What’s love got to do with it?

Love and the marriage logic seems to be on an upheaval in Bollywood. If you need to have sex love is not a pre-requisite, if you need to live in - neither is marriage. Thanks to a new set of filmmakers in the industry, how Bollywood perceives the love business is altering. Be it Salaam Namaste or Bachna Ae Haseeno. 

Maneesh Sharma’s Shudh Desi Romance is one more volume in that new-age library. His protagonists meet, have their fun and frolic and move on when the tide turns. Easy come, easy go. 

Raghu (Sushant Singh Rajput) meets Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) on the way to his own wedding to Tara (Vaani Kapoor). Gayatri is a part of his ‘rented’ baarati. On their way they talk, end up kissing and wedding  jitters turn into full-fledged scare-fest as Raghu makes a run. Gayatri and Raghu get together once the runaway groom is back to his tourist-guide/shop assistant life; bag and attaché, Raghu moves in. They enjoy their little happy bubble till they decide to tie the knot. But this time there is a runaway bride. Jilted Raghu tries to move on but fate brings him face-to-face with Tara again. 

Ever sat and watched a puppy chase its own tail? Raghu is the puppy.  As Gayatri and Tara keep dangling the love-bait in front of Raghu, he is as confused as he can get. However make no mistake - Raghu isn’t your dedicated lover. He knows his attraction well from his clichéd notions of love. Gayatri is the spunky girl who has had her affairs and would rather break a heart than get hers broken.  Tara is the good soul who wants revenge for being abandoned at the mandap but then she lives and lets live. 

And then there’s Rishi Kapoor in a completely awesome role of the local wedding planner, match-maker, Raghu’s father figure all rolled into one. He has some of the best lines in the movie and he grabs all the attention. 

Rajput is endearing, but puppy endearing. At times he is simply the bumbling idiot who you cannot smack just because he is cute. The confidence that made him stand out on Kai Po Che is missing in Shudh Desi Romance as the women muscle him around. At times he reminds you of Ranveer Singh. 

Kapoor in her debut is mildly interesting, more often than not her dialogues seem to follow the same pitch and delivery style as Chopra’s. Chopra is perhaps the most sorted, Gayatri flows out of her effortlessly - the happily spoiled Dimple from Ladies VS Ricky Behl to the zesty Zoya in Ishaqzaade - this actor is growing in leaps and bounds. Rajput has spunk - he needs to up his act. 

Shudh Desi Romance is not as much fun as Band Baaja Baraat, to be honest it is only a decent fun. Some great songs, some funny dialogues but eventually so ho-hum. But compared to Zanjeer - Paise Pinky pe na waste karein, random dil pe invest karein.