From the trailers and songs , most of the movie is sorta guessed at. A sad / tragic love story , the question remains it has been handled well by the scriptwriters , the director etc.

The answer is a resounding yes. This is Mohit Suri's forte and he has elicited a fantastic performance from Emraan , Vidya. In particular this is Emraan's movie , his eyes speak volumes in his scenes.

The music is well placed.

The characters are not black or white , but grey, with their self motivations.

It's worth the money of the ticket. Go for it ...

First of all let me tell you that in the afternoon show of this movie, which doesn't have any Khan or Kumar in it, the house was full. Yeah, it's not convincing but it is true. The whole theater was full, especially with the youngsters. This clearly shows that Music hit, to Movie hit! Mohit Suri is popular for making films which are more related to the youngsters and especially the couples. The songs become popular before the movie release. He is the same director who made Ashiqui2 which became super hit without any stars and Ek Villain which collected 100cr at the box office without any storyline. So he rejoins the Bhatt camp and convince Mahesh Bhatt to write the story. Because of the family project, Emran Hashmi and Rajkumar Rao had been finalized for the respected roles. And Vidya Balan is selected because of the suggestion of Mahesh Bhatt. And then first of all, they create the soulful soundtrack. They even bought the song Zaroori Tha from Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for the better success of the album. Thus the film began to start! Story line is not refreshing. Old wine has been served in new bottle. But, the stars make the bottle a worthy drink. Undoubtedly, everyone will talk about Emran Hashmi after the movie. Though Vidya Balan is also fantastic and Rajkumar Rao also acts well. But, he is not convincing as a terrorist, or as an old man or as the husband of Vidya Balan. Vidya looks perfect for the role. But, it is Emran who makes the audience cry, who makes the audience to feel sad for him through his eyes, especially where tears come out from them. Music is outstanding. The best song that suits in it is Zaroori Tha. Title track is awesome. Jeet Ganguly once again proved that he can give the best! Last paragraph of that song is playing in the climax where Rao throws ashes in the garden, is the best scene with full emotions. Hasi and Hamnawa are also listenable. Dialogues are another plus point. The film is majorly dependent on Hashmi's powerful dialogues. Cinematography is as usual as we had seen in Suri's previous movies. Story looks good till interval, even after post interval, too. But, I don't convince with the climax and its twist. I'm hoping for something good for all, but, Suri only loves not so happy ending. This film shows the true love between two persons, so the Girlfriend-Boyfriend type people may not like this film. I'm saying so because I've watched some faces after the movie. On the whole, you can watch it once if you are a fan of Emran Hashmi or even Mohit Suri. I think it's better than Mohit's last 3-4 releases. But than also only Emran steals the show. This is his first U certified film, so family audience can also go for it. Hamari Adhuri Kahani can make only one difference and that is the return of Emran Hashmi!

Giving the Bhatts an advantage of their recent success stories, majorly achieved due to their proved music sense and the low-cost model they have been working upon, its quite possible that they might not incur heavy losses in this poor HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI too as per business terms. But if one talks about direction, characterization, execution and the writing in particular using some honest words, then this is one of the worst offerings from the team in the recent times (post another pathetic dud MR. X).

Personally, I don't even feel it was entirely written by Mahesh Bhatt (as publicized) since it has such silly, shabby and confusing story progressions that actually doesn't fit in with the name of Bhatt as a writer. Yes, the film begins with some intense sequences having a clear MB stamp dealing with a father, son and the mother, but then gets scattered so childishly that one cannot believe it has been really penned down by the same person we know by the name of Mahesh Bhatt, who gave us films such as Saaransh, Janam, Arth, Daddy, Swayam, Sir, Naam, Tamanna, Zakham and many more specifically written around emotional outbursts in broken relationships.

To give you some specific reasons for my above assumptions, What can you say about a script telling you a story of a single mother of 7-8 years old kid, left alone by her missing husband (since 1 year after the marriage), getting involved in a fresh affair and leaving for Dubai to work, without taking along her only dependent kid for some undisclosed reason? In fact its so weird to even assume that a script revolving around a single mother, features the kid in only few of its opening sequences and then again towards the climax, not mentioning him even once in the middle section when the mother is stepping into a new phase of life with a rich hotelier. Now how could Mahesh Bhatt even approve it, making every single character in the script look like a dumb, stupid person knowing nothing about what ought to be his or her first priorities of life to be precise?

Moreover every key person in the story coming up with his own flashback after a while makes the narration heavy, boring and stale. Plus few absurd moments simply make you ask that, Is it the same film having those emotionally engaging promos promising a worth watching product from the Bhatts?

For instance, as Vidya's missing husband (Rajkumar) returns (who is a terrorist as per the police records), he easily gets into his old house and hides as there is no police surveillance around the residence of a wanted terrorist. But above all, meeting his wife after many years, he is not even concerned to ask about his only son and then fast gets into a weird revenge mode (partially making you recall the basic plot of SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY and numerous Hindi movies made on the its theme unofficially). Besides the script in its climax (issuing bizarre death sentences to its lead characters), once again refuses to give any importance to the 'Parenting' aspect of the storyline making you laugh instead of cry putting it bluntly.

Being an uninteresting drag throughout after making a fine start, HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI doesn't impress with its soundtrack too with only the title song making a decent impact on the listeners due to its relatable lyrics (since everyone has some kind of Adhuri Kahani in his or her young past). Probably that's the reason the Bhatts had to buy an extra Rahat Fateh Ali Khan track from his private album to add into the film deliberately. So no credits for that good song can be given to the Bhatts.

The script full of all seen before, heavy melodrama fails to take any advantage from its otherwise fine background score and cinematography, mainly due to many badly written dialogues ruining the entire scene like "Mere Ghar Ka Choolha……...", "Arey, Yeh Banjaaran Kaun Hai?" and more. Also the lazy, illogical & half-baked characterization doesn't allow the actors to reach their viewers hearts ever in the film's 130 minutes of duration.

To give the two key performers their deserving due, Vidya Balan tries really hard right from her first scene itself, but her character developments mostly remain dumb and highly questionable hampering the overall impact of the intense act severely. Similarly Rajkumar Rao too tries to deliver his best in the short role but doesn't get the much required support from his confusingly written role heading nowhere. And talking about Emraan, I honestly cannot recall when he acted differently in a film other than SHANGHAI directed by Dibaker Bannerji. As a result, once again he remains the same as seen in his earlier films making no visible effort to somehow do it differently. However it was indeed a pleasant surprise to see one of my favourite actresses Amla back on screen playing Emraan's mother.

In all HAMARI ADHURI KAHANI doesn't turn out to be anything even closer to the ones written by the exceptional filmmaker a couple of decades back. In other words, it can easily be rated as a badly conceived film that evidently couldn't express the basic idea in the mind of its reputed writer, for which everyone stands equally responsible in its entire team, including the one and only Mahesh Bhatt.