Shuddh Desi Romance

STORY: One loverboy and two lovely ladies. Live-in, walk out, make-up, makeout. In turns. Not necessarily in that order. Confused about love and marriage, they follow their heart (at times) and all that lies in between (pun!). REVIEW: So there, Bollywood breaks the stereotype. It steps out from behind the bloomin’ trees in tulip fields and comfortably ‘shacks-up’ with the times. Here ‘smooch-at-first-sight’ happens in a bus-full with baaratis. Coffee dates are sipped in bed (Happy Endings? Huh!). Commitment is not the criteria. Marriage is not on the cards. And sexual compatibility is high priority. Yes, welcome to a modern day shuddh romance in desiland. Plenty ‘Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang’, tucked in with some emotion and drama too. Raghu-(Sushant)-the-Romeo is a tourist guide in Jaipur, who also doubles up as rental baraati for Goyal (Rishi), a shaadi planner. He meets the rebellious Gayatri (Parineeti) and feels a “tezwala” attraction towards her. They waste no time in moving in, and making out. Soon, they’re love-addicts, but commitmentphobic.

The third character in this threesome (don’t expect any of that) is Tara (Vaani), who was supposed to wed Raghu, until he fled on his wedding day. She makes a re-entry for revenge, but ends up with a complicated status, really. Sushant swings between the Patiala-clad women and makes for the perfectly confused, charming and lovable Romeo. His hair perfectly styled at all times (though he should have had the ‘out-of-bed’ look more often), his clothes are more designer than dehati, but he more than makes up for it with his desi cool performance. Parineeti is a phataka, firing dialogues (smoking up too) and living it up. She makes the character her own, complementing Sushant with a casualness that’s commendable. Newbie Vaani is impressive, pretty and commands a good screen-presence. Rishi Kapoor, blows you away yet again with his incredible histrionics. Maneesh Sharma’s ‘SDR’ has a ‘Band Bajaa Baraat’ blend, but the essence lies in the conversational chemistry between the characters, some beautifully captured moments and slice-of-life scenes. He doesn’t play safe, which is good, but the second half seems repetitive. The concept is engaging, but the plot is little shudd, little desi and quite confused.

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