Tumse Na Ho Payega Is Frustratingly Bland

Tumse Na  Ho Pyega (streaming on  Disney+Hotstar)

Starring  Ishwak Singh, Mahima Makwana, Gaurav Pandey, Gurpreet Saini , Karan Jotwani

Directed  by  Abhishek Sinha

Rating: **

It is sad and annoying to see so many talented people coming up with a film so  dull and unfunny it gives a  bad reputation to past bromances like Dil Chahta Hai and Sholay.

Forget Jai and Veeru, the three friends in  Tumse Na Ho Payega(a suitable title indeed) don’t even look like  long-standing friends. They seem more three unlikely people thrown together on the same table at a boring party  by fluke.They are  played by  actors  who want  us to know that they know  how to act. Every word they utter is punctuated and eye-rolling.

 The  main protagonist Gaurav(Ishwak Singh) speaks directly to us the audience,  like  Wamiqa  Gabbi in  Vishal Bhardwaj’s Charlie Chopra  who keeps looking into the camera  and talking, making us feel very uncomfortable  about not being dressed formally for  the  occasion.

While Wamiqa’s  monologues with the camera were passably amusing ,Ishwak Singh giving us pointers  on the plot is like telling us B comes after A.

The elementary-level storytelling(written by three geniuses, no  less) never  allows itself to grow up beyond the  embarrassing shenanigans of the  trio of friends who are in serious  need of direction.Not much of  it is evident in  what we see. Abhishek Sinha’s direction is pretty much aimless. He seems to have  told his  actors  to  improvise  like hell. Sorrily, when you improvise  like  hell, you sometimes end  up in hell.

Ishwak Singh, a talented actor seen in quite a few engaging  serials,is way out of depth as  a leading man.Perhaps provided  with  more resourceful material he  would leave a better  impression. With the  kind of listless lines  doled out to the characters in this film, even Dilip Kumar would be nonplussed.

 Ishwak’s Gaurav is inspired by  a true-life  entrepreneur who started up a tiffin business  with housewives making ghar ka khana for officegoers.A  finger-licking idea  reduced to  a state of  utter  blandness  , the title  of  Tumse Na Ho Payega  says it all. Better luck next time.