Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui film evaluation: Ayushmann Khurrana starrer comes off as oddly generic

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui film forged: Ayushmann Khurrana, Vaani Kapoor, KanwaljeetChandigarh Kare Aashiqui film director: Abhishek KapoorChandigarh Kare Aashiqui film ranking: Two and a half stars
What occurs when brash Chandigarh munda Manu Munjal (Khurrana), weightlifter, body-builder, protein-ingester, keto (pronounced, fairly correctly by such a one, ‘kitto’) dieter falls in lust with the very ‘soni Ambala kudi’ Maanvi Brar (Vaani Kapoor)? Well, for starters, a number of intercourse.
Yes, that very factor that too many Bollywood rom coms nonetheless act stupidly coy about. Full marks to Khurrana and Kapoor for going at one another with a substantial amount of enthusiasm, presenting us with a tangle of our bodies which makes their energetic couplings fairly convincing.
She is all legs and slender arms and gentle-swell-of-bosom; he’s all bulging biceps, shaved sides of head, and a excessive ‘pony’. She is a Sector 4 sort (Chandigarh denizens will get the in-joke; for the remainder, ‘Sector 4’ is the place the stylish, cool, old-moneyed varieties dwell). She says Zumba, he says Joomba. He farts, she makes a fragile face. You get the drift.
While we’re busy applauding this welcome exhibition of ardour between two consenting adults, there’s a sudden spike within the works. Maanvi has a deep, darkish secret, and as soon as that comes tumbling out, harsh phrases are exchanged, and there’s a rift within the lute.

Abhishek Kapoor’s movie, which is about how love is love, hey gender fluidity, variations be damned, is on to one thing. Even in 2021, Bollywood prefers taking part in protected and preserving all tough topics at bay. On that rating, getting in a trans particular person as romantic plot level is an act of braveness. But Kapoor can also be cautious, one would possibly say a bit too cautious, and wraps every little thing up in jokey stereotypy. But in case you are so fearful about probably alienating your viewers, you might be additionally prone to dilute the heft of your topic. So you go forward and insert phrases like ‘chakka’ (ugh) so to get your hero to push again in opposition to it and really feel very noble. But to make use of ‘paagalon ka doctor’ for psychiatrists? Really?
Manu is given two nosey sisters who’re so heavy-handed about his welfare that you simply itch to inform them to close up. He has a widowed father in love with a lady from, gasp, a minority faith: the movie slips in a muttered line about Hindu-Musalmaan amity. He has not only one BFF, however two, twins who encompass him with ‘faadu Punjabbi’ strains, all hearty and coarse. These are acquainted components into which you’ll insert the love with trans particular person angle, and wait with bated breath. Will we settle for it? Or stroll away from it?

Well, we’ve got information. We grew up when Bollywood wasn’t trying. So whereas it’s courageous that there could be a line like ‘aadmi wali shakal ki aurat’, for a girl who was a person earlier than the sex-change operation, a point out of ‘bi’ individuals, a bit speech on what constitutes ‘normal’, and the presence of a clearly butch particular person, the entire doesn’t actually add as much as a movie with any surprises: you realize precisely what is going to occur at every beat. The movie does go down a path no mainstream Bollywood movie has dared to, and but comes off oddly generic.
Which is a pity. Kapoor himself is aware of the way to mine a narrative: his ‘Kai Po Che’ continues to be a favorite. Khurrana, Chandigarh boy for actual, is correct at house in his bristly-brawny-softie Manu, Kapoor’s svelte licensed bodily coach with a troubled previous takes you again to the flash of promise she had proven in ‘Shuddh Desi Romance’: the movie didn’t want a lot overused stuffing as a result of these two appear fairly keen to go the mile. In the top, he’s the macho man beating different muscle-bound males in a contest of full-blown testosterone; she is simply one other lady keen her man to convey the trophy house.