movie reviews

14 Phere Movie Review: A ‘Tragedy Of Errors’ Ft. Vikrant Massey, Kriti Kharbanda

Rohit Shetty November 11, 2021

441 3 minutes read

14 Phere Movie Review Rating: 1/5 Stars (One star)

Star Cast: Vikrant Massey, Kriti Kharbanda, Gauahar Khan, Jameel Khan

Director: Devanshu Singh

14 Phere Movie Review OUT! A ‘Tragedy Of Errors’ Ft. Vikrant Massey, Kriti Kharbanda (A Still From Movie)

What’s Good: The fact that it’s releasing on OTT and the audience has the choice to watch it

What’s Bad: The thought that this could work in 2021!

Loo Break: 14 times!

Watch or Not?: Even if it’s the last day of your Zee5 subscription, switch off the app & watch anything else

User Rating:

It’s a complicated (read: forced) love story of a couple involving the ‘corporate couple’ of Sanjay (Vikrant Massey) & Aditi (Kirti Kharbanda), who love each other but are too afraid to confess the same to their stereotypical ‘anti-love-marriage’ families. They don’t want to elope or leave each other, so once while doing theatre (because, why not?) Sanjay figures out a plan through which he can finally marry Aditi.

His plan involves hiring actors (played by Gauahar Khan & Jameel Khan) to pretend to be their ‘fake parents’ & meet their ‘real parents’ respectively. This leads to a ‘tragedy of errors’ as everyone figures out the truth by the end. How & what happened next is what the remaining story is all about.

14 Phere Movie Review OUT! A ‘Tragedy Of Errors’ Ft. Vikrant Massey, Kriti Kharbanda (A Still From Movie)

14 Phere Movie Review: Script Analysis

Manoj Kalwani’s script lacks solid drama, rib-tickling one-liners & story. Thought the idea sounds nice on paper, but the style of the genre is owned by Priyadarshan & he’s the king of ‘comedy of errors’. This one, as well, tried too hard to create confusion, but there isn’t any properly backed back-story to it. It only gets worse from here as you constantly keep disconnecting with the film at most junctures.

From the lead characters’ conflict to the execution of a ‘well-thought plan, 14 Phere has many moving parts that aren’t actually moving in any direction; they’re stuck. Considering the places covered in the script, Riju Das’ camerawork is of no great deal following the usual basics. Editor Manan Sagar has tried to wrap up the film soon, keeping it at a little over 100 minutes, but the narrative is so stretched that it impacts the speed.

14 Phere Movie Review: Star Performance

There comes a saturation point in every actor’s life & with the speed, Vikrant Massey is choosing such mediocre scripts, it doesn’t seem far away. He’s overqualified for something like this, and there’s not a single scene that could be used as an example to display his acting mettle.

Kriti Kharbanda is super cute & that’s about it. She doesn’t get any scope to go out of her comfort zone. She’s a good actress & all she needs is a good director. You can’t just star Gauahar Khan and ask her to go old. She has a certain charismatic aura around here, which is ruined by the film due to a lazy character sketch. What dips down further is how a talented actor like Jameel Khan is wasted.

14 Phere Movie Review OUT! A ‘Tragedy Of Errors’ Ft. Vikrant Massey, Kriti Kharbanda (A Still From Movie)

14 Phere Movie Review: Direction, Music

Straight out of AIB’s Chintu Ka Birthday, director Devanshu Singh’s direction is pretty ordinary. He doesn’t even get proper support from the team ‘DOP’, hence resulting in an incomplete mess. There’s nothing fresh or new in the end which could’ve led us to talk more about it.

Not a single song (and there are quite a few) composed by Rajeev V Bhalla & JAM8 clicks. Given the nature of the movie, a good album was expected. The background score, too, had no impact on the narrative.

14 Phere Movie Review: The Last Word

All said and done, 14 Phere is a rom-com designed to be a ‘tragedy of errors’. The major problem lies when the script takes the actors for granted, relying way too much on the story. Couldn’t even recommend this for the performances.

One star!