"Luka Chhupi" | A laugh riot with underlying message

Set in a small town of India – Mathura, Laxman Utekar’s directorial Luka Chhupi envelopes a lot of drama, comedy, and an underlying social message. With ‘live-in-relationships’ as its central theme, the film in its beginning makes the entire story predictable for audience.

It introduces Kartik Aaryan (Guddu) and Kriti Sanon (Rashmi) as TV journalists, who come close to each other while working on a feature story. After a short dating phase, Guddu is sure about spending his life with Rashmi, however, Rashmi has apprehensions, and therefore suggests to get into a live-in, and the story progresses thereafter.

Those who formed a pre-conceived notion about the film soon after watching its trailer, I would recommend watching it once. You won’t find the story as cliché as shown in the trailer.

USP of the film is its refreshing punches and dialogues – which aren’t forced unnecessarily into the script. Dialogues like ‘Pandit Ji Muslim hu, mars se nhi aaya’ gives out a strong message, in the most subtle way. Kartik’s performance, very much like his previous movies, keeps the audience glued. Kriti once again convinces you with her image of a small town girl.

During the second half, there will be instances where you will feel the story is now proceeding towards the happy ending, but just then the director will throws something at you, pushing the end further. After a while, you might even feel tired of the repeated scenes where Guddu and Rashmi make effort to marry each other but fail.

But whenever the script felt flat, Pankaj Tripathi saves it effortlessly. In fact, he comes out as the star of the film.

Luka Chhupi manages to bring out the real essence of Indian society, giving an insight of political agendas, societal judgments, next door neighbours in India and much more.

But amidst all the drama and comedy, the film’s focus diverges from the concept of live-in. Music is foot-tapping, but makers could have worked more on creating original tunes.

So, watching the movie with parents to catch some laughter and maybe change their outlook towards much questioned ‘live-in’ relationships, is not a bad idea.