Rom-coms have a pretty simple formula, despite all the twists and turns a story might take – there is a ‘meet-cute’, then the makers pick one of the many rom-com tropes, and then there’s conflict which ends in resolution.
In Riteish Deshmukh and Tamannaah Bhatia-starrer Plan A Plan B, the trope in question is enemies to lovers. And despite the fact that it sticks to many rom-com basics, there’s little else.
Riteish plays Kaustubh, a seemingly successful divorce lawyer and Tamannaah is Nirali Vora, a matchmaker cut straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie, who inherited the business from her mother (Poonam Dhillon).
When they start sharing a co-working space, their disdain for each other spreads from their professions to each other as people.
Tamannaah and Riteish in a still from the film.
(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)
The film is directed by Shashanka Ghosh with a script written by Rajat Arora.
Music that you might associate with early YouTube skits tries to tell you when a joke is supposed to land but the laughter never comes.
To their credit, Tamannaah and Riteish both do their best with the material they’re given and the film almost catches a groove when they’re interacting with their friends.
Kusha Kapila in a still from the film.
(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)
Tamannaah and her friend’s (Kusha Kapila) emotional conversations and eventual epiphanies are close to worth watching because of how well they perform the roles they’ve set out to.
But just as they came, the tropes keep on coming. As expected, the cold-hearted divorce lawyer who wants to break marriages soon becomes a messiah for women – all of whom are either overly flirty (I won’t even get started on the tractor to XUV analogy) or have a sad backstory.
A still from the film.
(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)
Towards the end, the film creates angst and conflict for the sake of it – Kaustubh stops someone from telling Nirali something that he tells her five minutes later anyway. During its 105-minute runtime, the story meanders about before getting to the point everyone knows it will.
All hope is not lost though – Plan A Plan B might enter the ‘awkward makeout’ hall-of-fame. A stronger script would’ve gone a long way to actually establish the arc between them but the plot is choppy and the dialogues are choppier still.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)