Dev Review: A love story gone wrong!

What does a love failure and Dev have in common? Both haven broken your heart. Well, atleast a failed love will make you sad and upset. But the result of watching Dev, will leave you perplexed. If a failed love makes you question your trust in people, then Dev will leave you wanting your time back!

Director Rajath Ravishankar tires to be a love story/adventure story/coming of age drama – but Dev doesn’t fit in any of these genres. In fact, Dev doesn’t exactly have a compelling story either. Well, Dev is one of those films, where the trailer was convincing than the film itself.

In a run time of over 2 hours and 38 minutes, there are plenty of moral-policing lines, dialogues about being proud of one’s mother tongue, punch-line about love. But watching only this throughout the film, severs for a bore-fest. Because these lines aren’t backed up a strong event, neither doesn’t the film’s story have any conflict. What’s a film without some twists? Well, it’s a bland one. Not one of Haris Jayaraj’s song from the film is memorable. Neither are any solid roles for veterans actors like Prakash Raj and Ramya Krishnan. Everything looks rehearsed and forced. It’s a pain to sit through a film with nothing interesting. The film’s stunning visuals, the gorgeous cinematography are a treat to watch!

Dressed in stylish clothing, Karthi tries to best to don the role of a wealthy-carefree person, but given that there’s nothing more to his role than this, it’s hard to relate to his character. Rakul Preet, looks perfect as the businesswoman, but her lip-sync is just off. During the film, one realizes that Dev is a love story between the two, but it later seems like Dev is trapped in an abusive relationship with Meghana (Rakul Preet). But that track too ends abruptly. Dev doesn’t understand what he really wants in life. In my opinion, this film should’ve taken the route to explore the identity crisis of Dev, and how he revives himself to establish his true self. But the film’s writing takes a mindless path!

It disguises itself as a feel-good film, however, the only thing I felt good is when the end credits rolled in!