Cast- Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Triathi, Seema Pahwa, Sapna Sand
Director- Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Writers- Nitesh Tiwari, Shreyas Jain
Is a cute little love story with a love triangle twist thrown in.
Bitti, the sassy girl of Bareilly finds fancy in a writer who has written a character very similar to her and takes the help of Chirag, Bareilly ka ladka, to find Preetam Vidrohi the writer.
The ensuing story is full of light moments, fun and of course a sweet happy ending.
The first thing that comes across as most impressive are the dialogues. Nitesh Tiwari and Shreyas Jain have added the perfect UP ka tadka. The dialogues, though simple and as fluid as the everyday chatter, add the perfect touch of humour . Depending upon one’s sense of humour, there could be some LOL moments and definitely a lot of chuckling ones. To add effect, dialects are like icing on the cake.
The same cannot be said about the plot though. While trying to create that love triangle twist, the writers overlooked some inconsistencies.
Amongst the writing flaws, something that irked me is why does smoking and drinking have to be the parameter of showing a liberal independent woman ? Alas this is not the first movie falling for that ploy !
The star cast deserves a lot of credit for making the characters so interesting. I’ll begin with the best first in terms of performance.
The third main lead, our dear Rajkumar Rao, is undoubtedly the best out of the three. The moment he joins the story, he adds spark to it. He shifts between his two avatars with amazing ease, the soft spoken stuttering one and the don-ish one with baritone.
Seema Bhargav Pahwa and Pankaj Tripathi, who make a quirky family with Kriti, are simply loveable. Seema Bhargav as the girl’s mother with sole motto in life to get her daughter married, is as authentic as the small town mother and as hilarious. Pankaj Tripathi as the soft spoken and liberal father is endearing to the core. The scenes with both of them are the most interesting parts of the movie.
Ayushmaan seems good. Kriti looks fresh and beautiful as always even with her no make-up looks . Once again , she seemed to show potential of something even better.
The art direction is good with real locations in terms of old style small town houses, chhajjas, galis.
Music could be rated average with one or two peppy numbers but others being boring and hindering the pace.
What I found as the bane of the movie is the languish pace.
There is no romantic chemistry as such and so the parts which concentrate on that angle sag a lot. It’s only the humour which keeps the movie going and when its missing, our attention easily evaporates.
I wouldn’t be able to say that director Ashwini Iyer who wowed us with Nil Bate Sannata has been able to repeat that.
But her second project is definitely sweet, desi and modest, just like our plain authentic khoya Barfi !
So if you are not looking for any awesome mind blowing dessert , this one’s simplicity might just do !!
Score 6 on 10 ( plus 1 for those who enjoy the desi tadka in characters and dialogues )