Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar Is Luv Ranjan’s Hum…Aapke Hain Koun

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar

Directed  by Luv Ranjan

Rating: ****

Let’s get this straight. Tu Jhoothi Main  Makkar(TJMM) is one of  the most entertaining  romcoms  in recent  times.And why  just recent? It is probably  one of the finest  films in the romcom space blending pizzas  with a punch-filled plot which is  relevant and  redhot.And the spoken lines are on the dot.

So  should I spill out what Ranjan and his  co-writer  Rahul Mody finally have to say on familial ties? Or should I  just take you through the bumper journey  of Micky  and Tinni, two goodlooking  people , who are meant  to be together. But , sigh, inhe kaun samjhaye?

Ranjan’s ebullient  adrenaline-pumped  ambrosial  rom-com is  irresistibly stylish and smart. It knows its mind and how to say what it has to say without falling prey to  the  tropes of  the genre. In essence, TJMM tells  us that those who  dig ditches for  others may drown in one  of them eventually.

Or, if you prefer,as you sow, so you shall reap.

Reap reminds me  of beep. Why has  the  mild expletive  ‘chutiya’ been beeped out  every time it occurs? It is  annoying and  incongruous especially when the  ‘F’  word   has been allowed  for Ranbir  Kapoor in a neatly written emotionally messy confrontational sequence.

Luv Ranjan has never  shied away from looking at  the darker  side  of  love relationships, why should he do now, when  he has such  skilled  actors at his disposal  who make the written words sound like colloquial conversations?

Ranbir  Kapoor has never  been seen  having so much fun rattling off his dialogues with a mischievous gusto. It’s good to see him play an extrovert  for a change. He shares a rapport replete with repartees and ruminations,  not only with the  trying-hard-to-be-sexy-and-sassy Shraddha Kapoor but also his bestie Dabbas, played with uncorrupted  naturalness  by  Anubhav Singh  Bassi.

Bassi’s Dabbas  has  a love story of  his own which starts with desperate attempts to break up and the settles into a marital groove.His girl(played by Monica Choudhary)  reminded me of  that poor girl who chased Saif Ali Khan  down to his holiday with his  pals in Goa in Dil Chahta Hai. Nothing “poor” about this girl,though.

There is an endearing absence of  bleeding-heart social concerns in TJMM. Everyone is  prosperous enough  to  be bothered  about non-priority issues  like breakups  and  commitments . The  traditional  dynamics  of  a  joint family are spun around  with  vertiginous  vibrancy. Some  moments  between  Ranbir and  Shraddha are lensed  in magical intimacy. Not afraid of tight close-ups,Ranbir  lets  his character’s emotional  vulnerability  spill  out all across  the screen.This is arguably his most emotionally fertile  performance to date.

Shraddha is  a good for the bikinis but is seen trying too hard in the emotional  moments.Being emotionally  stripped-down is  not that easy. First rule of skilled acting: it shouldn’t show.

By the way  how many bikinis  did Tinni carry on her  holiday to Spain where she begins her “holiday “ with Micky to the accompaniment of some contagiously colourful  songs  and dances  that are shot with delightful immediacy.

One point about the  joint family that  needs some attention: every member of Ranbir’s  family including the  infinitely  precocious  little Inayat  Verma, gets ample space, except the “outsider”  son-in-law who barely gets two sentences.

After being convinced  that Tinni  has a place in Micky’s family I hope she,as the daughter-in-law has more  of a voice  in the family than the  son-in-law. For more  on that, a  sequel to this  insanely  engaging film that  proves Luv Ranjan to be  one  of the most original and  interesting contemporary  filmmakers  in Bollywood .