes his way. It is a performance of physical awkwardness that never feels actorly. Mrunal Thakur matches him beat for beat; her Roshni isn’t shy so much as exhausted by the effort of pretending to be fine. She radiates a quiet, anxious intelligence that makes you root for her even when the screenplay gives her dialogue that’s a little too on the nose.

The film’s strongest stretch is its middle act, the road trip to the hills. The shift in geography mirrors a shift in emotional registers - the conversations become longer, the silences less painful. A scene where Shashank and Roshni try to build a campfire but keep failing, then finally laugh about it, is the kind of grounded, unglamorous moment this film needs more of. Ila Arun, as the grandmother who fled her own arranged marriage decades ago, provides warmth and a gentle push. Her lines about how “love is not a destination, it’s a way of walking” feel earned within the context of her character’s history.

But the film loses its footing in the final stretch. Once the couple returns to Mumbai, the third act rushes through resolutions that had been simmering for two hours. The confrontations with parents are resolved too neatly - Deepraj Rana’s father, in particular, goes from stubborn patriarch to tearfully supportive in a single monologue that feels scripted rather than lived. The comedy, largely shouldered by Viraj Ghelani’s Anil, is inconsistent. Some jokes land (a bit about dating app bios is sharp), but others feel like they’ve been borrowed from a broader, less interesting movie.

The 137-minute runtime is a noticeable indulgence. A few subplots - the friend’s own romantic side story, a work pressure angle for Roshni - could have been trimmed without losing the core emotional arc. The music, pleasant but unmemorable, doesn’t elevate the moments it’s meant to punctuate.

Pros

• Siddhant Chaturvedi and Mrunal Thakur deliver career-best, vulnerably awkward performances.
• The first half’s authentic depiction of social anxiety and urban overwhelm is refreshingly specific.
• Ila Arun brings grounding warmth and genuine wisdom to her role.
• The cinematography makes distinct visual arguments for both chaotic Mumbai and serene mountains.
• The central romance feels earned, built on shared insecurity rather than grand gestures.

Cons

• The third act rushes through essential character resolutions, undermining the buildup.
• Predictable parental conflict resolution that relies on sudden, unmotivated change of heart.
• A few too many subplots and side characters that dilute focus.
• The comedy is inconsistent, with several jokes landing flat.
• The runtime drags in the middle section before the road trip begins.

Do Deewane Seher Mein is a film that understands its characters far better than it understands pacing or plot mechanics. It stumbles, repeats itself, and wraps up a little too neatly - but when Chaturvedi and Thakur are sharing a nervous glance or a half-formed sentence, you forget the structure and remember the feeling. It’s not a great movie, but it is an honest one. For anyone who has ever felt like they don’t quite fit the script of their own life, this imperfect little romance might feel like a mirror. And sometimes, that’s enough.