Cast- Irrfan Khan, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Nha Dhupia, Pushtiie Shakti, Brijendra Kala, Insha Sharvani, Luke Kenny, Navneet Nishan
Director- Tanuja Chandra
Writers- Tanuja Chandra, gazal Dhaliwal, Ramashrit Joshi
The film is a qarib qarib love story of two singles ready to mingle.
The not so young singles meet each other through a dating website , are qarib qarib poles apart but happen to embark upon a qarib qarib Bharat Darshan beginning Rishikesh to Delhi to Alwar to Jaipur and finally to Sikkim.
In due course they get to know each other better and struggle to discover their own self better as to whether they are ready to embrace something new or someone new.
The movie has been directed by Tanuja Chandra after a long gap. The director is better known for movies like Dushman (Ashutosh Rana, Kajol ) and Sangharsh(Akshay , Preity Zinta) and a few other forgettable ones.
Chandra this time adopts the changing trends and times and gives her plot an absolutely fresh look. Two people looking out for dates or mates is nothing new but what sets this story apart is that the protagonists are hardly the young, typically good looking suave people. They are very relatable, average looking ,with their own shortcomings, flaws and insecurities.
From the very start of the movie, we are impressed by the natural touch the writer has given to the character Jaya(Parvathy).The director chooses a woman without the perfect curves and gives her an almost no make-up look. She does not try to jazz up Jaya ‘s looks unnecessarily either with wardrobe or hairstyling or even accessories. In fact details right up to Jaya’s handbag or Laptop bag were in sync with the character.
As a single woman, Jaya’s plate is full professionally and socially but their lurks a longing in the background that she needs to look out for a partner (apart from being prodded by friends and family).The way she decides what age she needs to feed in her profile and her reluctance to share her picture shows the dilemma of a woman with clock ticking away.
Parvathy plays the character marvellously. Her hitch ,her dilemma, her reluctance to accept things that do not fall in line with her regular lifestyle and her idea of people , her gradual opening up to the idea of fun.
Irfan is great as always and plays Yogi, this fun loving person who is a shaayar by hobby and no idea what by profession. Though the storyline hardly tells us anything substantial or relatable about his character but Irrfan makes Yogi endearing. He’s slightly unkempt, chivalrous, carefree but caring,all at the same time.
The side characters hardly make their presence felt more than the passing/ fleeting scenery.
The subtle humour and Parvathy and Irrfan’s performances make the first half a pleasure. But like many movies , this one too suffers the jinx of the second half.
Post interval, it seems writer Kaamna Chandra (who has written for Chandni, 1942 A Love Story , Prem Rog ) does not know how to stretch the plot further. The story meanders and includes certain sequences which seem a tad out of sync.The pace slackens and so does the enjoyment factor.
But for that bane of second half, the movie could have been much better than what it turned out to be and easily a score 7.
Overall , the fresh take at the boy meets girl saga, the loveable interactions between Jaya and Yogi, good performances by the lead pair and the subtle endearing humour that Irfan brings with his characters make this charming little story a good one time watch.
Score 6 on 10