Sweety Chaudhary (Sonam Kapoor) unknowingly keeps her point to Sahil Mirza (Rajkummar Rao) while watching his theatre act about a dating app. "There is no feeling in this love story" Well, this dialogue itself is the verdict of the film, as there is no love story established in Shelly Chopra Dhar directorial. There was no chemistry, romance or 'jugalbandi' between Kuhu (Regina Cassandra) the on-screen love interest of Sweety aka Sonam Kapoor. We wished the makers could have emphasized more on the love story developing an elegant bond that could have touched the audiences but that is not the case with this modern day drama that concludes with a cliche taunted dialoguebaazi taking a dig at people's approach and mindset on lesbian love. Fair enough, but there is no conviction when a film is made on such a fresh subject as the makers had no plan in bringing on a strong affecting passionate lesbian love-story on silver-screen.
Cheerful characters and the light-hearted approach by the half-baked supporting characters has diluted such an exceptional subject, however, the film is so adage and agenda-driven that it is envisioned to end in a particular manner that we all had expected. A beginning scene where Sweety is running away from her brother played by Abhishek Duhan, a bossy clad behind him questioning her freedom. Is the moment when she accidentally meets the playwriter Sahil Mirza, son of a recognized film producer who is all on his own and directs theatre plays for his livelihood. A hurried Sweety runs along with Sahil to board a metro as she wants to visit the UK embassy and here is when Mirza Sahil is taken by Sweety's charm and these inclinations with his actions are pretty much clear.
The very notable, loud and jovial character was of Juhi Chawla as Chatro, a caterer working close with the theatre crew. While another colourful character was Sonam's real-life father Mr. Anil Kapoor who was a joy to watch as her on-screen father (Balbir Chaudhary). He is charming and pleasant to watch on screen as Sonam's father. We see a rushed father-daughter bond, as well as there, are no striking conversations between the two.
A lover following his heart and a playwriter moves to Moga to perform his act is when the story gets a bit lame and amaurotic irrelevant to its screenplay that surely has entertainment value. Performance wise Sonam plays a cold sobbing woman who hides all her feelings right-away from childhood and Sara Arjun plays Sweety's childhood role splendidly. Brijendra Kala as Chaubey and Seema Pahwa as Billauri are two comical characters that cannot be ignored. Madhumalti Kapoor as Balbir's mother and Sweety's grand-mother was monumentally impressive with her act. Anil Kapoor as Balbir Chaudhary a wanna be Chef and a garment company owner was believable with his character, while Rajkummar Rao as Sahil Mirza was not in the shape of a specific character with certain mannerism, habits or nuances and we saw it as Rao and not his character at the first place.
The film bangs on with a strong message of being modern and being adaptable to the mindset of Lesbian marriage, but a convictionless approach had diversion all over as the narrative prosperous. The climax act was not intense and we looked for an edge of the seat enlightening ending but everything was rushed. Regina Cassandra as Kuhu, Sweety's love interest has hardly got any dialogues to deliver. Although the two compelling songs from the film 'Good Morning' and 'Ishq Mitha' has kept us hooked, but the narrative has not done justice with the subject of the film.
Shelly Chopra Dhar and Gazal Dhaliwal's dim-witted daffy screen-play could have been much better and subtle. Cinematography by Himman Dhamija and Rangarajan Rambadran has done their best and captured some fine crowded shots with an ease. Ashish Suryavanshi's editing was perfect and culminating and gathered the narrative smoothly. Dialogues by Gazal Dhaliwal were uninfluential and lack depth and we wished Javed Akhtar could have penned some meaningful lines to this film.
Overall, the lesbian love story is unestablished but the societal mindset in blamed with some mediocre performances that won't touch you deep down in your heart. Skip it, if you don't want to see a cliche film.
Cast :Anil Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao