Tum Mile was promoted as India’s first disaster film based on the 26 July 2005 deluge but it has more romance than disaster which is disappointing.

Residing in the picturesque Cape Town, Emraan’s character Akshay is a painter-cum-delivery boy who hangs with his best friend, Vik (RJ Mantra) as they struggle to make ends meet. He falls in love with the uber rich Sanjana (Soha) who leaves her not-so-loving boyfriend for him. They start living together in a fancy sea-facing apartment (Soha pays the rent) and she becomes his muse. Emraan gets a new job in Sydney and asks Sanjana to accompany him. She refuses to give up her life in Cape Town for him so they part ways. Fate reunites them on 26 July 2005 and they fight against all odds to save each other.

The biggest setback of Tum Mile is that it focuses more on the done-to-death romance than on the disaster sequences. We have had enough of live-in couples, their joys and woes and love triangles. Also, Emraan and Soha don’t have any real intimacy or chemistry so you don’t root for the couple and Soha is not ‘muse material’.

The film has a non-linear narrative, but you can predict what will happen as the story moves between the flood scenes to their past relationship in Cape Town. The pace is laborious and yawn-inducing. There are ‘haath hi saathi’ jokes, so you can gauge the dialogue is not sparkling or original.

Some scenes are very silly. Does an Indian electrician visit people’s houses in South Africa to check if their meter is working? That is classic Abbas-Mustan and Subhash Ghai kind of cinema! In another scene, Emraan and Soha take refuge in a restaurant during the flood and after having a little conversation, they decide it’s time to leave and go back to the flooded roads. Weren’t they sitting there to be safe? And the key-lost-in-the-water scene is straight out of Titanic.

On the bright side, Cape Town is breathtakingly beautiful and the production values are excellent. The songs, especially Tum Mile and Tu Hi Haqeeqat are crowd-pullers and come as a welcome relief with fantastic videos. Tum Mile is bright and lively while Tu Hi Haqeeqat is romantic and captures Cape Town beautifully.

You wish Tum Mile focused more on the flood sequences which are true-to-life and gripping than on the past love story. The scene where Soha gets locked in her car makes you feel suffocated and scared. Even the scene where Soha and Emraan almost drown in a room is well-shot. The problem is that the minute the deluge scenes capture your attention, the story goes into flashback.

This is easily Emraan’s most difficult role and he breezes through every emotion, be it angst, joy or realizing that he is in love. Soha is decent too. She does the lively act pretty well. However, her cleavage is forever on display and her make-up is patchy. More attention should have been paid to her appearance. RJ Mantra makes an impact as Emraan’s best friend. It helps that he looks like Imran Khan.

The flood sequences are the saving grace of Tum Mile. It could have been a much better and gripping film but, alas, it isn’t.

Janhvi Patel/Hill Road Media