Bollypedia
The movie is a sad love story, or at least that is what it was supposed to be. The movie revolves around three characters - Hotel magnate Aarav Ruparel (Emraan Hashmi), the mother of a 5-year-old, Vasudha (Vidya Balan), who works as a florist at a five-star hotel owned by business tycoon, Aarav (Hashmi) and her husband Hari (Rajkummar Rao), who forces her to tattoo his name on her arm and disappears for five years. The storyline of the movie and the clichéd dialogues will take you back to the 80’s. Vidya has cried a lot in the movie, maybe because she knew how painfully stupid the dialogues were sounding. The whole attempt at showcasing a patriarchal society, where a woman is bound by the laws of society and is forced to kill her feelings for the man she loves because she is married to a near lunatic husband who gets involved with Maoists, (yes you read that correct), is so depressing that we are glad that this is the ‘adhuri kahaani’.
Anuradha Kandhol
Hindustan Times

Director Mohit Suri likes to play with the idea of unachievable love. Be it Woh Lamhe or Aashiqui 2, he highlights the hesitation that lovers suffer before turning soulmates. Written by Mahesh Bhatt, Hamari Adhuri Kahani provides him the perfect canvas to construct a bridge between love that calls for a celebration and love that seeks approval from the society. This time, he has used Rajkummar Rao’s character to drive home his point, but talkative characters and some really clichéd plot points have ruined his noble wishes. Yes, the film’s biggest weakness is its writing. Soulful music is Hamari Adhuri Kahani’s other valuable asset and it helps the audience in sustaining this 129-minute-long preachy film. Hamari Adhuri Kahani is mostly dependent on its lead actors and they’ve done a satisfactory job. It’s one of those films which reveals its latent potential and then fails to capitalise on it. Hamari Adhuri Kahani is watchable, but it is not likely to ignite a passionate fire in your heart.

Rohit Vats
India Today

"What's going on?" "Yeh kya ho raha hai?" "I don't get you man." You hear characters voicing more or less the same thing at regular intervals in Hamari Adhuri Kahani. This is a 2 hours and 12 minute-long romantic tragedy but really it may as well be a mawkish soap opera targeted for saas-bahu show lovers with its old-fashioned notion of love as eternal sacrifice.  With a foreboding title like Hamari Adhuri Kahani, the real tragedy of this romance is that the tears never come. Instead audiences find themselves whinging at the events on screen. With a foreboding title like Hamari Adhuri Kahani, the real tragedy of this romance is that the tears never come. Instead audiences find themselves whinging at the events on screen. By the time Vasudha's woman-power monologue with a ridiculous plea arrives, this tiring kahani has us wanting to revisit Balan in the other, far better Kahaani (2012).

Suhani Singh
NDTV

Director Mohit Suri's Hamari Adhuri Kahani is an anachronistic, tragic romance that touches an emotional chord, yet, makes you dismiss it as a regressive piece of art. The direction appears confused, with a present-day setting, while the treatment of the plot and characters belong to a bygone era. The story, with its verbose, melodramatic and regressive dialogues, along with outdated metaphors and symbolism, fits into the 1970's mould perfectly. Sadly, the audience today will not relate to it. Emraan Hashmi delivers a sensitive performance, quite contrary to his usual image. Vidya Balan as the protagonist brings out the pathos of a distraught mother and abandoned wife seeking true love, through an emotionally intense portrayal and Rajkummar Rao wows you with his power-packed and nuanced performance as Hari. Technically, with excellent production values and decent music, the visuals by cinematographer Vishnu Rao are vibrantly brought to life by his meticulous framing. Watch this one if you are moved by sad love stories. The good performances are an added bonus.

Troy Ribeiro
Rediff

Mohit Suri has been an efficient director of plot-heavy cinema (with plots often filched from other places), a man who trades almost exclusively in weatherbeaten movie cliches but has always done so with some speed and slickness. This time, working from a script written by Mahesh Bhatt, his focus appears to be not story but, simply, sadness. Everyone in this film, in virtually every frame, looks pained. The relentless background score swells to a crescendo, and then swells up again, to another crescendo. The characters are all pathetic folk with twisted childhoods. Hamari Adhuri Kahani is a pathetic attempt at tragedy. It is a film where three fine actors all play idiots. Now let’s talk about what’s good in Hamari Adhuri Kahani. The thing is…........

Raja Sen
The Indian Express

When the trio of Vidya Balan, Rajkummar Rao and Emraan Hashmi — competent actors all, Rao even better — comes together, you expect something. At the very least, a tug at the heartstrings. Because a ‘prem kahani’ is nothing if it doesn’t touch you deep inside, and make you yearn. What ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ does is the exact opposite. It purports to be an unusual triangle, and perhaps on paper, it may have come off as one. But this is a shockingly empty film, with the entire cast desperately ‘acting away’, and not one sentiment that feels real. Given his early track-record of creating engaging drama, Mohit Suri should have made a full meal of the film, but his material defeats him: it is not only half done, it’s also not well begun. If this was ‘adhuri’, I shudder to think what would have happened if it was ‘poori’.

Shubhra Gupta
The Times of India
The plot offers the viewer a whirlwind tour of scenic locations. But to what avail? Emraan's back-story lacks depth. While middle-class values are to be lauded; the writing of HAK comes unstuck. A long-suffering women like Vasudha, who finally walks away wastes too many years in finding her identity. At a time when we are celebrating a thinking Piku, a rebellious Tanu and her spirited twin Datto; why do we need women characters who whimper? HAK's moments come from its lead cast who pitch in their best for the most part. The music is a soothing balm. Suri should know that even cinema Goliaths cannot rise above the written word.
 
Meena Iyer
Hamari Adhuri Kahaani
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