Sanjoy Ray
Director: Abir Sengupta
Cast: Cast: Kiara Advani, Aditya Seal, etc.
At the instance of her best friend, Indoo takes to a dating app after her boyfriend cheats on her. But, things do not go as planned after the person she aspires to have a one-night stand with turns out to be a Pakistani national. Another parallel narrative vis-à-vis a most-wanted Pakistani terrorist sneaking into her town, Ghaziabad, adds to her dilemma.
Although the story builds up well in the opening sequences, director Abir Sengupta fails to seize the opportunity in what could have been an engaging story of mistaken identity. The tardy storytelling process coupled with a confused script adds to the fiasco and there are hardly any genuine moments of laughter. The parallel stories do not sync nor does it create enough doses of humour even when the situation seems to be tailor-made for the same.
One felt that the director could have invested more time and effort in handling the state of chaos and confusion that prevailed between the lead pair within closed doors.
In fact, it is extremely hard to connect the dots between some of the scenes even as the director tries too hard to make a point with preachy references sans any distinct perspective to the run of play. And, in its bid to cash in on the fragility of India-Pakistan ties and the prejudices involved, the movie loses its steam much before the finishing line and feels longwinded and exhausting, thereby failing to keep the audience hooked. With some overstretched scenes, there are hardly any giggles to be had either. As far as performances are concerned, especially the lead actors, the less said the better. Kiara Advani, around whom the story revolves, just could not deliver the goods, and her discomfiture with comedy is evident. Aditya Seal’s comic timing isn’t up to the mark and he is good only in patches.
