Film: Tere Ishk Mein
Rating: 2.5/5
Cast: Dhanush, Kriti Sanon, Prakash Raj
Music: A.R. Rahman
Writer and Screenplay: Neeraj Yadav, Himanshu Sharma
Producer: Bhushan Kumar
Director: Aanand L. Rai
Release Date: 28 Nov 2025
Dhanush and Kriti Sanon team up to serve this fresh dish of emotional turmoil. The trailer, music, and promotional material already made it clear that this is an emotionally charged love story.
Let us now see what the film actually offers.
Story:
Shankar (Dhanush), a lower middle class young man whose father (Prakash Raj) is a small notary lawyer, is a violent student involved in college politics and known for beating opponents black and blue.
Mukti (Kriti Sanon), a PhD student, is working on a thesis about whether a violent person can be tamed and turned peaceful. To get her PhD approved, she promises her guides that she will reform Shankar and present him as her case study.
Shankar initially ignores her instructions, but as Mukti intensifies her efforts, he falls for her. Mukti pretends to love him only to complete her thesis. Shankar takes the relationship seriously, and Mukti eventually realizes that he cannot handle rejection and tends to become unpredictably violent.
Life puts a three year gap between them. During this time, Mukti gets engaged to someone else. When Shankar returns and learns this, his violent nature resurfaces. What happens next, how Shankar becomes an Air Force pilot, and how this emotional journey concludes form the core of the story.
Artists’ Performances
Dhanush delivers strongly as the violent rebel, emotional lover and serious pilot. An undercurrent of anger stays in his body language throughout.
Kriti Sanon shines in every frame and at times dominates Dhanush with her performance. Her constant smoking scenes from the beginning feel excessive.
Prakash Raj is excellent as the vulnerable father of a middle class family.
The supporting cast performs well, and the actor playing the motivating pundit in Kashi makes a very strong impact.
Technical Excellence
A.R. Rahman’s music keeps the experience engaging, although a few portions feel routine. The pre interval sequence stands out with its gripping background score.
Cinematography and production values are impressive.
Editing could have been crisper to suit the intense pacing.
Highlights
Lead pair performances
Music
Drawbacks
Lengthy duration
A few unconvincing episodes
Analysis
The story is simple and clean. The execution, however, is loaded with heavy emotions. Shankar’s character design slightly resembles that of the protagonist from Animal, violent and unpredictable.
The film takes time to settle. The initial hero centric scenes and typical hero heroine introductions make it look like a routine commercial film. But around twenty minutes before the interval, the emotional tempo picks up and the film finds its rhythm.
The smoking scenes involving the lead pair feel repetitive and suggest a lack of better visual ideas. A few scenes appear forced and lack immersive conviction. The narrative travels in predictable lines without major surprises.
A line in the movie describes Shankar as outstanding, outrageous, and out of control. Ironically, the emotional dosage of the film becomes the part that feels out of control. Combined with a long runtime, the intense drama, hardship and possessive love make it tiring at times.
Some episodes, such as Shankar threatening Mukti’s fiancé in a resto bar, the bus damaging sequence, and the terrace confrontation where police fail to intervene, feel overly cinematic and not handled convincingly.
On the positive side, the scene between Shankar and Mukti’s father is beautifully written and executed. The Kashi episode, where a pundit advises Shankar, “Do not run behind Mukti, which also means salvation, stay in love and Mukti will come to your feet,” is spiritually meaningful and fits the context well. This showcases the maturity of the writer and director.
The film has no villain. Every character is right in their own position, and the internal flaws within each individual collectively become the antagonist. This film is suitable for audiences who enjoy emotional dramas and are willing to invest nearly 3 hours exploring complex psychological shades. If you expect a soft, heart touching love story, this film is not that. It targets young men and women and offers insight into how different minds function in relationships.
Bottom Line: Neat but tedious
