The Netflix film Do Patti revolves around a pair of twins so identical that you cannot tell them apart even though one is behaving demurely and the other is flouncing about wildly. Saumya and Shailee (Kriti Sanon in a double role) have a childhood animus that has carried over to their adulthood.
When Saumya falls for the wealthy Dhruv (Shaheer Sheikh), Shailee works her charm on Dhruv out of sheer spite. When Dhruv begins beating up Saumya, Shailee cares about her battered sister as much as Do Patti does about developing a barebones premise.
Kanika Dhillon’s latest treatise about misunderstood women is too smug to bother saying anything lasting about domestic violence. Dhillon’s story and screenplay, directed with a matching lack of interest by Shashanka Chaturvedi, has a pair of big-name actors and an important cause, but neither rigour nor potency.
The Hindi movie’s title itself is a giveaway, suggesting a game being played between key characters and police inspector Vidya Jyoti (Kajol). The upright Vidya is stonewalled in her attempts to get Saumya to file a complaint against Dhruv – until matters come to a head.
The 127-minute movie is mostly flat and uninvolving, sparking to life only in its unstinting depiction of the violence endured by Saumya. Despite two Kriti Sanons and Kajol, as well as Shaheer Sheikh’s worthy antagonist, Do Patti lurches from scene to scene before clumsily arriving at a predictable destination.
The cast includes Brijendra Kala doing his usual cute number, Tanvi Azmi as the twins’ concerned nanny, and Sohaila Kapur as a judge who furiously makes notes after the case reaches the courtroom.
Although Kriti Sanon can’t get Saumya to be very different from Shailee, she is compelling in her anguish as well as her inner strength. Kajol is fine too as the gung-ho Vidya, who is sadly not as sharp as she billed to be. Kajol is always up for more than the movie can offer her.
The binary of how good and bad women are supposed to behave doesn’t do this self-declared feminist film any favours. Do Patti’s most promising idea is that the twins are actually one woman who represents the conflicted states of submissiveness and courage. Beyond this, Do Patti is sketchy, dealing its enthusiastic heroines and itself a bum hand.
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