Stories by Luv Ranjan always have that misogynistic tone that makes it easy for you to criticize the politics of the Punchnama-like entertainers, which are basically stretched-out versions of sexist WhatsApp jokes. When it comes to his latest venture Tu Joothi Main Makkaar, I must say that Luv Ranjan has tried to at least act like he also became woke. But he fakes that sense of awareness so smartly that while watching this movie, I almost gave him grace points for trying.
Rohan, aka Mickey, and Nisha, aka Tinni, are the central characters of this movie. Rohan is a second-generation businessman whose self-learned profession is to help people in getting a breakup (getting that Punchnama vibes?) And he charges heavily for this service. He meets Tinni during the bachelor’s trip of his best friend, Manu. Some connection happens between the two, and Mickey very quickly proposes the idea of marriage. Things took a different turn when Tinni had to take a call on proceeding with that relationship. What made her unsure about that relationship and how it unfolds is what we see in Tu Joothi Main Makkaar.
You can easily say that I am overreading the politics of a usual rom-com that has the classic boy meets girl theme and a lot of song and dance. But the fact that Luv Ranjan managed to normalize a lot of things that need to be changed makes me uncomfortable, especially when the filmmaker is trying to give an impression that he has changed and is considerate of the female perspective. The disturbing element in this story is how the movie makes the woman’s wish to live an independent and intimate married life with her partner look like an outcome of some sort of personal insecurity. By making the characters look highly vulnerable in those decision-making moments, Luv Ranjan manages to make his regressiveness look like an attempt to save the joint family culture.
In a nutshell, Tu Joothi Main Makkaar is a very straightforward story. Mickey meets Tinni, and they both fall for each other. But Tinni realizes that her idea of being self-reliant and living a life with just the two of them is impractical because Mickey is too attached to his family. In an ideal world, that’s enough for a mutual decision to break up. But here, Tinni had to be the one who needed to get corrected. So instead of talking about things, she decided to make it complicated. And it paves the way for the hero and his family to justify their decision to be a joint family. And it also makes Tinni think that her decision to be independent is because of the unpleasant family equation she saw growing up. The songs in the film are peppy, and Pritam has helped the movie a lot in having the looks of a festival entertainer along with the frames of Santhana Krishnan Ravichandran.
Ranbir Kapoor returns to his comfort zone lover boy role as Mickey, and the guy is a charmer. He gets into the character’s skin so believably that the regressiveness of Mickey’s demands almost looks like a murky relationship topic. Shraddha Kapoor, as Tinni, definitely has the quintessential good looks. And her character is perhaps the only female character in a Luv Ranjan directorial that felt like some effort was taken to design this character. Anubhav Singh Bassi, as Dabbas, doesn’t have much to do here rather than tagging along with the hero. Dimple Kapadia, Boney Kapoor, Ludo fame Inayat Verma, Hasleen Kaur, etc., are the other names in the cast.
The packaging of Tu Jhooti Main Makkaar is so smart that it looks more like an escapist rom-com entertainer rather than an extension of Luv Ranjan’s sexist filmography. I have heard that the initial plan was to make a Ranbir Kapoor – Ajay Devgn starrer action film, but due to dates issues, they decided to go with this idea. With all those breathless dialogues with a zillion comas, this one looks like a hastily developed idea that has the texture of all the other Luv Ranjan films.
The packaging of Tu Jhooti Main Makkaar is so smart that it looks more like an escapist rom-com entertainer rather than an extension of Luv Ranjan’s sexist filmography.
Signal
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended