May 2008
U Me aur Hum is the story of a husband whose gentle ministrations take his Alzheimer’s stricken wife from her absentminded youth to blanked-out old age and how they both go through this trial as a couple.
For a directorial debut, Devgan’s U Me au Hum is a a jewel to enjoy time and time again and to cherish as a a new take on love stories in Hindi Cinema.
The journey gives us insights into the man-woman relationship and the intricate commitments of a marriage as seen through the eyes that go beyond the romance and excitement of courtship – which in the case of this film lasts an hour at least – to an area where dark clouds gather over a relationship and threaten its annihilation.
The film is an interesting reversal of the age-old cinematic Indian film formula – strongly inspired by the Ramayan and so long immortalized by Sita. In the Indian and namely Hindi cinematic tradition, the husband is looked after by the wife rain or shine.
When asked to comment on this change in structure in this soft but persuasive film, Devgan answers: The trick is to hold on, to value the things that make life worth living.
The film’s substantial emotional impact depends entirely on the performances, not just Ajay Devgan and Kjaol but their two sets of friends – Sumeet Raghavan and Divya Dutta as the constantly quarrelling divorce bound couple, and Karan Khanna and Isha Sharwani as the soon to be wed couple.
This group of six friends embody the relationships of contemporary Indian upper middle class urbanites allow the viewer to strongly relate to these various stories and namely the main one as well as the way they interact.
HerStories and HiStories by Francesca Miller 