Mujshe Fraandship Karoge

Cast: Saqib Saleem,Saba Azad, Nishant Dahiya,Tara D’Souza,Mita Vashishth

Indian Express rating: **1/2

This could be a classic case of the rebound : the first film,’Luv Ka The End’,that came out of the Yashraj Films sub-banner that’s helming all these shiny new flicks on youth was so awful that I went into this one with a great deal of reluctance. But I am pleased to report that despite its irritants,and a few loose ends,’Mujshe Fraandship Karoge’ has well done on-the-surface flash,which comes off nicely because it doesn’t pretend to be anything else.

Be warned though,if you do not have comfortable,well-furnished lifestyles,or live your life inside snazzy smartphones and laptops,your existence is not defined by the number of fraands requests you get in a day,or spend time creating flattering profiles and updating statuses,then this may not be the one for you. If,on the other hand,you do,and much of urban,affluent India seems to be playing tic-tac-toe with its phone pretty much all the time,then you will find some connect with these twenty-something co-eds : Rahul (Saleem) and Preity (Azad) are in the same college,but break out in rashes at the sight of each other. Through a complicated set of sophomoric niceties,(as common to Hollywood post-teen flicks as to these new fangled Bollywood ones),where you like someone but do not have the gumption to say so,they set up meetings between mutual friends Rahul (Dahiya) and Malvika (D’Souza). And through an equally complicated set of manoueverings,sometimes quite confusingly so,everyone gets the girl/guy they fit the best with. But please,could we please have a college with more than one teacher than just the one ultra-cool one (Vashishth) who speaks the lingo? In fact,could we please,please have students who are seen to be inside classrooms just once?

Debutant director Nupur Asthana prevents things from getting too cute and precious by keeping her characters as grounded as they can get in a YRF setting. So there’s plenty of designer,ooh yes,and there are brands,lots and lots,with logos staring from the aforementioned lappies and cellphones,but there’s also smart backchat,peppy girl/guy gangs,hang-ups and hang-outs,and lines that made me,what’s that phrase,LOL.

Now where is that Like button?

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com