'Loveyapa' Review: Periodically Funny, Tedious Take on Dating in the Tech Age
'Loveyapa' starring Khushi Kapoor and Junaid Khan hit theatres on 7 February.
advertisement
With the advent of technology and the rising use of dating apps and lingo that changes by the day, sure, maybe the dating lives of Gen Z are difficult to understand. Honestly, for anyone willing to make a romcom, this might be the best time – capitalize on that confusion to make the lovey-dovey, dramatic, angst-filled films that we’ve all been craving.
And after watching Loveyapa, one can safely say that market is still wide open for takers.
A still from Loveyapa.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
The film’s premise is both basic and interesting – Baani Sharma’s (Khushi Kapoor) father (Ashutosh Rana) asks her and her boyfriend Gaurav Sachdeva (Junaid Khan) to exchange their phones for 24 hours as a ‘trust test’. What better way to get to know the ‘real you’ than the device that follows you everywhere? It’s the same premise Khel Khel Mein used last year.
Junaid Khan and Khushi Kapoor in a still from Loveyapa.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
That’s where the ‘siyappa’ part of the ‘loveyapa’ comes from – both halves of the couple are terrified of what their partners might find on their phones. And find they do. From midnight chats with exes to steamy chat groups, the film brings it all into the mix. One can’t help but wonder, at one point, if these two people should even be together.
In the first half, the film isn't taking itself too seriously and it doesn't expect the audience to either. All the shenanigans and mindless comedy are well-crafted to make the film an enjoyable if not a believable experience. Loveyapa uses tried-and-tested tropes to make this possible - a group of friends that take the form of the angel and the devil on Gaurav's shoulder, the big Indian wedding that's the perfect setting for chaos and confusion, and a conniving father who is rightfully worried about the mate her daughter has chosen.
Baani prepping Gaurav to meet her father is easily one of the film's funniest bits and leads to quite a comical extended sequence between the two.
Ashutosh Rana in a still from Loveyapa.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
By trying to make most of its telling frothy and banal, the film forgoes nuance and ends up making its protagonist downright unlikeable, if not an enabler of criminal behaviour. One passionate callout of his behaviour simply doesn’t seem enough especially since the film doesn’t make much of an effort to make his redemption arc believable.
The film struggles with balance. This idea of presenting Baani and Gaurav as unlikeable people is not bad; in fact it's a very good choice for a romcom. These are two people who spend all their time on their phones but don't exactly communicate.
Gaurav and his friends haven't left behind their hormone-addled college days behind in more ways than one. And to the film's credit, it doesn't shy away from showing what that really means. The screenplay is also at its best when it's exploring the relationship between the four friends.
The one redeeming aspect of the way Baani & Gaurav’s relationship is handled is that we get to see how many red flags people are willing to ignore because he’s ‘better than the other option’. The film tries, at first, to not whitewash the protagonists’ behaviour, making sure the audience knows that Guarav’s behaviour, while frivolous to him, is downright problematic.
A still from Loveyapa.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
The main issue with Loveyapa is that there is simply too much going on – a conversation around infidelity, from both Gaurav and Baani’s side, would’ve been enough to make an engaging, hilarious, and heartfelt romcom.
This could’ve also been a film about how different the experience of being online can be for a 24-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man – while he’s ‘pretending to be single’ online, she’s being bombarded with death threats and harassment. A timely commentary but the film brushes it aside far too quickly to move on to the next big thing.
I spent most of the film worried about Baani’s safety and how nobody in the film seems to be taking it seriously other than when they can come in and be a ‘hero’ without actually solving anything. But perhaps this is not the film about nuanced conversations around women’s safety – the surface level exploration will probably do enough for people willing to read between the lines.
It also doesn’t help that Junaid Khan and Khushi Kapoor can’t seem to create chemistry between them. Junaid, who was much better in his debut Maharaj hasn’t moulded himself into the romcom hero archetype; Kapoor does much better when it comes to adding some personality to her character.
However, the film expects her to only shout and scream in rage for most of the second half, barring perhaps 10 minutes of screentime where she gets to explore some range.
Khushi Kapoor in a still from Loveyapa.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
This is one of the reasons why a sidearc about Gaurav’s sister’s (Tanvika Parlikar) wedding to a kind-hearted dentist (Kiku Sharda) feels far more engaging. The latter is used as a device to explore how often fatphobia goes unchecked. By the time the film finally gets to the meat of the matter in the second half, you’re already far too confused to engage with it completely.
It helps that Parilkar and Sharda both bring a honesty to their characters and a stillness that’s missing from the rest of the film.
Loveyapa does make an attempt to touch upon the dangers of AI and deepfake technology and how devastating the effects can be and it’s arguably one of the film’s better parts but that too, gets lost in the million other things it’s trying to do. What should have arguably been about Baani gets lost in what everyone around her thinks about it – their reactions are important to the bit but so is hers.
More often than not, we see how people’s actions affect Baani but we never get to see how the consequences have affected her.
Junaid Khan in a still from Loveyapa.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
Things get resolved far too quickly to stick even in a silly, goofy premise. Advait Chandan, as the director, builds scenes well though – both character and narrative reveals are handled well. Some of the gags land, especially ones that focus on the ways the characters interact with each other, and the emoji-riddled editing is fun for the most part, especially since the production fits the film's tone perfectly.
But is a movie not being ‘dull’ enough to make it a good film? Loveyapa proves it’s not.