Movie Review – Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu

A surprise rom com

Watched this movie as a prelude to ‘Kapoor & Sons’ as it was by the same director. I hadn’t known that its by Shakun Batra, until recent times. The movie wasn’t very interesting to really watch out far. I had seen the title song and it wasn’t really intriguing enough to make me think about the movie. And that too the film happened at a point where Imran Khan was the new cute guy in the block. Citing the obvious age difference, I expected it be another cliched young boy in love with an elder woman.

Thankfully nothing of that sort happened. In fact, the very mention of age doesn’t happen post the opening scene. We get to know the genre of the movie right away. The comedy is slapstick and it doesn’t really work. Kareena’s entry spoils it too. I’ve always found her to be someone who tries too hard to stay young but in spite of that, acts brilliantly for a commercial film. Imran on the other hand was meh.

The casting was perfect for a rom com. It works effortlessly and I like these unapologetically upper-class movie. No matter how much you’ve struggled if the struggle shows on the screen, it’s a strain for viewers. So, to see a happy positive rich movie first up was a breeze. Something like ‘Wake Up Sid’, even though he couldn’t go to Ayan Mukherjee level.

Rahul, sorry Rahul Kapoor (Imran Khan) is a son of high-class family who works as an architect in one of the top firms in Vegas. Being a typical ‘3 Idiots’ kind of people they don’t want him to be in one of the top firms but be in the top most firm. So, he struggles to get there but unfortunately loses his job. Riana Braganza (Kareena Kapoor) – what a lovely name – on the other hand is a carefree woman who bumps on to Rahul. Together they hit it off really well and Rahul becomes a kind of happy man.

The part where he starts loving Riana and the ‘love you as a friend’ story post that doesn’t really work. It becomes a forced conclusion for a movie which was going so well. Also, the crass jokes with his father’s upper-class friend too doesn’t really go well. Apart from these little mistakes the film is solid.

Riana’s family were superb, Rahul as an average man does a good job but only when he wants to excel, he falters. Boman Irani even though has such little screen space does a fabulous job, the scene where he ties his tie is close enough to a murder sequence. Imran gets one last chance to show his acting powers in the dining table scene but screws it up big time. I couldn’t help but compare it with Alia Bhatt in ‘Dear Zindagi’ or any film for that matter. Even though the scenes like these looks like a compulsive one in movie the way she performs is damn impressive. Imran couldn’t give that much impact to the scene.

But the good thing about the movie is it doesn’t conclude like other rom coms where either they unite or separate. Here they two remain friends. As cliched as it may sound, it’s the kind of film which needed an ending like this. This makes the film work, to let it free.