00:00In a town that is dimly lit but very picturesque in Himachal, a lady cop who also happens to be a lawyer, Vidya Jyoti, Kajol, stumbles upon a case of domestic violence where Dhruv, Shahir Sheikh is physically abusing his wife Saumya Sanan almost every day, but she remains silent about it.
00:20However, Saumya also has a twin sister, Shelly, also Kriti Sanan, who is her biggest enemy. Shelly can go to any length to destroy Saumya. And when Dhruv tries to kill her, the game of dhopati changes completely. What happens? Who's right? Will they all ever realize?
00:39The arena for a drama that revolves around a set of lookalike twins played by the same actor is quite tricky and concise considering the limitations of what one can do cinematically with the idea. Films have successfully achieved and cracked the formula that has led to some highly revered and successful movies in the genre.
00:59Writer Kanika Dhillan now tries her hand at the same with Doh Patti, starring Kajol and Kriti Sanan. As a writer, Dhillan has given us some of the most real, complicated and ace women in Hindi cinema.
01:13Be it Rumi from Man Marzia or Bobby in Judgmental Hai Kya? There is so much to discover about them that you are invested to know what happened and what will happen beyond the screen.
01:24With Doh Patti, she has a thriller in hand and four women to shape. Does she succeed in creating pretty amazing characters?
01:33Written by Kanika and directed by Shashanka Chaturvedi, Doh Patti is a decoction of every twin thriller you have seen over the years.
01:41A differentiation through dressing style and hair length, a kajol who uses a cuss word every five minutes and a plot that is not even convinced itself to impress others in the first place.
01:52The writing, or the lack of it, still has me in shock and I refuse to believe it has Kanika Dhillan's name attached to it.
02:00For the most part, we are only chasing shadows and while I know this is a plot device for the thriller genre, what defends the fact that your screenplay is paper thin?
02:10We meet these characters generally like they have been living in this space for years.
02:15No one gets a special entry except for Shaheer Sheik, who walks in like he is about to pick up his Oscar trophy only to end up talking to a random stranger.
02:25There is obviousness written all over this script.
02:28You don't even have to be a maverick to understand what this screenplay is trying to do and what the story is about to twist for you.
02:35There is a set of twins, one is married to an abusive man, there is a cop chasing them and at some point they will obviously try to swap positions.
02:43You are literally hanging your entire movie on the most obvious detail that is not even fascinating if you have seen enough Bollywood movies.
02:52Doopatti is not even half convincing in the first half as it plays like a random series of montages, probably shot for a different film.
03:00There is a visible effort to make the first half random, so it can be brought together in the second half.
03:07But if this plot device has caused the first half not to grip and intrigue the audience at all, then what is the point?
03:14The film never takes itself seriously enough for us to do so, because none of the characters have clear motivation to do what they are doing.
03:22Why is a cop who seems like she doesn't care suddenly so interested in what is happening with a girl she has no idea has a twin sibling?
03:29Why is Tanvi Azmi just there and given almost nothing, despite being so stellar?
03:36Why was Kajol turned into a lawyer midway?
03:38Was it because the makers realised she hadn't gotten anything in the first half, so they conveniently made her a lawyer instead of a cop to make her stay?
03:46Because nothing else explains an introduction scene explaining why a police officer also has a law degree and how smart she is.
03:54Do Patti's biggest drawback is how unconvincing it is for a film whose first job is to convince the viewers that this is the truth and nothing else.
04:04Even when it gets partially convincing in the second half and reaches a crescendo, we are served another montage-like situation that over-explains the film so much that it loses its magic.
04:15And what is left is an obvious plot.
04:18Do Patti never finds itself outside the clutches of predictability.
04:23You have already figured out what will happen next as soon as you have figured out these twin sisters who are against each other and there is a competition between the two.
04:32Talking of acting performances, Kriti Sanan works as some redemption because she takes effort in building two distinct characters and never lets them overlap.
04:41This is difficult and the actor does deserve credit for pulling it off.
04:46Kajol plays just another quite inconsequential character who uses hard cuss words multiple times to bring edge.
04:53Remember Tribhanga?
04:54There is so much to tap into this stellar actor but Shashanka Chaturvedi chooses to do the obvious.
05:00A forced accent and pretentious galis later, there is nothing about her you will remember for a long time.
05:06Shahid Sheikh plays a prototype abusive husband who switches to a loving man when he realises he went overboard and there is nothing more.
05:15Do Patti is technically all the tropes of a twin sisters thriller under one roof put together very unconvincingly.
05:22There is so much predictability attached that you would shape your own story after a point and chances are this would be your first guess.
05:30Do Patti received mixed to negative reviews from critics though it garnered mixed reviews from audiences.
05:37Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com rated it 2 out of 5, noting half-baked diabolism.
05:43Shubhra Gupta of the Indian Express gave it 1.5 out of 5, citing shallow whiting and lack of character depth.
05:50Akriti Agarwala of The Statesman criticised the film for its inability to effectively connect social issues due to unidimensional characterisations and a convenient storyline.
06:00Despite critical reception, the movie performed commercially well, trending on Netflix's global top 10 charts, non-English, in over 30 countries for more than 50 days.
06:12It ranked 9th on Variety's top 10 list of most-watched streaming originals globally with 92.4 million views.
06:19Ormax reports identified it as the number one most-watched and most-buzzed film across all Indian streaming platforms in 2024,
06:28and it was in the top 10 list of most-liked films for the year.
