Luv Ka The End

Rating**

How seriously can you take a film made by someone called Bumpy? Even if it is a solo-idea candy-coloured concoction stirred up for those that are strictly eighteen years old,or getting there? ‘Luv Ka The End’ falls into the same trap of all these let’s-target-the-young-demographic movies : in their desperation for coolness,they forget to tell a real story.

There’s,like,this guy. His name is Luv ( Shah). He’s,you know,awesome. Or,at any rate,he thinks he is. And there’s this girl. Ria ( Kapoor) is a sweet,innocent virgin,all hot for this dude. He’s got plans for her eighteenth birthday,which involve a water bed,bondage,and hidden cameras. She twigs on,and hatches a get-her-own-back plan with the help of her gal pals,a fat one and a thin one who squabble all the time. Does it sound a bit like that Hollywood flick ‘John Tucker Must Die’? Whatever,dude.

‘Luv Ka The End’ comes from a brand new sub-banner within Yashraj,created to make movies aimed at the young. Which translates,in this film,as those co-eds who drive luxury cars,wear designer togs,and only think about dating and ‘making out’. There’s also the mandatory south Indian geek ( are there no other kinds?) who is never seen without his laptop. An annoying tween is a straight lift of all the annoying tweens that Yashraj products create in the pursuit of cuteness ; a sleepwalking grandmom with a thing for crows is a waste of space.

There must be a perfectly good way of making an engaging film on these slender plot points,and ‘Luv Ka The End’ beavers away on all these,and raises a few laughs here and there,one or two catching the young cast in a nice,natural way. But there’s so little else in the film that it all flattens out in an alarming sit-com like fashion,as this very now film is reduced to using the creakiest comic devices from old-style Bollywood—itching powder,and laxatives.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com