Do Patti

Twins Saumya and Shailee (Kriti Sanon in a double role, this is not a spoiler) are like chalk and cheese. One gets married to hot-headed Dhruv Sood, (television actor Shaheer Sheikh) the privileged man with a volatile temper and political connect who owns a paragliding business in the hills. All’s well on the surface until an unlikely crime makes police officer VJ (Kajol) question everything about this family.

पति-पत्नी के रिश्ते में जब प्यार की जगह हिंसा ले ले, तो चोट पूरे परिवार और खासकर बच्चों को लगती है। घरेलू हिंसा का यह जख्म कभी-कभी इतना गहरा होता है कि पूरा घर बिखर जाता है। विडंबना देखिए, हिंसा के इतने खतरनाक रूप को ‘घरेलू’ कहा जाता है, जिस कारण घर से बाहर के ज्यादातर लोग पति-पत्नी के इस आपसी मामले में दखल तक नहीं देते। घरेलू हिंसा की इसी कड़वी सच्‍चाई को दो बहनों की राइवलरी के मसालेदार पैकेजिंग में लपेटकर पेश करती है, एक्ट्रेस कृति सेनन और राइटर कनिका ढिल्लों के बैनर की डेब्यू फिल्म ‘दो पत्ती’।

Both Kajol and Kriti Sanon embark on a couple of firsts in Shashanka Chaturvedi’s directorial debut Do Patti. Written by Kanika Dhillon, the Hindi film sees Kajol as tough-on crime police officer and Kriti takes on a double role as twin sisters. The Netflix suspense drama relies on a couple of red herrings eventually emerging as a wobbly thriller with a message.

Is domestic abuse a hush-hush family matter or a crime against society? Is a judge who goes by the word of law (and evidence) dispensing true justice or is a lawyer who looks at the spirit of the law more inclined towards social good?

Identical twins of the kind that we encounter in Hindi popular cinema are always temperamentally polar opposites. The pair in Do Patti, a Netflix film directed by Shashanka Chaturvedi, is no exception - they look the same but are dissimilar in disposition and demeanour. The film, however, deviates from the larger narrative template that governs the genre. Mumbai movies may have stumbled upon a degree of freedom thanks to the advent of the streamers, but old habits die hard. Do Patti, scripted by Kanika Dhillon, has an old trope at its core. It, however, eschews the usual confusion-caused-by-mistaken-identity construct.

‘Do Patti’ comes armed with much promise. It is the first offering of a brand new female-led production house, with producer-actor Kriti and writer Kanika Dhillon having created an interesting ensemble led by Kajol, popular TV actor Shaheer Sheikh, Tanvi Azmi, Brijendra Kala and Vivek Mushran. What’s not to like? Turns out, quite a lot.

The growing worry about lack of quality control in the OTT space now has a physical embodiment. Do Patti. A film which may have its heart in the right place but is otherwise all over the place. Do Patti aims to be a sensitive and scathing film on domestic abuse. The other tags it wants to earn for itself are a noir thriller, a police procedural, a film on sibling rivalry, a blistering criticism of privilege and a racy romance laced with sex, lies and videotape (or rather, mobile phone footage). It ends up being neither.