Movie Review: Kucch Luv Jaisaa

‘Odd couples’ aren’t a new occurrence as few would choose to believe. By ‘odd couples’ I don’t mean the difference in age, but difference in personality and temperament, also ideologies, in addition to a diametrically opposite outlook towards life. The Hindi film industry has depicted the diverse-as-chalk-and-cheese characters with amazing regularity. Recall LAMHE, EK CHOTI SI LOVE STORY, NISHABD, PYAAR KE SIDE EFFECTS, CHAMELI, MR & MRS IYER… More recently CHEENI KUM, RAB NE BANA DI JODI, PYAAR IMPOSSIBLE, JAB WE MET, WAKE UP SID, ISHQIYA, DIL TOH BACHHA HAI JI, 7 KHOON MAAF, TANU WEDS MANU and CHALO DILLI. KUCCH LUV JAISAA, directed by Barnali Ray Shukla, also depicts an odd couple. The woman is a bored housewife, while the guy is on the run. They share nothing in common. But opposites attract… Interesting idea, isn’t it? In fact, a lot of people who lead a boring, monotonous existence might identify with this thought. Unfortunately, KUCCH LUV JAISAA just doesn’t turn out as exciting as the one-line concept. It loses the plot after a promising start.

What could’ve been an amusing, at times dramatic, but relatable fare that looks at the sensitive relationship between a married couple and also between a married woman and a gangster fails to deliver due to a messy screenplay that only gets bizarre and boring as it progresses. In fact, the sequence of events become uninteresting and tedious after a point and what makes it worse is the fact that there’s no remedy in sight. There’s nothing to salvage the film… not even the performances from its lead actors. It’s 29 February and is Mrs. Madhu Saxena’s [Shifaali Shah] birthday. It comes once in four years and her husband has forgotten her birthday. Her husband [Sumit Raghavan] has been taking her for granted and her marriage is getting into a fatigue zone. She has two options; she can choose to sulk or reinvent herself. She chooses the latter. And she meets Raghav [Rahul Bose]. Raghav is a criminal on the run. Today is also Raghav’s birthday and he is choosing this day to make a life-changing decision. He wants to marry the woman he loves [Neetu Chandra], but fate has other plans. A casual conversation between Madhu and Raghav ensues; she mistakes him for a detective and Raghav takes this cue. He continues to pretend he is one. The remaining story is about Madhu and Raghav coming to terms with certain truths. Barnali Ray Shukla, who has also penned the film, takes you on a journey that’s devoid of any excitement whatsoever. You expect fireworks when opposites meet, but the writer-director crams those two hours with sequences and episodes that fail to hold your attention. Fine, the woman is upset with her husband and is avoiding his calls, but you definitely expect her to stay in touch with her school-going kids. But she doesn’t. In fact, she continues to chase a person [Amin Hajee] at Rahul’s behest, for no particular reason. Much later, when she realizes that the guy is a gangster, instead of walking out on him or alerting the cops, she chooses to drive him to safety, outside the city limits. And the sequence between Shifaali and her school-going daughter towards the end – what was that? Shifaali is an extremely competent actor who has impressed us in the past, but is not too convincing this time. She emotes well in a couple of scenes, but goes over the top at times. Rahul is completely ill at ease playing a tapori gangster. From some strange reason, one can’t help but draw parallels with Aamir’s character in RANGEELA, which remains the yardstick to this date. Neetu Chandra doesn’t get scope. Sumit Raghavan handles his part well. Amin Hajee is passable. Om Puri appears in a cameo.

On the whole, KUCCH LUV JAISAA fails to deliver. An exercise in boredom and monotony!