One Friday Night Review: Raveena Tandon, Milind Soman & Vidhi Chitalia's thriller disengages and underwhelms

Raveena Tandon, Milind Soman and Vidhi Chitalia led One Friday Night, directed by Manish Gupta is now streaming on Jio Cinema.

By Rishil Jogani

Published on Jul 28, 2023 | 12:17 PM IST | 617.1K

One Friday Night is a disengaging and underwhelming thriller drama (Credit; Jio Cinema)

Name: One Friday Night

Director: Manish Gupta

Cast: Raveena Tandon, Milind Soman, Vidhi Chitalia

Rating: 2/5

Plot:
Ram Verma (Milind Soman) and Lata Verma (Raveena Tandon) are 20 years into their marriage. Ram is a business tycoon while Lata is a gynaecologist. Ram's having an extra-marital affair with a woman by the name of Niru (Vidhi Chitalia). He takes her to his holiday villa while informing his wife that he's boarding a flight. Meanwhile, the weather turns stormy. In the holiday villa, Niru surprises Ram by telling him that she's two months pregnant. To celebrate her pregnancy, Ram orders the villa's caretaker to buy sweets from the city. When the villa's caretaker is away, Niru asks Ram to confront to his wife about their relationship, of course to his displeasure but he promises to inform her eventually. While the duo engage in playful banter, Niru accidentally pushes Ram from the balcony and he falls straight on his head. The story that follows, takes viewers through the crazy happenings that occur over 'One Friday Night'.

What works:
At just around 85 minutes, One Friday Night is a compact film that doesn't waste time or beat around the bush. The unexpected and shocking plot-twist in the climax lifts up an otherwise underwhelming film. It is however commendable that a film of this sort has been put up with such limited resources.

What doesn't work:
One Friday Night is amateurly written and executed. The dialogues are simply poor. Despite being a short film, there are a number of scenes that just feel unneccessarily long and tedious. The majority of the cast acts unconvincingly, making me as a viewer almost feel disengaged through the film's proceedings.

Performances:
Milind Soman and Raveena Tandon give very basic performances. There's visibly a lack of prep that the two have put in for their part in the film. Milind in the emotional scenes just isn't good.
Vidhi Chitalia as Niru plays the role of a playful young woman with sincerity. However, she too doesn't shine as she gets trapped in the mediocrity of the film.

Final Verdict:
One Friday Night is a disengaging thriller-drama with underwhelming performances. Better writing, execution and performances would have gone a long way in making the film watchable.
You can watch One Friday Night now on Jio Cinema.