Dull romance with first world problems

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar

Hindi (Theatres)

Rating: 2/5

Director: Luv Ranjan

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Anubhav Singh Bassi

If you have loved only once, then you haven’t loved at all, declares the opening song of ‘Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar’.

You see, pyaar is a baar -baar thing.

So you settle down, expecting a progressive rom-com.

The lead pair doesn’t disappoint in their first encounter at a bachelor party in Spain. They meet and mate, no strings attached.

A one-night stand? It’s a weeklong vacay, silly. “We have six more nights to go,” says Mickey (Ranbir Kapoor), the champion of casual sex.

The dishy Punjabi has inherited multiple family businesses. He also runs a premium “breakup” service that helps clients to “decently” dump their lovers.

Mickey’s new find Tinni (Shraddha Kapoor) is equally sassy. So expect questions about “gaadi & bungalow” before getting laid.

Once the hormones stabilise, no surprises here, Mickey realises he has feelings for the girl.

But the good-looking couple has to parade their wares first. Several songs later, two sexy bodies on the beach announce that they are in love.

The families are summoned, and marriage is on the cards.

Everything is fair in love and Luv Ranjan movies. Misogynistic men get away with crude lines while women who value space and independence are made to sit under the Bodhi tree to “understand” the merits of a joint family. Mickey tells an insecure Tinni that she is his sixth love — after his mom, dad, sister, granny and niece. How comforting!

Ranbir plays the seducer well, till a moral compass is thrust on him. Soon, he veers into the sanskari territory, assisted by a family that wears its really big heart on its sleeve.

Dimple Kapadia, the loudmouthed mom, delivers more slaps than dialogues. At one point, papa Boney Kapoor threatens to report her to the cops. All in jest, of course.

Oddly, for a movie where everyone is talking nineteen to the dozen, the protagonists refuse to talk it out.

But then, it’s a first world problem. Everything looks designer here, even the tears.

In the end, ‘Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar’ is just a tale of two hot bods. A functional brain would have helped.