Ek Din review: Junaid Khan, Sai Pallavi's one-time watch film about a one-day romance is one note short of impact

EK DinCast: Junaid Khan, Sai PallaviDirector: Sunil PandeyRating: 2.5 starsI was reminded of Kamal Haasan-Sridevi's iconic 1983 take Sadma piece watching Junaid Khan-Sai Pallavi's Ek Din. Before anyone comes at me all guns fulgent for the compare, it’s purely because of the shared memory loss thread. Does the new film have the same emotional impact?This one is a Hindi adaptation of the 2016 Thai film One Day. On a completely unrelated note, if there were a drinking game for every time “Ek Din” is uttered on screen here, audiences would be escorted out of the theatre in a collective haze. Anyway, we digress.What is the story of Ek Din?The story follows Dinesh (Junaid), an IT professional quietly pining for his colleague Meera (Sai), but unable to say it out loud. During an office trip to Japan, he finds himself wishing for just one day with her. What follows is Meera developing Transient Global Amnesia (TGA), a real condition where a person loses their memory for a day and, upon recovery, remembers nothing from that period.What happens next is best discovered on screen.There’s a certain freshness to the proceedings initially. The plot is fuss-free, and at a tidy two-hour runtime, it largely stays in control. The first half moves along briskly, keeping you engaged with how things unfold, even if it all feels a tad predictable. Sai and Junaid make for a pleasing pair, and that sense of newness works in the film’s favour.It’s the second half where things begin to wobble, especially as the film attempts to tinker with the original Thai ending. In it's attempt to neatly tie everything together, Ek Din ends up stretching itself unnecessarily towards the climax. It starts losing steam right when it should be tightening its grip, just as the big reveal approaches, which feels baffling. How does a film falter at the very moment it’s been building towards all along, with a reunion that should have been its most affecting payoff?Maybe part of it comes down to the casting. Backed by daddy Aamir Khan and uncle Mansoor Khan, Junaid largely fits the part. He holds his own in the emotional stretches, but as the film inches towards the climax, the writing stops doing him a favour and he begins to falter.And then there’s Sai Pallavi. She’s so effortlessly compelling that she commands your attention every time she’s on screen, and you feel her absence just as much when she isn’t. Her eyes do the heavy lifting with ease. Curious to see her next in Ramayana, where she plays Maa Sita. What Ek Din needed, is maybe some humour to make it more accessible to a larger section of the viewers.The music and background score by Ram Sampath, goes well with the story. The cinematography by Manoj Lobo is also good.The VerdictTo sum it up, this review started with a comparison to Sadma. That film left you gutted, long after the credits rolled, while Ek Din settles for something far more fleeting. It’s occasionally affecting courtesy Sai Pallavi’s presence, but it never quite hits the emotional crescendo it seems to be chasing.