There’s something hopelessly right about falling in love in school / college. The absolute storm of emotions and hormones makes that experience of “first love” or as Indian cinema puts it “pehla pyaar” completely unforgettable. That’s roughly the emotion that director Anuj Saini and producer Luv Ranjan’s new film Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar is based on. Three absolutely cliched characters decide to give their, unrequited first love a second chance at their Alma Mater’s reunion. Where neither the story nor the central characters are novel, where this teen, college romance comedy works in some parts is its unbridled humour. It offers fun dialogue and a comedy of errors that occasionally rises above the cliches and ends up being guilty pleasure.
The story is primarily based on three friends, Vedant (Kunal Vaid), Gautam (Sparsh Walia) and Shivi (Sargun Kaur Luthra). All three get inebriated one evening and decide they must head back to their college reunion to give their unrealised first love a second chance. Vedant wants to go back and meet Simran (Sakshi Vaidya), while Gautam wants to profess his love for Gehna (Alisha Chopra). Shivi has always dreamt of being with Karan (Tushar Chhibber). So the three intoxicated friends decide to head back from Delhi to the hills where their college reunion and ex-flames await. Of course, as goes with any rom-com made by Luv Ranjan, once the three couples meet, there’s a heady cocktail of frivolous feelings, regrets and a combustion of hormones. As the screenplay of PPDB plays out, we see the half-a-dozen odd new comers with hot bods get the heat on. They dress up, flirt, dance and allude to a lot of hanky panky action. Heck, almost all of them end up in bed too, or at least, dangle off a bus and make out, setting up DDLJ-esque memorable cinematic frames. But once all that “multiplex-meets-single-screen-masala” treatment gets over, we get three couples who come to realise that relationships are a lot more chaotic than the first burst of attraction. At one point, Gautam, Shivi and Vedant want to run away from the difficulties of their commitments, but they find the resolve to turn around and face the reality.
It’s at this point that the movie really changes gears and abandons the quintessential rom-com formula and commits to the comedy of errors plot devices. And in doing so, the movie goes beyond the trite and obvious drama and becomes a fun ride where young people act recklessly and decide to throw caution to the wind. Vedant decides to wreck Simran’s wedding and Gautam and Shivi decide the need to be idiots to be good friends. In the process they both get to exact their own drama from their respective partners Gehna and Karan. It all becomes a fun ride where curse words, slapstick and physical comedy take precedence. Make no mistake, none of what happens in PPDB is great cinema but watching these host of newcomers come alive on screen is fun.
The best character design and the most promising performance comes from Sparsh Walia. He has an uncanny resemblance to a younger Kartik Aaryan and if this first showing is anything to go by, Hindi cinema could get another new star in the future. His colleagues are all promising as well. Kunal Vaid, Sakshi Vaidya, Simran Luthra and Tushar Chhibber leave a good first impression. Neither actor gets a memorable character but thanks to their dialogue and situational humour, they’re able to perform well.
Director Anuj Saini, a newbie himself, could have crafted a better screenplay, especially in the first half of PPDB, but his storytelling grip with comedy is a promise for the future as well. Watch out for a cameo by Rajkummar Rao and a flash of Kartik Aaryan. In the end, Pehla Pyaar Doosri Baar is a serviceable romcom that entertains if you don’t take things too seriously.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: filmfare.com
