Searching for love in the love story

Nonika Singh

It promises to be an atypical love story, a lighthearted look at Gen Z and their love conflicts. Alas, this spiritual sequel to Shahid Kapoor’s debut film ‘Ishq Vishk’ ends up being neither. A film within a film… we perk up at the thought of a writer gaining so much prominence. As we meet the young screenwriter Raghav (Rohit Saraf of ‘Mismatched’ fame), who is told, ‘tumhari kahani mein freshness hai’, we await the same. For a while, we are led down the garden path where we hope to pluck some fresh blooms of love and romance. Only, as he is stuck writing the climax, the film, too, gets caught in writers’ blocks, what with so many writers on board.

Back to the film Raghav is writing; well, to finish his Bollywood story, he says we have to go back to the start. And we move to idyllic Dehradun, an ideal place for ishqwala love. But, hold on, haven’t we been told that this is not a happily-ever-after or on familiar lines? Only, the moment we set eyes on these three BFFs, two boys and a girl, we know the triangulate path the movie will take. After all, n number of movies before this have conveyed how such friendships read: status complicated. Yes, to begin with, it is crystal clear that Sahir (Jibraan Khan) and Sanya (Pashmina Roshan) are a couple. There is a fourth angle, too, environment crusader Ria (Naila Grrewal), Raghav’s girlfriend. But isn’t that rebound in the title a clear giveaway? ‘Clarity ka raasta confusion se guzarta hai…’ we too arrive at the familiar, via breakups, ‘chill-trip’ Raghav and Sanya take and some parent traps.

Told in first person by Raghav, the story he is writing expectedly is personal too. Only, he allows us a peep into his besties’ (Sanya and Sahir) life as well. They break up and sort out with cute little gestures which are supposedly our pointers into how the young approach love. Little lessons are learnt anyway, even though the young film is also padded with some heavy-duty family concerns. Sanya is dealing with the divorce of her parents and lives with her single mom. When will Bollywood move away from the so-called progressive thought? Drinking by women is a ‘cool’ deal. Daddy issues are affecting Sahir, too, who has a stern father who wants him to join the Army. The same old grouse of how parents force their children to fulfill their aspirations surfaces. Sanya, of course, ends up doing what the absent daddy prescribed: play golf.

Raghav’s boss (Kusha Kapila) tells him that Sanya is the most interesting character in his story, people will feel for her. But sorry, we feel otherwise. Not that Pashmina Roshan, who happens to be Hrithik Roshan’s cousin, is outright bad in her portrayal of Sanya, but she has a long way to go. Jibraan Khan and Naila Grrewal hold out, even though their screen time, particularly Naila’s (seen in ‘Maamala Legal Hai’), is limited. But, we watch the film mainly for a finely calibrated and earnest performance by Rohit Saraf. He steers the film for the longest time until the narrative swerves in the all-too-expected direction.

He gets some clever lines, too; mark the reference to the iconic love word ‘palat’. Of course, the real pithy dialogues are reserved for fine actor Sheeba Chaddha. In a bit part, she decodes why Raghav’s parents are continually playing games: ‘Is the person we love today the same as the one we fell in love with?’Her presence adds gravitas.

We get it, a prem kahani is not meant to be a serious affair but fun and frolic, especially when it belongs to the truly young. Only, we keep waiting for the frothy and peppy feeling to take over. Sadly, the film does not seduce us enough to even momentarily feel the love in the air. Kusha rebukes Raghav, ‘Is kahani mein love story kahan hai?’ We don’t say the same, but clocking less than two hours, what could have been a memorable take on friendship and love just skims the surface. At best a teaser, it misses the intoxicating big picture which love, even rebound ishq, is meant to suffuse us with.