Four years back when PKP hit the screens it was a novel attempt to look at boys’ point of view on love and romance in these materialistic times when words like soul mates have given way to phrases like friends with benefits. When moral balance tilts in favour of bank balance. Throwing notions like sacrifice and yearning out of the window, it presented mush as a manipulation that girls plot to strangle their boy friends in a leash.
The film did moderate business at the box office and found a following on television. One was looking for its counterpoint but boys will be boys and Bollywood will be Bollywood. Spurred on by the response, Luv is back to repeat himself with a film that follows the male gaze all over again with a bigger budget, better production design but more importantly a script that doesn’t bore.
It is indeed one-sided and is loaded against 50 per cent of the population but that is the whole idea and Luv manages to play the game fairly well.
Trying to do a pop psychoanalysis of a female mind in a fun way, the film is once again a tale of three friends, Gogo, Thakur and Sunny who are desperate to fall in love. They find three well manicured forms in Ruchika, Supriya and Kusum. Ruchika wants unflinching attention of Gogo, Supriya turns Sunny into a domestic servant and Kusum uses Thakur as a credit card she can cash anytime.
The pace is breezy and dialogues don’t lose their gender insensitivity through the course of the film. More than that it is the dichotomies of the female mind that the film addresses that provide guilty pleasure to the target audience. So Ruchika abhors Gogo’s single status on Facebook but herself maintains a best male friend with whom her relationship is allegedly platonic. Kusum talks of pooling in resources to run the relationship but when it comes to making a sacrifice she chickens out. So does Supriya who is just using Sunny to force her parents to find a suitable match for her. The boys could see through the design but have no control over their physical desires and allow themselves to be taken for a ride. That’s why Gogo’s monologue which ends like an admission of guilt gives the politically incorrect film some sort of balance. More than tilted against one gender, it is a series of snapshots on a big section of the young generation for whom life is a big party with an unending supply of booze.
Of course the characters are exaggerated figures to suit the comic tone but they emanate from reality and perhaps that’s why there is instant connection. Like the characters, there is not much beneath the surface. But before the shallow side becomes glaring, Luv sums up the act. The selection of the cast is spot on. Instead of going for established names Luv has cast actors youngsters can identify with as reflection of themselves. Kartik, who impressed in the original, looks more relaxed here as the dude who can charm his way through. Nushrat provides him good company as the chirpy, bubbly girl who is essentially hollow. It is a difficult part because Ruchika could easily transform into an irritating character but Nushrat manages to strike the right balance.
