Dono (film)

Dono is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film directed by debutant Avnish S. Barjatya, son of Sooraj R. Barjatya, and written by Avnish S. Barjatya and Manu Sharma. It is jointly produced by Rajshri Productions and Jio Studios. The film stars newcomers, Rajveer Deol and Paloma Dhillon.

The cinematography is done by Chirantan Das. The music is composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, and the lyrics are written by Irshad Kamil. The film was released on 5 October 2023.

Premise
The film follows the story of two strangers, Dev and Meghna. Dev, who is the friend of the bride, meets Meghna, who is the friend of the groom, at a lavish destination wedding. The film explores their relationship.

Cast

 * Rajveer Deol as Dev Saraf
 * Varun Buddhadev as Young Dev
 * Paloma Dhillon as Meghna Doshi
 * Aditya Nanda as Gaurav
 * Kanikka Kapur as Alina Jaisingh Kothari
 * Muskan Kalyani as Young Alina
 * Rohan Khurana as Nikhil Kothari
 * Manik Papneja as Gopal "Gappu"
 * Poojan Chhabra as Vilas Kothari
 * Sanjay Nath as Jagmohan, Nikhil's father
 * Micky Makhija as Dilip Saraf, Dev's father
 * Mohit Chauhan as Ashok Jaisingh
 * Tisca Chopra as Anjali Malhotra
 * Gurdeep Punj as Shilpa Kothari

Production
In March 2021, it was announced that Sooraj Barjatya's son Avnish Barjatya would be making his directorial debut with Dono. Rajveer Deol, son of actor Sunny Deol and Paloma Dhillon, daughter of actress Poonam Dhillon were cast as the leads, marking their acting debut.

Soundtrack
The songs are composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy. The lyrics were written by Irshad Kamil. The film score is composed by George Joseph. The title track of the film was released by Salman Khan and Bhagyashree.

Theatrical
It was released on 5 October 2023.

Reception
A critic of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and noted, "Dono is a clean family entertainer and works due to its simplicity, relatable goings-on and some funny and emotional moments. At the box office, it’ll need a strong word of mouth to attract its target audience." Ganesh Aaglave of Firstpost gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and noted, "Dono is a modern-day love story, which works well because of its fresh writing. The story will find relevance among the youth but the stretched runtime of over two-and-a-half hours plays a bit spoiler. The film is visually appealing."

Sonil Dedhia of News18 India gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and noted, "With Dono, Avnish gives Bollywood romance a simple yet interesting love story. The film is much too long, though. There is a noticeable dip just before the interval and things tend to get convenient. The film delivers decent entertainment and leaves you with a smile at the end of it." Deepa Gahlot of Rediff.com gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and noted, "With Dono, Avnish has slowly dragged the story a few miles over the boundary into the territory of contemporary lifestyle. There are no great emotional highs or lows in the film. It is just made up of little moments of normal interactions between young people."