Rating : 3/5
Genre : Comedy
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hours 6 minutes
Director : Laxman Utekar
Cast : Kriti Sanon, Karthik Aryan, Vinay Pathak, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana
Kid rating : PG
Luka Chuppi stars Kriti Sanon as Rashmi, a modern girl, daughter of orthodox Hindu politician Vishnu Trivedi (the marvelous Vinay Pathak). Kartik Aryan is Vinod ‘Guddu’ Shukla, a television reporter in Mathura who works with free-spirited Rashmi, when she needs an internship and dad calls in a favor. The two fall in love, but Rashmi is unwilling to make any commitments until they test-drive the relationship. They hatch a plan to try a live-in relationship away from home, but all that can go wrong with this scheme does.
OK, so this movie turned out to be better than expected. The comedy is mostly situational, with the occasional double entendre thrown in. The plot’s pretty basic and pits the modern generation against the tradition-steeped parents, where the youngsters preach live-in and the oldies are the moral police. Except when the tables are turned, Rashmi and Co. realize how much they value the sanctity of society-ordained marriage (what!). Ergo, Luka Chuppi is not the kind of film that you take away any gyan from, because it’s pretty confused itself.
Since it is Mathura and Gwalior, director Utekar goes to town with the small-town homilies on sanskaar, the nosy neighbors, the suspicious landlord etc. The whole small-town milieu is done well and fun to watch.
The lead roles do not require too much acting; there is some dialog-baazi and lots of squirming ☺. Some romancing, song and dance. Sanon and Aryan serve adequately. It is the fabulous supporting cast that makes the film – Pathak as the self-righteous father, Alka Amin as the emotional, weepy mother, Aparshakti Khurana as Guddu’s friend and Pankaj Tripathi as the lecherous brother-in-law are all very good.
The plot does have some holes – how does Rashmi turn out to be so different from her tradionalist dad and her ghungat-shrouded mother? And for all the sermonizing about how young people are forward-thinking, how does a modern gal like Rashmi forget her career aspirations the moment she dons a mangalsutra? Sexism anyone?
Luka Chuppi take on progressiveness appears gimmicky and based on the flavor of the month because it knows not what it wants, and philosophically doesn’t have a leg to stand upon. However it still works as a decent, light comedy. Quite alright for a one-time watch.
Kidwise: Pretty non-scarring.
