Kuchh Luv Jaisa

Director: Barnali Shukla

Cast: Shefali Shah,Rahul Bose,Sumeet Raghavan,Neetu Chandra

Rating*1/2

A frumpy housewife leaves her house in a tizzy one morning and ends up spending a very strange day with a man who is her polar opposite. Middle-class mummy meets low class hood : the central idea of ‘Kuchh Luv Jaisa’ is not such a bad thing,but plays itself out clunkily.

Madhu ( Shah) is the kind of woman you may know. Bright and smart,holding the fort for husband and kids,feeling increasingly sorry for herself. Shah is a good actor,and gets some nuances in,but that’s only in the beginning. The film lets her down pretty soon as it hurtles into non-credible territory : how many women,especially this kind of woman,would ask a total stranger,clearly not in the same class as her,to spend the day with her,regardless of how upset she is?

Most women would call their girl-friends,moan about forgetful husbands and busy kids,have a little blow-out at the mall,go home and have a little fight,and live to see another day. Madhu meets Raghav ( Bose) for the first time at a coffee shop eating fettucine messily, and decides,on the silliest of reasons,that he should accompany her on her day out,because ‘aaj bahut special din hai’. That is the first of the wrong clicks. After that it goes south,spiralling into neverland,with the two of them ( he is a criminal on the run,and she is on a I’ll-show-everyone spree) fetching up at resorts, racing around highways,and getting touchy feely around each other. Raghav’s on-the-make girlfriend Ria ( Chandra,in a long white dress and a red pout ) and a bunch of clueless cops also show up to keep things ticking,but it is hard going.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com